Five Reasons for Optimism - Steven Beschloss

[applegrove]

Five Reasons for Optimism
There are cracks in the hateful regime's bulwark. Believe that its days are numbered.

Steven Beschloss
May 29, 2026

https://www.americaamerica.news/p/five-reasons-for-optimism

1. The Democrats can win the Texas senate seat
Trump got his preferred candidate this week, Ken Paxton, who won handily aga
inst incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a runoff. Impeached by his own party, indicted on multiple felony counts for investment fraud, a serial cheater, Paxton is a walking, talking illustration of corruption in politics. He’s running against James Talarico, a gifted speaker, a former public school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who leans into his faith to articulate the positive values that drive his public service. “This is a spiritual battle between selfishness and service, between greed and greatness,” Talarico said at a Houston rally Wednesday.

The contrast could not be more vivid, suggesting that the Democrats have a real shot at taking this seat if Talarico succeeds at convincing Texans to reject Paxton’s corruption and extremism. If Talarico wins it would be the first time a Democrat won a statewide election in more than three decades. And even if he fails? The Republicans will likely spend hundreds of millions of dollars to hold the seat—dollars that won’t be spent in other races.

2. Trump has added to the number of aggrieved Republicans
John Cornyn is respected and popular among his Republican peers and a reliable vote for Trump. Now he sees how little his loyalty was valued by Trump, as do other Republicans who kowtow to the malignant one, even when they know he’s wrong. It’s a damn shame that it takes defeat and the impending loss of power to convince him to speak up, but we can hope he’ll follow the lead of North Carolina’s retiring Sen. Thom Tillis, who’s been sticking it to more than a few of the reckless miscreants surrounding Trump. And let’s not forget the promising words of defeated Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie about the Epstein files: “We’ve taken out two dozen CEOs, an ambassador, a prince, a prime minister, a minister of culture and that was just six months. I’ve got seven months left in Congress.”

3. The staggering corruption may actually have limits
It’s not like the Republicans have suddenly discovered their morality and their duty to the Constitution. But Trump’s appalling $1.8 billion slush fund to award Jan. 6 convicted criminals and others deemed wrongfully treated by the Biden Justice Department has actually triggered real criticism, not just from a scattering of Republicans but reportedly dozens. It seems there actually are Republicans who don’t think it’s a good idea to award violent insurrectionists who assaulted police officers. Imagine that.

The opposition was enough to derail an immigration bill vote, causing Wisconsin’s Trump-reliable Sen. Ron Johnson to acknowledge this as a “galactic blunder” and Sen. Mitch McConnell to call it “utterly stupid, morally wrong.” Add to this the likely fact that congressional funding for Trump’s grotesque billion-dollar ballroom likely cannot garner enough votes to go ahead.