A coping mechanism I’ve adopted since the election of Donald Trump, a man more deserving of prison than the presidency, is to look for reasons for even the slightest optimism about the nation’s governance over the next four years. To that end, this Thanksgiving I’m grateful for the Republican “Grim Reaper,” Mitch McConnell.

Really.

Yes, I’m saying I’m thankful for the sour senator from Kentucky who’s built a turkey of a legacy: Fighting for years, up to a conservative Supreme Court, to successfully decapitate limits on campaign contributions from corporations and special interests. Stuffing that court and lower benches with far-right jurists. Finally, engineering Trump’s Senate acquittal after the House impeached him for inciting an insurrection that trashed the Capitol McConnell professes to revere.

It’s because of that last McConnell “achievement” that we face Trump 2.0. Had the Senate convicted Trump in February 2021, it probably would have followed with a vote to bar him from running for office again, as the Senate has for impeached and convicted judges.

So here we are, and McConnell too.

At 82, the longest-serving party leader in Senate history is voluntarily surrendering his crown to mentee Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. He will serve the last two years of his seventh and perhaps final term among the rank and file of the Republican majority. It’s McConnell’s just deserts to take a demotion as Trump returns to the summit: For all of McConnell’s past services to the once and future president, since Jan. 6 the two men have loathed each other more than I loathe marshmallows on sweet potatoes.

Familiar as he is with power, McConnell is well aware of who holds it now. Still, he won’t be without clout in Trump’s Washington. He won’t retreat to the backbenches or bend the knee. He even relishes the schoolyard nickname Trump gave him — “Old Crow” — doling out bottles of the Kentucky bourbon with his mug on the label.

McConnell may be stooped with age, but he’s suggesting publicly and privately that he’ll rise to the occasion as leader of a Republican resistance in the Senate, providing cover to others, should Trump overreach. The president-elect already has done so with some grotesque Cabinet choices, preceded by his anticonstitutional demand that senators forfeit their “advice and consent” power and instead be rubber stamps. McConnell’s nearly immediate response amounted to “No way.”

If Trump, as president, carries through on his threat to illegally impound funds that Congress approves, expect McConnell to cry foul, and even back a court challenge. Most of all, look for McConnell — who will chair the defense spending subcommittee — to stand for continued U.S. leadership in the world, especially in support of Ukraine and NATO. That posture will surely ruffle the feathers of an “America First” president enamored of dictators and disdainful of allies.

“Opposition to Ukraine is about as much nonsense as [saying] Biden wasn’t legitimately elected,” McConnell says in a bite at Trump in a new biography, “The Price of Power.”

I’m not naive. McConnell will go along with many Trump actions, including serving up a bounty of unaffordable new tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations, urging Americans to gorge on fossil fuels and, again, stuffing the courts with right-wing ideologues.

Yet recall the ancient proverb: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

As ruthless and rule-bending as McConnell has been on judicial confirmations and more, I’m betting he’ll respect institutional and constitutional lines that Trump scornfully crosses, and recruit a few other Republican senators to help hold those lines. A few Republicans are all that’s needed when the party’s majority is a narrow 53 to 47; Trump can lose just four votes if Democrats are united in opposition. I count up to a dozen Republicans who could take turns to buck Trump occasionally, which would dilute the political pain of Trump’s wrath.

On Trump’s nominations, for instance. Ex-con Stephen K. Bannon, among other MAGA militants, blamed McConnell (“You gotta give the devil its due”) for whipping up opposition that forced the unsavory former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida off the menu as Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Publicly, too, McConnell was no chicken, as he countered Trump’s call to let nominees slide through as recess appointments.

“Each of these nominees needs to come before the Senate and go through the process and be vetted,” McConnell said two weeks ago. The institutionalist in him knows that, under the Constitution, the Senate’s power to confirm nominees is equal to a president’s in naming them.

Among those he could help defeat are Trump’s worst picks: Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the candidates to head intelligence, defense and health, respectively. A polio survivor, McConnell surely chokes on Kennedy’s anti-vax rhetoric. Likewise for Gabbard’s and Hegseth’s echoes of Trump’s skepticism and Vladimir Putin’s talking points on Ukraine.

McConnell has little to lose. He’ll be liberated in the new Congress, he told his biographer, Michael Tackett, no longer required as party leader to attend to the appetites of moderate and MAGA Republicans alike. He’s not expected to seek reelection in 2026. Sure, he’s unpopular nationally, in both parties. But inside the Senate, most Republicans respect and even like him. His outsized standing there will parallel that of former House Speaker and GOAT Nancy Pelosi, whom he praised last month: “I think Pelosi has done a pretty good job as a former speaker, still being able to express herself and have an audience.”

Similarly, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina predicted of McConnell, “When he speaks, people will listen.”

Forget the turkey. I’m bringing the popcorn. And rooting for the Old Crow.

@jackiekcalmes

When President Abraham Lincoln first proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday, little did he know he was spelling the beginning of the end to the prominence of the original patriotic celebration held during the last week of November: Evacuation Day.

In November 1863, Lincoln issued an order thanking God for harvest blessings, and by the 1940s, Congress had declared the 11th month of the calendar year’s fourth Thursday to be Thanksgiving Day.

That commemoration, though, combined with the gradual move toward détente with what is now the U.S.’ strongest ally – Great Britain – displaced the day Americans celebrated the last of the Redcoats fleeing their land.

Following the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, New York City, just 99 miles to the northeast, remained a British stronghold until the end of the Revolutionary War.

Captured Continentals were held aboard prison ships in New York Harbor and British political activity in the West was anchored in the Big Apple, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S SACRED TRADITION

However, that all came crashing down on the crown after the Treaty of Paris was signed, and new “Americans” eagerly saw the British out of their hard-won home on Nov. 25, 1783.

In their haste to flee the U.S., the British took time to grease flagpoles that still flew the Union Jack. One prominent post was at Bennett Park – on present-day West 183 Street near the northern tip of Manhattan.

Undeterred, Sgt. John van Arsdale, a Revolution veteran, cobbled together cleats that allowed him to climb the slick pole and tear down the then-enemy flag. Van Arsdale replaced it with the Stars and Stripes – and without today’s skyscrapers in the way, the change of colors at the island’s highest point could be seen farther downtown.

In the harbor, a final blast from a British warship aimed for Staten Island, but missed a crowd that had assembled to watch the 6,000-man military begin its journey back across the Atlantic to King George III.

SYLVESTER STALLONE CALLS TRUMP ‘THE SECOND GEORGE WASHINGTON’

John Van Arsdale replaces the Union Jack with the American flag as the British evacuate New York on Nov. 25, 1783. (Getty)

Later that day, future President George Washington and New York Gov. George Clinton – who had negotiated “evacuation” with England’s Canadian Gov. Sir Guy Carleton – led a military march down Broadway through throngs of revelers to what would today be the Wall Street financial district at the other end of Manhattan.

Clinton hosted Washington for dinner and a “Farewell Toast” at nearby Fraunces’ Tavern, which houses a museum dedicated to the original U.S. holiday. Samuel Fraunces, who owned the watering hole, provided food and reportedly intelligence to the Continental Army.

Washington convened at Fraunces’ just over a week later to announce his leave from the Army, surrounded by Clinton and other top Revolutionary figures like German-born Gen. Friedrich von Steuben – whom New York’s Oktoberfest-styled parade officially honors.

“With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy, as your former ones have been glorious and honorable,” Washington said.

Before Lincoln – and later Congress – normalized Thanksgiving as the mass family affair it has become, Evacuation Day was more prominent than both its successor and Independence Day, according to several sources, including Untapped New York.

Nov. 25 was a school holiday in the 19th century and people re-created van Arsdale’s climb up the Bennett Park flagpole. Formal dinners were held at the Plaza Hotel and other upscale institutions for many years, according to the outlet.

An official parade reminiscent of today’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade was held every year in New York until the 1910s.

Fraunces’ Tavern, at Pearl and Broad Streets in New York City. (Getty)

As diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom warmed heading into the 20th century and the U.S. alliance with London during the World Wars proved crucial, celebrating Evacuation Day became less and less prominent.

Into the 2010s, however, commemorative flag-raisings have been sporadically held at Bowling Green, the southern endpoint of Broadway. On the original Evacuation Day, Washington’s dinner at Fraunces Tavern was preceded by the new U.S. Army marching down the iconic avenue to formally take back New York.

Thirteen toasts – marking the number of United States – were raised at Fraunces, each one spelling out the new government’s hope for the new nation or giving thanks to those who helped it come to be. 

An aide to Washington wrote them down for posterity, and the Sons of the American Revolution recite them at an annual dinner, according to the tavern’s museum site.

“To the United States of America,” the first toast went. The second honored King Louis XVI, whose French Army was crucial in America’s victory.

“To the vindicators of the rights of mankind in every quarter of the globe,” read another. “May a close union of the states guard the temple they have erected to liberty.”

The 13th offered a warning to any other country that might ever seek to invade the new U.S.:

“May the remembrance of this day be a lesson to princes.”

Donald Trump posted notable gains in Orange County during the November election, but it was not enough to win the increasingly purple county that has become a suburban battleground between Republicans and Democrats — and a reflection of the demographic political realignment unfolding across the nation.

Kamala Harris won Orange County, but by a much tighter margin than either Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Joe Biden in 2020. When it comes to presidential politics, Orange County has backed Democrats since 2016, with increasingly blue areas such as Santa Ana, Anaheim and Irvine besting more red areas such as Huntington Beach and south Orange County.

But experts say the 2024 results offer some warning signs for Democrats.

“What the early numbers indicate is that Donald Trump made inroads with minority voters including probably substantial gains with Latino and Asian voters,” said Jeff Corless, a former strategist for Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer. “What we’re hearing is that he made those same kinds of gains in other communities similar to Orange County across the country. He also made gains with traditional suburban voters, which he struggled with in 2020.”

Paul Mitchell, a Democratic data specialist, said Trump probably did better in the county because of lower Democratic turnout this year compared with 2020, as well as voters being familiar — and potentially comfortable — with Trump because of their experience during his prior tenure.

“It may also be Trump has been normalized, in an odd way,” Mitchell said. “He’s been in our political eyesight for the last decade now. Maybe voters like the economy better under Trump.”

In 2016, Clinton received roughly 100,000 more votes in Orange County than Trump, making her the first Democrat county voters selected for the presidency in 80 years. In 2020, Biden fared even better, besting Trump by more than 137,500 votes. Now, Harris has edged out Trump, but the margin of victory is on trend to be much tighter than seen in past elections.

Votes in Orange County are still being counted and final numbers aren’t required to be certified by the county until Dec. 5 and by the state until Dec. 13. But it’s clear, experts say, that Trump harnessed the disillusionment felt by voters who are unhappy with the direction of the country and the economic pains that have beset many living in the suburbs.

“People in the press and people like me still so often take Trump literally, whereas voters lived through this once and the apocalypse didn’t happen and they liked the economy better,” said Rob Stutzman, a veteran GOP strategist and Trump critic who previously advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He noted that Trump’s improved performance in Orange County was not an outlier.

“He did better — look at how he did in New York, on the Eastern Seaboard, in Massachusetts,” Stutzman said. “There are red dots that never existed the last few decades.”

Still, there were some bright spots for Democrats, notably being able to hold on to a congressional seat that became open because Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine pursued an unsuccessful Senate bid, and flipping the 45th Congressional District. In that race, first-time candidate Derek Tran defeated Republican Rep. Michelle Steel of Seal Beach in a hotly contested race that became one of the most expensive in the country.

A UC Irvine poll released last year conveyed discord among Orange County voters, particularly Republicans and those who choose not to identify with a political party, who said despite their optimism about Orange County and somewhat about California, they did not have a good feeling about the future of America.

“The [election] results are much more a statement about people’s dissatisfaction with the current national administration than some grand statement about Trump or Republicans,” said Jon Gould, dean of the university’s School of Social Ecology.

“This is not a sign that Orange County is suddenly a red county,” Gould said. “This is exactly what it means to be a purple county.”

Michele Monda, a Republican who lives in the deep-blue city of Laguna Beach, voted for Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024 with her son and grandchildren in mind. The high housing costs and general lack of affordability have made it a challenge for middle-class couples, like her son and daughter-in-law, to build a life in many parts of California, including Orange County.

“Who is looking out for them?” Monda said. “They’re barely getting by, and quite honestly, the Democrats don’t seem to care. While I know Trump is a billionaire, I think he understands the needs of a middle-class person.”

Economics and Trump’s stance on immigration were the two main drivers that motivated her to vote for him. While she’s not always a fan of Trump’s behavior, she loves his policies. It’s not surprising, she said, that others in Orange County were swayed to his side as well.

“I think people have had enough of the Democrat party line, enough of the economy, enough of the whole platform. The things they espouse they just don’t work,” Monda said. “I think people in California are waking up.”

Trump’s improvement in the county has generated excitement among California Republicans who for years have tried to strengthen its hold on Orange County as Democratic voter registration grew and elections became more competitive.

For decades, Orange County was a conservative stronghold — the birthplace of former President Nixon, the cradle of Ronald Reagan’s ascent to the governor’s mansion and then the White House, and, for decades, a virtual synonym for the Republican Party of California.

The county’s shift over the last decade from deeply red to a more politically and demographically diverse region has fascinated the public for years.

“Orange County is a battleground,” said Jon Fleischman, a Republican campaign strategist and former executive director of the California GOP.

Trump’s popularity boost among Latinos and Asian Americans seen nationally could very well also be at play in swing counties such as Orange County. Republicans in the county for years have sought to attract Latinos and Asian Americans to their party with mixed success, and Trump’s performance could signal gains among these voter blocs, as well as Black Americans. He also won back some suburban women who turned against the Republican Party during his 2016 campaign and in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal protection for abortion access in 2022.

Democrats leaned heavily into messaging about the loss of reproductive rights during this year’s campaign, in television ads and during their convention when they nominated Harris. However, Stutzman contended that the argument failed to resonate with suburban women in affluent areas such as Orange County as much as Democrats expected it to.

“Most women in America still have access — an overwhelming majority have access to abortion,” he said. “I just don’t know if there’s a connection, any real existential threat that their rights are being further eroded than they have been.”

Though Harris won the majority of votes across deep-blue California, Trump was on track to win Butte, Stanislaus, Fresno, Inyo, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, all areas that Biden carried in 2020. Trump also gained ground in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles County compared with 2016 and 2020.

“In order for Trump to win Orange County, he had to make inroads with minority voters, and he did that through issues that mattered to them and the struggles they’re facing,” Corless said.

Democrats’ ability to register voters in Orange County has also slowed.

Between October 2022 and October 2024, the Democratic Party in Orange County grew by just over 3,100 voters. At the same time, the Republican Party’s numbers swelled by 31,000 people, according to data from the California secretary of state.

In the years that the GOP voter registration waned, the number of nonparty-preference voters grew. Many longtime Republicans in Orange County, irritated by Trump’s outlandish speaking style and policy positions, branded themselves as “Never Trumpers.” But Republicans in Orange County have made a concerted effort this cycle to reregister former GOP voters and push early voting and mail ballots, a recognition of how much Trump’s opposition to such efforts harmed the party in 2020.

“When Trump was first elected, he was not everybody’s favorite flavor of ice cream, and I think you saw a lot of Republicans who decided to become independent,” Fleischman said. “I think as people have decided that they’re OK with Trump, they’ve been coming back to the party.”

The Republican Party of Orange County went as far as hosting a ballot collection day on Oct. 11 in which Republican Party offices served as designated ballot-drop locations. The move, it said at the time, makes voting more accessible while “maintaining the highest level election integrity.”