Rebuke? No, It Was More Like a Ferocious Punch to the Guts of Trump and Republicans by American Voters.

After Democrats’ “beyond our wildest dreams” victory in the November 3, 2026, midterm elections, headlines shared a common word: “Rebuke.”

“Democrats win control of US Congress in rebuke of Trump” (New York Times)

“Voters give Democrats control of Congress in rebuke to Trump” (Washington Post)

“Midterm elections deliver rebuke to Trump and GOP”
(Dallas Morning News)

“Midterm results deliver a rebuke to Trump” (USA Today)

And on and on.

What an inadequate word! You rebuke a child for deliberately peeing in his pajamas. You rebuke a child who knows better yet spills her juice on the carpet.

What Americans did Tuesday night was deliver a shattering punch to Trump’s gut, the Republican Party’s gut, the MAGA mob’s gut, and the gut of Trump’s assorted invertebrate enablers and sycophants, leaving them gasping for air. It was a shellacking, a rout, a drubbing, a wipeout, a landslide, a blue wave that turned into a blue tsunami. It was voters collectively saying from sea to shining sea, “Enough with the corruption, the mendacity, the destruction of institutions, the coddling of dictators, the cruelty of tariffs imposed on friendly nations and the runaway costs of groceries, gas, healthcare and life’s other basic necessities, the senseless and humongous cost of an illegitimate war, the murder, arrests and deportations of Americans by ICE in the streets of our cities, the shenanigans of the Department of Injustice, the hollowing out of the legislative and judicial branches by the executive branch, and more, more and more. We are sick and tired of Trump’s thuggery, indecency, and recklessness, and of his bottomless avarice and narcissism. We are taking charge because power lies with us, the people. The Rule of Law begins now, along with accountability and punishment.”

There were so many transcendent and cathartic moments Tuesday night that it is difficult, if not impossible, to list them all. Here are some:

The first Muslim senator from Michigan (he beat Republican Mike Rogers by 7 percentage points: 52.5% to 45.5%) began his victory speech with this: “My name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (shortened by the media to Abdul El-Sayed), and I am proud and honored to be the Senator-elect from the great state of Michigan. Up until this moment, you might have noticed that I always say Insha Allah or “God Willing” whenever the outcome of this race is mentioned. Today, we turn that Insha Allah into Alhamdulillah, “Praise be to God.” This is ALL yours. Michigan, I can’t wait to serve you with the same big-heartedness, open-mindedness, grit, and earnestness you’ve shown me.”

Sayed won despite the ad hominem attacks on his Islamic faith and his characterization as a terrorist and a jihadist by President Trump and Mike Rogers, by the despicable turncoat Haley Stevens, and by some Democratic lawmakers. The millions that AIPAC and Republicans spent to ensure his defeat turned out be in vain. This is how Sayed summed it up: “To the Super PACs and special interests that tried to beat us, we’re coming for your system of politics. To AIPAC, who spent $42 million dollars against us, thank you for giving me the opportunity to beat you twice. They try to call you hateful if you believe that Palestinian kids should get to grow up in the land of their forefathers without being murdered by our tax dollars. If you believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination, that’s not hate. It’s love … Michigan, we beat a machine. And we proved once again how big America really is. Because where else but in America can a doctor named Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, a child of immigrants, get elected senator from America’s greatest state?”

I am still trying to process the tectonic shift in Texan politics. James Talarico, a state legislator and former middle-school teacher, became the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate race in more than a generation. At 37, he will be the youngest member of the Senate when he is sworn in on January 3, 2027. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars Republicans spent, including more than $200 million from Elon Musk to keep Texas red, Talarico proved that money matters far less than principles and that voters listen when you convince them you will ease their pain with genuine, practical policies. Elon Musk moved from California to Texas in 2020 and displayed insufferable arrogance, believing his millions would maintain the status quo. He was wrong, very wrong. Talarico beat the vile and corrupt Ken Paxton by 55.1% to 43%. This is how Talarico summed up Elon Musk in a rally before the midterm: "The reason poverty exists in the wealthiest country on earth is not because we can't feed the poor. It's because we can't satisfy the rich. But what we can do is tax trillionaires out of existence." 

But if Talarico’s victory lifted our hearts, Latina Gina Hinojosa’s stunning victory over incumbent Greg Abbott, one of America’s most powerful Republicans, astounded us. Seemingly out of nowhere and outspent at least 6 to 1, she became the first Democrat to win statewide office in more than 30 years and the first Latina elected governor of Texas. Abbott had served three consecutive terms as governor of Texas, but as Senator Talarico said in his victory speech, “never underestimate the underdog.”

In the gorgeous state of Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in the United States' 250-year history. Her defeat of Republican billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson, 54.3% to 45.7%, made Bottoms the first Democrat to win a Georgia governor's race in more than two decades. Remember, however, that Keisha Lance Bottoms’ victory did not happen in a vacuum. Stacey Adams, a Georgia legend, ran for governor in 2018 and 2022 and lost both times. But the grassroots organization she built over the years to inspire Black voters to vote was key to Bottoms’ 2026 success. Behind every success is the story of others who sowed the seeds, even if they did not see the fruits in their lifetime.

New Mexico Democrat Deb Haaland, of Pueblo Indian descent, is America’s first Native American woman governor. Haaland defeated Republican Gregg Hull, winning 57.2% to 42.8%.

Democrat Xavier Becerra will be the first Latino elected governor of California when he takes office. He beat the clueless Republican Steve Hilton 64.2% to 35.8%. This was no surprise. I am proud to live in a state that is as blue as it gets and unlikely to ever turn red.

Want more pleasant surprises? The Rev. Adam Hamilton made history as the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in Kansas in 94 years, (that was back in 1932!) defeating Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshal, 53% to 47%.

More? 

Democrat Amy Acton defeated the loathsome, gutter-dwelling Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the Ohio gubernatorial race by nearly 8 percentage points, 52.3% to 44.4%. In the traditionally conservative state of South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews defeated the incompetent and foul-mouthed Republican Sen. Darline Graham, appointed to fill the Senate seat of her late brother Lindsey Graham, 51.1% to 46.7%. 

Nevada and Wisconsin elected their first Black governors. In the Silver State, Aaron Ford (D) beat Joe Lombardo (R) 51.4% to 44.9%. In the Badger State, David Crowley (D) beat Tom Tiffany 54.1% to 45.9%.

For me, one of the most heartbreaking results came in Florida, the Sunshine State, where Republican Byron Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly by a slim margin of 1.3 percentage points, 50.0% to 48.7%. Jolly is a former Republican who served in the House of Representatives from 2014 to 2017. He became a Democrat after being turned off by the corruption, nepotism, and immorality of Trump. It is beyond me how an African American like Donalds can suck up to someone like Trump, whose documented history of bigotry and racism against Black people is universally known. But we must not despair. As Stacey Abrams's work helped elect Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, David Jolly's defeat in 2026 could translate into electing Democratic candidates in Florida in the years to come.

My Florida heartbreak faded when I learned that a logger from Maine, a Democrat, had toppled a Republican giant in the Senate. Troy Jackson defeated Republican Susan Collins, who served in the U.S. Senate for 5 full terms spanning nearly 30 years, starting on January 3, 1997. Jackson, who entered the race late and looked like a political washout, became a giant-slayer of a seemingly invulnerable Republican “pillar” and lifted the spirits of Americans across the country.

Democrats have won a majority in both chambers of the House. As of now, Democrats hold 54 Senate seats and 254 House seats (Republicans hold 44 in the Senate and 162 in the House). Votes for two Senate seats and 19 House seats are still being contested. With this commanding majority, turncoat democrats like Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman have become irrelevant.

Democrats must remain focused on holding Trump, including his family, his cronies, his vandals, the tech titans, the billionaires, the legal powerhouses that bowed to him, Republican members of the DOJ, and the insurrectionists, accountable for their corruption and misdeeds. Trump may wield the veto power, but Republicans will now think twice before continuing as Trump’s sycophants. Yes, despite their huge margins in both houses of Congress, Democrats won’t have enough votes to override his vetoes, but that is unlikely to matter. Democrats will now hold committee gavels, enabling them to conduct investigations and hearings backed by subpoena power. They must bring to light the full scope of Trump's and his vandals' looting of the American treasury. Americans, given their rage and outrage against Trump, will also not forgive servile and spineless Republicans who continue to genuflect before the increasingly deranged president and are likely to face crushing defeats in future elections, especially in the coming 2028 election. The end of Trumpism and the Trump cult are in sight. Character, it turns out, is indeed destiny, something the MAGA mob will never get. The blame game and the circular firing squad of Republicans are in full swing. A long-overdue generational realignment is also in full swing, thank God.

As I write this, I miss the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter (1924-2024). He is not physically here, but I sense his spirit rejoicing in the Democrats' resounding victory in the 2026 midterm election.

One hundred sixty-three years ago, on November 19, 1863, the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, delivered his enduring 272-word Gettysburg Address. Lincoln concluded: “…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

As an American, I ask: Do we have what it takes to forge a “new birth of freedom” in 21st-century America, one grounded as much in loving our neighbors and those different from us as in protecting our democracy?

Only time will tell but the signs are hopeful that accountability will be restored and the slide toward autocray stopped. We implore you, God, to bless America so that no immoral, unscrupulous, unfit and unprincipled person can ever become the president of the United States again.

"No Kings Day" March in Downtown San Jose on Saturday, October 17, 2026

The midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, are only two weeks away. They are shaping up to be among the most momentous elections in U.S. history. Will there be a blue sweep to halt the destruction President Trump has unleashed on the republic, aided and abetted by unprincipled and servile Republicans in both chambers and MAGA supporters? There is genuine concern among patriotic Americans that unless Democrats win a majority in both the Senate and House, America will have crossed the point of no return as it hurtles toward fascism.

With that in mind, I joined about 2,000 fellow Americans in downtown San Jose, California, for the “No Kings Day” protest on Saturday, October 17, 2026. We gathered in St. James Park, then chanted full-throated slogans condemning Trump's tyranny before looping through downtown, accompanied by motorists honking in support. “We Americans have to get uncomfortable if we expect change in the government,” a protester told me as others around us chanted, “This is what democracy looks like.” “Voting is sacred,” an elderly person shouted over the din of traffic as we clapped and chanted. “Trump was elected by an ecosystem of evil. We have to defeat this evil ecosystem with our votes.” 

When we returned to the park, speakers from various walks of life took to the stage. “We will win if we go out and vote,” said one. “Don’t be complacent. Don’t trust the polls predicting a blue sweep. Take nothing for granted. VOTE,” said another. A politician told us that in Silicon Valley, the epicenter of technology, tech titans have turned vile and spineless, enabling Trump to spy on Americans with impunity. They have been using AI to empower ICE to attack the most vulnerable members of our communities. “Make no mistake,” he said to thunderous applause, “they will all be held accountable, especially Trump and his cronies. The vindictive and vengeful President has set the world on fire with his war on Iran and his support for the Russian dictator Putin at the expense of Ukraine. Our votes will force accountability. People will go to prison.”

I have attended all "No Kings Day" protests in San Jose over the last several years, but at today's one, I saw a new emphasis and a right one: Turn opposition to Trump into participation at the polls.

The San Jose event was one of more than 2,500 protests held across America today. The photographs I took in my city on “No Kings Day” show the unity in diversity that makes America a light among nations, a light Trump and his sycophants threaten to extinguish permanently. Attending the gathering in downtown San Jose filled me with hope that Democrats can win a majority in both the Senate and House on November 3 this year and send Trump to the ash heap of history when the November 7, 2028, Presidential election rolls around. (Note the lone sign held by an Indian-American against Indian Prime Minister and dictator Modi.)

Wendell Berry: The Passing of an Authentic American Original

I am holding a copy of "The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture" by Wendell Berry, which I acquired almost four decades ago, in 1987 (published in 1977). It was the first book that awakened me, and I am sure many Americans, to the looming disaster of losing contact with nature and to the way technology would infiltrate every aspect of our lives, potentially robbing us of our humanity and leaving us gasping for meaning and purpose. “I’ve been farming for over 40 years, and I’ve come to realize the importance in keeping traditional values & strong community ties,” wrote Berry. “We should not be so quick to trust technology but rather hold on to our agrarian values.”

Wendell Berry's passing on 31 August 2026 at age 92 marks the end of an American original. A novelist, poet, essayist, conservationist, and farmer, he was less well known to the public than two other icons who also recently left us, Dolly Parton and Gloria Steinem. Yet his unwavering loyalty to his conscience and community, as reflected in the full life he led as a husband to his beloved wife Tanya, a writer, and a farmer, will inspire generations who read him and reflect on his work.

Berry exhorted us to value the natural and the genuine over the artificial and the contrived. (In this, in my opinion, he belongs to a group that includes Henry David Thoreau, E. B. White, Loren Eiseley, and yes, Jimmy Carter). He distinguished the nurturer from the exploiter: “The exploiter serves an institution or organization,” he wrote in The Unsettling of America, “the nurturer serves land, household, community, place. The exploiter thinks in terms of numbers, quantities, ‘hard facts,’ the nurturer in terms of character, condition, quality.” He regarded the ecological crisis, now called climate change, as a crisis of character. He believed the disease of modern character was specialization, which produced specialists elaborately and expensively trained to do just one thing. Thus we have “educators who have nothing to teach, communicators who have nothing to say, and doctors skilled at expensive cures for diseases they have no interest in preventing.”

One of his maxims that fans spread across social media is: “Rats and roaches live by competition under the law of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.”

Berry’s books and essays may come across as uncompromising in their indictment of our lifestyles, priorities, and politics, but he never flinched from writing what he believed to be the truth. He practiced what he preached, giving up prestigious writing and teaching positions at elite universities to make a living as a farmer on his Lane’s Landing homestead in Henry County, Kentucky, and to write.

And write he did, over fifty books of poetry, essays, novels, and short story collections. I devoured his fiction, many set in the fictional Port William, Kentucky, such as The Memory of Old Jack, Nathan Coulter, Hannah Coulter, Remembering, A Place on Earth, and, in my opinion, the most moving and powerful of all, Jayber Crow, short story collections like Fidelity, The Wild Birds, A Place in Time, and essay collections such as The Gift of Good Land, The Long-Legged House, The Art of the Common Place, What Are People For, A Continuous Harmony, The Hidden Wound, Standing By Words, Home Economics, Citizenship Papers, Our Only World, and of course, The Unsettling of America.

In 2008, a member of the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize for Literature, caused a furor when he explained with righteous authority why American writers had been coming up empty for several years in the Nobel Prize race. “American literature is second-rate,” said the judge, arguing that American writers were too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture, which dragged down their quality. “They don’t participate in the big dialogue of literature. That ignorance is restraining.”

I remember thinking at the time: Has the judge, or any of his colleagues, ever read Wendell Berry? If they had, they would have discovered a unique voice that, through masterpieces like Jayber Crow, not only engaged in the “big dialogue of literature” but also extended its boundaries.

(For the record, American Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 and Louise Glück in 2020.)

The truth is, Wendell Berry transcended awards and honors. He wrote what he believed, using language both lyrical and fierce, pointing to a sustainable yet adventurous life. One way we can honor Wendell Berry’s legacy is to read his writings, promote his books in book clubs sprouting across America, and engage in lively discussions about what makes his writing about neighborliness, compassion, peace, generosity, fidelity, memory, and much, much more, timeless.

As a Muslim, I was surprised and thrilled to read a foreword by Wendell Berry to the book “My Mercy Encompasses All” by an Islamic scholar named Reza-Shah Kazmi, published in 2007. Berry felt that Christians and Muslims may be divided into two groups: “those who appoint themselves as agents of divine anger and those who understand themselves as called to be agents of divine mercy … To think of oneself as an agent of God’s anger is exceedingly attractive … There are certain intense pleasures in anger, especially if one’s own anger can be presumed to coincide with God’s, and also in the use of an angry self-righteousness as a standard by which to condemn other people. This is pleasure necessarily founded on the shallowest sort of self-knowledge … To take up, by contrast, the agency of God’s mercy seems to involve one in a labor of self-knowledge and then knowledge of others that is endlessly humbling … We ourselves are in need of those things we are called upon to give to others: compassion, forgiveness, mercy. And unless we give them, we cannot receive them … Those who accept the agency of God’s mercy, understanding their own need for it as the index of the need of others, must forbear their anger and talk together until the end of time, for God’s mercy is a mystery never to be fully known or enacted by humans.”

I re-read his books every now and then because Wendell Berry fills me with the hope that a better life is possible if we get off the treadmill of wanting more and more, focus on community and compassion rather than on self and fame, and pursue work that aligns with our values rather than where the money is.

Thoreau's Relevance to America Today

One hundred and sixty-four years ago today, on May 6, 1862, Henry David Thoreau succumbed to tuberculosis and died at his family home in Concord, Massachusetts. He was 44.

Thoreau remains relevant today and will continue to be for future generations because of the timeless questions he posed and the solutions he offered for living a meaningful life. “Walden; or Life in the Woods” is the 1854 book he is best known for, but the work most applicable to our times during Donald Trump’s catastrophic presidency is his 1849 essay, “Civil Disobedience.”

Thoreau’s thesis was that citizens had a moral obligation to oppose their government’s unjust and inhumane policies, even if doing so required difficult sacrifices. That’s what nearly 100,000 ordinary Minnesotans did when they braved freezing temperatures in January in Minneapolis and risked their lives to protest the illegal detention and deportation of immigrants and the killings of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by heavily armed ICE agents.

By his example, Thoreau taught us to live by the courage of our convictions. Slavery was the evil of his time. The Civil War began in April 1861, thirteen months before his death. Thoreau was active in the Underground Railroad in Concord, helping enslaved people escape to Canada. “I do not hesitate to say,” wrote Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, “that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectively withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait until they constitute a majority …”

There may not be slavery in America today, but Trump’s reckless and imperial presidency is no less evil to our polarized country. The “No Kings Day” protests against Trump would have pleased Thoreau. In the most recent one held in March this year, an estimated 9 million Americans participated across all 50 U.S. states, making it one of the largest single-day mass demonstrations in American history.

I joined about 10,000 of my compatriots in San Jose, California, where one sign in a sea of signs summed up why we were protesting: “Democracy dies when good people stay silent.” As Thoreau wrote in Civil Disobedience: “Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” His subliminal message to us was to hope and act but not to hope more than we acted.

Trump is destroying civilizational norms and ruining America with irreversible damage by his predatory “Might is Right” and “Law of the Jungle” policies at home and abroad. He has imposed tariffs as sanctions and punishments on our allies and has threatened to commit war crimes against countries that refuse his rapacious demands. He unleashed a war of choice against Iran that continues to batter the global economy. Ordinary Americans and people around the globe are struggling to meet basic needs amid skyrocketing food and energy prices, with no end in sight. Thoreau’s call to action is as potent now as when he made it almost two centuries ago: “All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.”

On July 4, 2026, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary, the semiquincentennial, of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “The American government,” wrote Thoreau in Civil Disobedience, “-what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity?”

Under Trump, America has been hemorrhaging integrity, dignity, decency and empathy at a horrific rate. It is our duty to stop this hemorrhage and restore America’s moral weight. Perhaps the best way to accomplish this is to vote for candidates in the consequential November midterm election at the House, Senate, state, and local levels who put country and Constitution above loyalty to a demagogue.

"No Kings Day" in San Jose, California, Saturday, 28 March, 2026

Five months ago, on Saturday, October 18, 2025, we gathered in downtown San Jose, over 10,000 young and old, women and men, veterans in wheelchairs and toddlers in strollers, to participate in the ”No Kings Day” protest march, as part of marches that were taking place throughout America.

Today, Saturday, March 28, 2026, we were back in downtown San Jose, again as part of 3,300 rallies in all 50 States across America. The war of choice Trump unleashed against Iran a month ago, in collusion with Israel, added more urgency to these rallies against the reckless demagogue in the White House.

As soon as my wife and I reached St. James Park, the venue of the event, the organizers informed us that this was a non-violent event, that under no circumstances were we to argue or debate with any agitators, shout or heckle, gesture or smirk, or block and follow them. Instead, we were advised to move away calmly and, if things got out of control, to find a peace ambassador or “yellow vest.” An available resource to de-escalate is
https://www.gandhiteam.org/.

We saw no agitators. 

From noon until 2 PM, St. James Park was loud with our united voices demanding an end to Trump’s tyranny and the unconstitutional and illegitimate war he launched against Iran that has already caused widespread death and destruction, including the deaths of several American soldiers. Gas and food prices have gone through the roof, bringing immense pain and suffering to Americans and to people worldwide.

Perhaps the most moving moment for me came when Democrat Ro Khanna, the Congressman for California's 17th Congressional District since 2017, representing Silicon Valley and cities that include Santa Clara, Cupertino and parts of San Jose, and the prime mover behind releasing the infamous Epstein files, addressed the gathering: “My grandfather was imprisoned for 4 years when he protested against the British King for India’s independence from British colonial rule in the 1940s in India. Today, I, his proud grandson and a proud American, am joining you against a demagogue pretending to be America’s King. There is no king in America and we the people must see to it that there is never any king in America.”

San Jose is what America looks like, said a veteran to thunderous applause. Protesting peacefully is one of the most patriotic things we can do, said another, again drawing vigorous agreement from the gathering. 

We walked along several streets before returning to St. James Park, passing in front of City Hall, and everywhere, motorists honked loudly and continuously in support.

The protest signs told the story of what these marches and rallies were all about. It is easy to feel despondent about how Trump is destroying democracy in America and wreaking havoc in the world, but participating in these marches fills us with hope and courage. We viscerally understand that we are not alone in this fight, that together we can defeat Trump and Trumpism and restore the values on which America was founded.

One of the most inspiring protest signs I saw at the San Jose rally: "They tried to bury us. They didn't know we were seeds." But the seed must grow into a towering tree of defiance and power until the last trace of Trump and his sycophants are gone.

The sign says "Stop the US-Israel war on Iran." But it doesn't stop there. Beneath it says: "No to Islamic Republic." The theocratic Iranian regime has been killing dissenting Iranians with impunity. But will liberation by US and Israel bring peace to Iran and the Middle East? Unlikely.

Indeed, but we the people cannot let up until Trump and his enablers are removed from power. The existential question is: Can America survive another three years of Trump, with the current Iran War costing billions and inflicting terrible sufferings on humanity?