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The smoke rising from the impact area at the Capitol as the election returns rolled in last night blew almost wholey to the northeast, drifting from the nation’s legislative center toward its financial center in New York.

We suspect there were some interesting conversations taking place along Wall Street before the opening bell.
The change is dramatic, though it also demonstrates the curious normalcy of American political oscillations.

The Democrats have taken both the House and Senate, and the great American pendulum has swung again.

We now have a political system consisting of two large, committed sections of the population, approximately equal in size, glaring at one another across a widening divide. Between them floats a cloud of concerned citizens, recoiling from whatever appalling initiatives the other side managed to legislate two years previously.

The election results have produced smiles on slightly more than half the faces around the Socotra House breakfast table, while the rest are displaying varying degrees of astonishment, alarm and outright disbelief.

Deirdre observed that the eggs were still cooking regardless of which party controlled Congress. Rocket, his distinguished mustache twitching, suggested that a little more bacon might help settle the matter.

It is too soon to see the full dimensions of the change. There is no apparent filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, so sweeping proposals to abolish ICE or federal prisons seem unlikely to become law. The same applies to Medicare for All and some of the more ambitious promises heard along the campaign trail.

The President, meanwhile, has two years remaining in which to exercise his veto pen, potentially turning the Capitol into a legislative quagmire. Congress has its own weapons, including investigations, hearings and the power of the purse.

First indictments in the new invigorated Lawfare canb expected after the new cast of distinguished Members are sworn in this January. in the meantime, expect more smoke over the capital as we continue the ponderous tectonic re-balance of our post-colonial Global tripartite age!

There should be plenty of smoke, even without a fire.

There was another remarkable development in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed won election to the United States Senate. That certainly would have raised some eyebrows in the old hometown, where the political landscape has changed considerably since the days when we were young.

But that is America. The voters speak, the politicians interpret what they meant, and the rest of us are left to determine whether we have witnessed a revolution, a correction, or simply another turn of the wheel.
It will be fascinating to watch the proceedings as we attempt to identify whoever intends to lead us through the next two, four and eight-year segments of the national adventure.

For the moment, the autumn sky is blue, the leave
s are falling, and the smoke is still drifting northeast.

Meet our MIchigan Grandkid’s new Senator, Abdul al-Sayed.

Wholey Smokes, indeed.

Copyright 2026 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com