Midterms Will Not End the Chaos.

Last Updated on September 5, 2026 by John J. Hohn

The midterms are supposed to be the turning point and the end of the chaos. But anyone expecting a dramatic turn of events to take place immediately is setting themselves up for disappointment.

I’m a positive person, usually hopeful and looking for the best in others. The past ten years, however, have asked a lot of me to maintain my sunny nature. The world is no longer a wonderful place. The corrosive effect of having liars, frauds, and perverts in charge of our government has depleted my spirit. I, like many, do not understand why Trump has not been stopped.

Okay. Suppose the midterm elections result in a Democratic majority in Congress. Several weeks will pass before the newly elected Senators and Representatives can be sworn in. During that critical period, chaos will reign as election results are challenged. Accusations, recounts, audits, and lawsuits will clutter the news. Anyone can lie on the internet with impunity, so rumors will fly. Trump will storm and strut, lying as he always does. Construction of the ballroom will continue. Cuba will still be blockaded creating misery for the people on the island.

The war in Iran will still be raging, a war we cannot win. Our inventory of missiles and ammunition is depleted. The casualty count will keep mounting. Nobody reports on the civilians’ deaths, of course. Not here in the good ol’ U S of A, because them Iranians ain’t like us. They ain’t Christian. And besides that, they ain’t even white.   

Social Unrest Escalates. . .

The country will struggle with higher prices for essentials needed to sustain life. Unemployment will continue to increase. Social unrest and protests are likely to escalate into vandalism and destructive riots in cities, potentially resulting in conflagrations like Detroit, Watts, and Newark in the 1960s. The nation will be falling apart city by city, state by state.

Natural disasters will continue to occur. Floods. Wildfires. Hurricanes and tornadoes. The landscape will be devastated. Villages and cities will be flattened. Every community will be on its own to cope with the overwhelming destruction of property and the thousands of maimed and injured people—children, the elderly, the disabled. Nature does not discriminate. No relief will be coming. Trump and his enablers demolished FEMA. They tore it apart and denied it the funds it needs to do the job it was created to do.

The measles epidemic will expand along with other highly contagious diseases. Medical care for the public was overwhelmed as early as 2015 in large metropolitan areas. Rural hospitals were closed when funding was withdrawn. Medical care has become a capitalistic industry. Wall Street found a way to make billions off the sick and dying. The millions needed to begin reform are all tied up in the investment and real estate portfolios of the CEOs running the insurance companies and their fellow billionaires.

Midwest, the Heartland . . .

The Midwest, the Heartland, the dull-witted, bigoted supporters who helped keep Trump in office, will feel the brunt of their commitment to MAGA. Farms will continue to fail at an unprecedented rate because the international markets for farm products will have been radically realigned during Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs. Other countries will look to South America and Canada for their soybeans, corn, canola, wheat, and beef. Construction will slow as builders lose confidence in lumber and aluminum pricing because of Trump’s abusive treatment of our international trading partners and his on-again-off-again tariffs. Corporations will move in and scoop up the farms, forever changing the production and marketing of the nation’s food supply. The food supply will be further reduced by the severely restricted supply of fertilizer and diesel fuel required to operate farm equipment.

Impeachment Meaningless . . .

Impeachment at this time will be meaningless. Trump and his coterie of sycophants will be seen finally for what they are –obscenely corrupt and morally desolate. Justice may eventually be meted out, but no one will care because it will not relieve their misery in everyday life.

The dollar will collapse as the world’s currency. Countries will turn to China or other stable economies for a reliable basis for trading. Inflation will wipe out family savings. Social Security will not keep pace, and it will no longer provide the elderly and the retired with a sustainable income. The suffering will take place on a scale that is terrifying to contemplate.  People will continue to feel powerless. Most will have lost faith in the political system. The youth who grew up under MAGA rule will be completely disillusioned with the democratic state because it failed them. Greed, ignorance, and hypocrisy will have overwhelmed the noble reasoning of our nation’s constitution.

A Coup . . .

The Military, as the only remaining hierarchical, ordered body of any strength, could take over. But the time for a coup has passed. It Fear of a coup may have driven the dismissal of all the leading officers in the Pentagon who didn’t fall in line. The military is headed by an idiot alcoholic who has never learned how to think on a global scale.  The country will be extremely vulnerable to invasion. Mutinies in the military ranks will see powerful detachments align with foreign countries as mercenaries.

Given the failure since the realignment of the tax system to favor the wealthy and the relaxation of controls over allowing corporate money to be made available to the people’s elected representatives, skepticism will run rampant. The public trust has been irreparably damaged for at least a generation, maybe more. More than ever, the population will be eager for a savior who will bring order back into their lives and recreate some hope that they have a future that will be easier to endure. The experiment in democracy will have failed after two and a half centuries. The ignorant, the hateful, the greedy, and the angry will prevail in the downfall.

Oligarchs, the 1% of the super-wealthy, will leave the country and establish residences elsewhere. The fortunes will remain outside the country and out of reach of any tax program.

Somewhere, others more capable than I have probably written all of this out in greater and more convincing detail, but this is my vision at this point in my life. I am glad I am 87 years of age and will not have to see my more productive years thwarted and crushed by my country’s inability to reestablish law and order based on respect for the truth, compassion, and a commitment to the common good.

I hope with all my heart that I am wrong about all of these projections. Month upon month of lying, gaslighting, usurping the people’s rights, and resolute refusal to bring any of the guilty to justice for crimes more heinous than enslaving others has crushed my optimism. I’d love to be wrong about everything. I want to wake up in a country where people are optimistic about the future, happy and secure that everything is going to turn out all right. Norway, perhaps. Australia or New Zealand. How about Canada? Somewhere else where the culture is not presided over by wealthy, middle-aged white guys who fuck young, helpless boys and girls and think of it as sporting. Somewhere else where one-third of the population thinks the way things are now is just fine