Approval ratings and midterms are no longer relevant

Right now, 95% of the media is focused on using a democratic lens on a post-democratic state.

If you tried to use democratic analysis frameworks on an entrenched authoritarian regime, you will be wrong every time.

It would be like commenting on parliamentary debate in the Weimar Republic in 1934 - completely off base, and completely irrelevant.

Or, maybe another example would be something like it's pointless to ask your independent adult child how they'd like their bedroom at home redecorated, because they'll never be living in it ever again. It's wishful thinking.  

Here's why:

1) Dictators like Orban or Trump only have to be elected once. As soon as they're in power, they stop having free or fair elections. It doesn't matter what the result of gerrymandering will be - if that doesn't work, they will find another way to rig it. 

2) Dictators don't care about approval ratings from media they consider biased. They will simply get rid of all statisticians who claim they're unpopular by suppressing the media, firing government data analysts, and making negative sentiment illegal. Pretty soon, all approval ratings will be positive - because it will be illegal for them to be anything else.

The courts have been captured. The watchdogs have been fired. And the US is not going to have free elections, or a leader not from the current party, in the next 6-8 years at least. 

So, don't get your hopes up. This is actually happening. It will not turn around without conflict or upheaval.

When you stop living in a fantasy world, you can make strategic decisions for the actual playing field you're on.