They say the best two days of your life are the ones in which you buy and sell your boat. The days in between those two normally are filled with unsuccessful attempts to fill the hole it makes in the ocean with money. The topic came up due to discussion of seasonal arrangements for boats as the falling leaves start to cover the deck. And the boats.

In that way, seasonal nautical adjustments are like our political process, except we are playing with an ocean of cash that no longer has borders. The pools of money in the last election were deep. The amount being spent on this mid-term exceeds history. If you are not in the business of government, either serving it directly or in support, you may not be following all the shockers, revelations and pouncing going on between candidates and challengers. In the interests of transparency, WE VOTED already, so our die in this roll was cast with relief.

We still follow it, of course, but without the sense of immediacy. It is pure entertainment from here to the un-veiling, or whatever fate produces as a real surprise before they decide which of the votes to count.

Although it’s official here at The Farm, nothing is decided in our larger Congressional District. That is VA-7, changed in boundaries away from the Richmond suburbs and toward the Dulles Airport corridor. It is a region that has undergone recent and dramatic transformation in Blue density and diversity. Our incumbent is a stereotype with whom we are comfortable. She is an efficient career lady who could have lived next door in any of the places I have ever lived. Her last civilian job on the resume was at CIA as a Case Officer, so we have some respect (and wariness) for that.

She normally keeps a low profile on the social stuff and publicizes her senior-related issues and health. Aside from that, she reliably votes her party’s line. So, the choice available on the Red side is a woman named Yesli Vega.

She demonstrates one of the features of change here. Her folks are from El Salvador, and she has had her father appear in a recent ad as an authentic migrant. The rest of her resume includes “Military wife, mother, and law enforcement officer. Born in Houston, Texas.”

The congressional debate between “incumbent Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Republican Yesli Vega” had been scheduled for tomorrow. There was mild interest in how the campaigns had verged off wholesome topics and into something more bitter. Abigail’s campaign was running a frequent spot that somehow associated Vega with being on the side of rapists in the Abortion issue. It took a vigorous discussion to unwrap the themes in the meme. Vega has responded with ads emphasizing Abigail’s Pelosi lockstep and some of the things funded with it.

We expected, as currently disinterested observers, that would have some fireworks in the debate. The event was reportedly agreed upon, but Abigail cancelled when the moderator was announced. It was a talk radio guy named Larry O’Connor who has a conservative bent who used to edit right-wing Breitbart’s TV channel.

It reflects the timing on all this, which is parallel to the attention span of voters. The narrative streams had serious work in the last few months, the issues are distilled for sale for use now, so there is a real shelf-life issue. Abigail has the Administration’s issues to defend, which is a challenge. We do not know how well Yesli can deal in a public verbal brawl. It is a partisan inversion for many who are normally on the target side of intersectionality.

Anyway, Abigail took another approach about defending the Administration. She cancelled the debate. It has become part of final alignments in the last days of the campaign. The same deal is happening in the Governor’s race in Arizona. It caused the President to throw his in-person support to appearances in the cities most likely to support him, even on the brink of possible Armageddon.

It will be interesting to see what this means to the old two-party system of lifetime identification. The Salts normally keep a low partisan profile because that is the way our Services worked. That is no longer the case. In the civilian world, Incumbents running are backed up against the wall, with voters looking to blame them for all things economic. The top of the list of uglies are all economic: inflation, diminished take-home pay, price hikes at the grocery store, Gas and Energy spiking.

All of them are directly attributable to the policies imposed by the Administration starting on Day 1. We have been hearing about $10 bucks a gallon for years as a “good and necessary” thing, but all the problems that radiate from another intentional Oil Shock were not. The Great Reset is not selling well, and one of the questions is whether those in power can afford to take a licking at the ballot box for purely personal reasons. There is a significant percentage of voters across the spectrum who are aware of weaknesses in the electoral process. There will be more people watching and the possibility of confrontation and irregularity as a result.

The economic atmosphere is toxic, and everyone sees it. One real question is whether something like the old American system can return in this cycle. Given the polling conducted when the current narratives were being constructed, the Reds will probably re-take the House and possibly squeak a majority in the Senate. This morning, there are pre-emptive narrative waves that a Red tide is coming in. So hysteria is rising.

We will not hear about it in VA-7 tomorrow, though. We are pleased to be spectators in the last couple weeks of an extraordinarily intense Mid-term. Maybe we can get a seat up by Abigail and Yesli in the stands and watch the other matches.

With interest.

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com