AMERICAN WASPs have lost their sting. The recent US midterm elections results are balm to the pain felt after Donald Trump’s return to the White House two years ago.

This November, that surge of fickle popularity changed allegiance from a Republican red to a Democratic blue. Almost overnight, individual candidates emerging from among the leaderless Democrat Party have wrested control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. It was a triumph of right over might, or as its newest star — Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed from Michigan — put it, the victory of “the many over money”.

Investment in the 2026 midterms has been unprecedented. The final amount is expected to exceed $12 billion, which will be around 30 per cent more than that spent in 2022, and vastly more than the meagre $2bn spent in 2002. Inflation has little to do with it. This year, the top 40 donors contributed $2.5bn, led by the trillionaire Elon Musk. He squandered about $500 million supporting Republican candidates.

There is no Theodore H. White alive to chronicle this electoral extravagance. His book — The Making of the President 1960 — provided a narrative of the rise of the charismatic John F. Kennedy. Unlike Abdul El-Sayed, Kennedy did not have to fight........

© Dawn