The massive landslide for Democrats in yesterday’s mid-term elections is a repudiation of Donald Trump. A repudiation of his protectionism. A repudiation of his corruption. Of higher gas prices. Of everything.

It’s not my role to comment on political outcomes, but it is my role to comment on policy implications of political outcomes.

So here are the good and bad takeaways from the elections.

I’ll start with the good news.

1. The proposed wealth tax in California appears to be heading for defeat. Given the state’s chaotically laughable system for counting votes, we may have to wait a while to get official confirmation. But the class-warfare measure is currently trailing by more than 10 percentage points and the political betting markets indicate it has almost no chance of approval.
2. Protectionism is discredited. Economists have been pointing out the foolishness of trade barriers for centuries. It appears voters agree. We know Republicans suffered immensely because of Hoover’s protectionism. Nearly 100 years later, they have relearned the same lesson.
3. Republicans suffered massive losses in Iowa, but voters nonetheless voted in favor of a supermajority requirement for tax increases.
4. Republicans suffered massive losses in North Carolina, but voters nonetheless voted to lower the cap on state income tax rates.
5. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll eventually reform trade laws so a president can’t arbitrarily impose higher taxes on global commerce.

Regarding item #5, this polling data is somewhat encouraging.

Now for the bad news.

1. Some of the worst fiscal outcomes occur with a Democratic Congress and a big-government Republican in the White House (Nixon, Bush I, Bush II, second half of Trump’s first term). I fear we will see a spending spree in the next two years.
2. At this point, the Democrats presumably will be favored to win total control of Washington in the 2028 elections (just as Trump delivered total control of Washington to the left in 2020) and have enough seats to impose radical legislation like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.
3. Democrats have more governors and have won massive gains in state legislatures, meaning some of the recent progress on school choice could be reversed.
4. I was not remotely optimistic about repealing the class-warfare income tax in the state of Washington, but the margin of defeat is discouraging.
5. We don’t know for sure, given Colorado’s clunky vote-counting system, but it appears that the state’s best-in-the-nation fiscal structure (a spending cap combined with a flat tax) may be gutted by Amendment 87.

Regarding item #1, because Trump has no principles (other than self-enrichment and protectionism), this tweet terrifies me.

I’ll close with some I-told-you-so advice for my Republican friends.

I warned back in 2016 that Trump was a big-government Republican. He did manage to win the White House, though because of immigration and the weakness of his opponent rather than his make-believe economic agenda.

He then preceded to govern like a “crazy uncle” and Republicans lost the House and Senate in 2018.

He then gave Democrats total control of Washington by losing to Biden in 2020.

Despite all this, Republicans nominated Trump again in 2024. He did win, of course, but he was lucky once again in having a very weak opponent.

But now he’s given Democrats their biggest victory since 1974, if not since 1930.

The moral of the story is that there are three wings of the Republican Party. If the GOP wants to win, it seem obvious which one to pick.

Though perhaps I’m just a tad bit biased.