Some Hope?

It feels weird to have good things happen

By: Austin Abbring

September 16, 2026

It almost feels wrong for anything to go right right now. In a rare glimmer of hope, at least in terms of midterm elections, for voters, and for voting rights, the Supreme Court handed Donald Trump and Republicans huge losses. These two losses may be the final nail in the coffin for Republicans as they are set to be overwhelmed by a blue wave in the House. Some prediction models also show the Senate slightly favoring Democrats for the first time this year. Now, I am not one to push prediction markets, and I would never suggest just blindly trusting the polls, but these races have been trending toward Democrat favorability more and more in the recent weeks - especially in the Senate races.

The Court ruled against a Missouri gerrymandering map that was geared to redistrict in favor of Republicans, enabling them to gain one more red seat in the House. Missouri lawmakers, who have now been rejected twice by the Supreme Court, must use the most recently passed maps from 2022 following the most recent U.S. census at the start of the decade. Missouri Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins may be held in contempt of court for initially refusing to comply with the court by attempting to use a Trump-favored map. The fight is not over, however, as Missourians will have a final say on their congressional maps through a vote.

The Supreme Court's key decision came when it rejected the Trump administration’s plans to use the USPS to restrict absentee ballots and who was eligible to receive them. The Court held an emergency docket to make this decision and gave no reasoning for the ruling beyond elaborating that there was not enough time to implement the restrictive voting measures the administration planned to roll out, and that there was no evidence of systemic mail-voting fraud. Justices Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas were the only two of the justices to dissent. Don’t you just love Clarence Thomas? The man is on the wrong side of a ruling nearly 100% of the time. President Trump took to social media to lambaste the Supreme Court Justices, of whom he has appointed 3 of the 9 through both presidencies, and has claimed, “[these members] are shells of themselves and that the Supreme Court is bullied by the radical left into making decisions that have set America back at least 100 years.” 

I would contend that the court is not the only branch of government that has set us back a century. I would gladly float the idea of Donald Trump setting us backward for that length of time with the destruction of democratic norms and decorum, his war against the working class, and the degradation and practical destruction of our global relationships. To suggest that the Supreme Court is beholden to “the left” is a truly outlandish statement. Forget the six conservative appointees for a moment; the court’s somehow non-unanimous decision in the Trump v. Barbara case is enough of an indicator of where the Supreme Court is. The 14th Amendment could not be clearer on birthright citizenship, and three justices of our highest court dissented from it. Give me a break. Donald Trump just cannot handle a loss - the narcissism will not allow it. 

We are not out of the woods yet on restrictive mail-in voting measures, either. Realistically, the justices based their ruling on the fact that there wasn't enough time for Trump and his goons to implement the suppressive absentee ballot scheme with the USPS. While I was correct in assuming this would be the case, I still fear this will not be the last time we see a case on mail-in voting - especially if Republicans continue to maintain their majority and dominate the narrative. A narrative littered with falsehoods. For now, I just want to breathe a sigh of relief, as it is relatively rare to exhale those. I will continue to hold some extremely nervous optimism for November. So much is on the line here. Please quadruple-check that you are registered to vote in your state, vote early if you can, and make the Republican Party pay for its destruction of our democracy.