I have said on this blog that I believe our democracy needs two functioning political parties. It's never good for a country to have only one functioning political party, because it means there is no way to rein the party in if it goes too far (to the left or the right).Sadly, we do not have two functioning political parties right now. We have the Democratic Party and the cult of Trump, and that cult will remain a shrinking group because the voters have shown they simply don't like Trump.
Trump is in obvious control of the GOP. The reluctance of GOP officials to admit Biden fairly won the 2020 election shows that. Those officials are afraid of Trump -- afraid he will oppose their re-election in 2022. And Trump has doubled-down on his control, asking his supporters to not donate to the party (but only to his PAC). This gives Trump control over who runs on the Republican ticket in 2022, and probably in 2024.
But what's bad for the country is very good for the Democratic Party -- at least in the short term. Trump has already come out against the re-election of many Republicans, and will likely support and fund opponents for them that will swear fealty to Trump.
The voters have already shown they don't like Trump, and were happy to vote against him. If the GOP is viewed as a Trumpian cult (which it surely is), then voters would love to again vote against Trump by voting against those he supports.
It is normal for voters to vote against the party holding the White House in a midterm election (like 2022), but if it's a vote against Trump this trend could be broken. Trump's control over the GOP could be the best chance for Democrats to retain control in the House and increase their majority in the Senate.
And if Trump decides to run again in. 2024, it would likely allow the Democrats to retain control over the government.
This is not a bad thing in the short term, because it hopefully would allow Democrats to institute economic policies that don't favor the rich over everyone else (as the GOP has done).
But for the long term, we need to see a more functional Republican Party -- and there's hope that will happen. Trump is getting old and won't be able to keep his grip over the party beyond a couple of elections -- and no one is his family or group of supporters has the popularity among his supporters to replace him.
