The Democratic Party has rebounded from their\u00a0underperformance\u00a0in the 2016 elections\u00a0picking up at least 7 governorships,\u00a0at least 37 seats in the House of Representatives and over 300 seats in state legislatures.\u00a0While\u00a0final numbers\u00a0are\u00a0not likely to be known for\u00a0a couple of days, including in some pivotal races\u00a0in Georgia, Florida, and Arizona, there are several\u00a0conclusions we can draw from the preliminary results.<\/p>\n
Personality based Politics\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
In recent times,\u00a0midterm elections\u00a0have been\u00a0popularly considered\u00a0as a referendum on the president.\u00a0Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush,\u00a0and\u00a0Barack Obama\u00a0all\u00a0suffered\u00a0large\u00a0negative electoral\u00a0swings driven by their policies\u00a0and faced\u00a0the loss of at least one House of Congress during their\u00a0tenure.<\/p>\n
However,\u00a0these three\u00a0Presidents\u00a0never\u00a0linked\u00a0the midterm elections\u00a0to themselves as\u00a0personally as Trump did.<\/p>\n
In 1994, presiding over the loss of the House for the first time in 40 years,\u00a0Clinton said he would work in a non-partisan manner with the\u00a0Republicans led by Newt Gingrich.\u00a0In 2006,\u00a0Bush mused the Democrats had given him a \u201cthumpin\u201d;\u00a0and Obama\u00a0called the results of the 2010 midterm a \u201cshellacking\u201d.\u00a0By contrast,\u00a0no such level of self-contrition should be expected\u00a0from Trump.<\/p>\n
Trump took full credit for the success of the Republican Party in the Senate and\u00a0put the\u00a0blame\u00a0on House Republicans for their inability to\u00a0maintain their seats. This transactional and unidirectional approach to loyalty highlights how Trump\u00a0perceives his role as the head of the Republican Party\u00a0and echoes his previous life in business. He\u00a0is only ever responsible for the successes, never the failures or misfires.<\/p>\n
Trum<\/b>p Faces a Hostile Congress<\/b><\/p>\n
In his\u00a0post-election\u00a0comments,\u00a0Trump\u00a0said he\u00a0would like to work with the Democrats in the House, but only\u00a0if they stopped their\u00a0investigations into him. Furthermore, he argued the reason\u00a0so many Republicans lost their seats was because they tried to distance themselves from him.<\/p>\n
It is unclear\u00a0whether the next two years will deliver\u00a0any\u00a0bipartisan legislative achievements of note. The Democrats will, as the Congress is constitutionally bound to, hold the Trump Administration to account and investigate\u00a0abuses of power and breaches of the law. Trump and his Administration will not take this lying down.<\/p>\n
Much of this will be posturing for 2020, as Trump will be eager for the Republicans\u00a0to take back the House of Representatives, and the Democrats will want to weaken Trump\u2019s electability in the lead up to 2020.<\/p>\n
The Democratic House will not\u00a0impeach Trump, but expect to see a flurry of legislation that:\u00a0protects Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation;\u00a0requires future presidential candidates to reveal their\u00a0tax records prior to their election; and rolls back the tax cuts given to the high-income earners.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s pitch to the United States was that he was\u00a0as a dealmaker without peer.\u00a0That pitch will be sorely tested over the coming months.<\/p>\n
Return of the\u00a0<\/b>Blue\u00a0<\/b>W<\/b>all in the Midwest<\/b>?<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
This election has been popularly described as a \u2018blue wave\u2019, highlighting the strength of the Democratic Party\u2019s chances\u00a0across\u00a0the various state and national elections. While it\u2019s arguable the Democrats fell short of a landslide victory, particularly\u00a0due to their disappointing returns in the Senate, the Democrats did\u00a0triumphantly take back the governorships of Wisconsin and Michigan, strengthening their position in the\u00a0Midwest.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0industrial Midwest\u00a0has traditionally been a stronghold for the Democratic Party. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin delivered Trump the presidency in 2016, and\u00a0in this election the Democratic Party\u2019s candidates won races for governor and Senate, setting up a tight race for 2020.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s message of unfair trade deals and promises of infrastructure spending to the industrial areas of the US\u00a0won him great support in 2016. But these promises did not materialize and longstanding frustrations over school funding and rising healthcare premiums\u00a0turned voters away from Trump, and the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
There are areas of overlap for the two parties:\u00a0a committed response to the opioid epidemic; infrastructure funding; and building stronger relations with allies and partners. It remains to be seem if the hatchet can be buried to enable the Administration and the Congress to meet the needs of the nation.<\/p>\n
Article by Jesse Baker Gale: The Democratic Party has rebounded from their\u00a0underperformance\u00a0in the 2016 elections\u00a0picking up at least 7 governorships,\u00a0at least 37 seats in the House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[29,152,39,154,153],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesse-barker-gales-blog-posts","category-us-politics","tag-congress","tag-democratic-party","tag-election","tag-president","tag-republican-party"],"yoast_head":"\n