Open Forum: Post Midterm Election Analysis

The big news from last night is a divided Congress with the Democrats taking the House by a wide margin and the Republicans widening their margin in the Senate.

It appears the suburban areas of the country rejected Trump and the rural areas moved a little closer to him.

Trump has already challenged Democrats by suggesting that he controls the Senate.

I don’t think that is going to persuade Democrats not to exercise oversight, do you?

What are your reactions? What are the important races and stories in your opinion?

Discuss in the comments section.

48 thoughts on “Open Forum: Post Midterm Election Analysis”

  1. “It appears the suburban areas of the country rejected Trump and the rural areas moved a little closer to him.”

    This repeats the pattern of the 2016 elections, which if you check the county-by-county maps was a pretty clean city-vs-country divide. Urban islands of blue in an ocean of red.

    1. However, your “ocean of red” is deceptive. While it represents a greater area it doesn’t represent a greater population because those rural areas are much less densely populated. that is why if you look at a map of where Trump won, it looks like it was a “landslide,” but Trump still had over 3 Million less votes than Clinton.

      1. That deserves a like and a comment. I can count on one hand the number of cogent, germane comments he has made in the past few years. They don’t balance the great number of his childish, insulting dribble – most of the time aimed at you. He truly did remind me of MD in his manner.

  2. Seriously, Bugs?

    Why do you come here, spreading your childish lies and disinformation?
    Come back when you’ve something intelligent to say.

  3. The most important outcome in my opinion is Trump choosing to force Sessions to resign, starting the constitutional crisis around the Russia investigation. I’m curious how big the counter protests will get and whether they will be effective.

    Edited to add: I see this action as an outcome because now that the election is over, it can’t drive blue voters to the polls and it can’t threaten the Senate majority that he would hope to be protected by.

  4. Pretty conventional midterm, it seems. Just reinforces to me that people are entrenched, and there will be no waves of either color. I do think that Dems are going to forced into a posture of stiff-backed, vocal resistance, which at best will please their base. If, however, they appear overly combative and prosecutorial towards the President, they will lose support. Which is not to suggest they should not do it. It’s just not the most pragmatic choice, since most voters have more pressing concerns.

    1. Yeah, because the Republicans lost support when their were overly combative and proprietorial toward President Obama…

      Oh, wait. No they didn’t.

  5. I’m not worried about the Dems not exercising oversight, I’m worried about them going to far. Pelosi has already suggested she would use the subpoena power as a way to interfere with the executive branch. If she just uses that threat as a way to get Trump to behave himself, fine, but to actually do it would set a very bad example.

    1. As if the Republicans have left any bad examples that remain unset after their nonsense while Obama was in the White House…

      Give the number of indictments the Trump administration has already gathered, there are more than enough legitimate reasons for the Democrats to use their powers of subpoena.

      1. You think that because the republicans misbehaved in the past that makes it okay for the democrats to misbehave now. that is really the type of government you would like to see?

        Where both sides behave equally childishly?

        Further, I have no problem with legitimate use of subpoenas. My concern is with the mis-use of them.

        1. Of course not, but then unilateral disarmament isn’t working either. I don’ t know what the solution is, but the electorate hasn’t exactly punish the Republicans for their shenanigans (i.e. their disgraceful blocking of Obama’s SCOTUS nomination) so I’m not sure why you think the Democrats will be punished for meeting fire with fire.

          Being the only adult in the room isn’t much used when it’s full of rampaging toddlers.

          Also, if the Senate Republicans continue to abdicate from their oversight responsibilities, there may not be any other option.

  6. We’re witnessing the first American Indian women to the House, the first Muslim woman, the first openly gay governor. Just over 100 women in the U.S. House overall. The Southern Strategy continues to weaken, though it’s not quite dead. White Evangelical Hegemony continues its downward spiral with bigot Kim Davis, the defeated Kentucky Clerk, losing to her Democratic challenger as just one example. The MAGA bomber failed, and neither his pipe-bombs nor the bullying of White Nationalist Evangelicals will silence the multicultural demographic tsunami that is to come.

    1. No, this is just a way for you to try to deflect from the issues with ad hominem attacks. I’m sure that tactic works elsewhere, but not so much here.

      1. RickNowlinpa is one of several fraudulent Disqus accounts created for the sole purpose of cyberstalking and harassment. He’s so ashamed of his own record of ad hominem attacks, he keeps his fraudulent account private.

    2. Useful tools? Celebrating the victories of minorities who have been woefully under represented in government for, oh, the entire history of the United States? Why wouldn’t you want to celebrate such a thing?

      Don’t look now, but the only bigotry on display here is yours.

  7. I got to vote for a woman named “Letitia” for attorney general. She’s an African-American woman so Trump will underestimate the damage she can do to him. Excellent!

    1. I once voted for a man named “Swearingen” for state treasurer. After binge-watching “Deadwood” the pun was too good to pass up.

  8. Political Nihilism + Religious Nihilism = the hellscape we’re enduring. I’m slightly optimistic about the House being run by the Democrats however Lord Spanky Cheetolini’s 2020 campaign kicked off at midnight. It’s going to be very ugly.

  9. Although generally our congress is perceived as accomplishing little, in reality it has passed much legislation in the past two years, hopefully to benefit the citizens of this country.

    I would hope that our president now becomes more artful on the act of compromising, realizing that he must “work with” democratic legislators both in the house and the senate.

    I do hope the vitriol one both sides lessens, as in reality it doesn’t do either side any good but to show our baser qualities.

    1. “I do hope the vitriol one both sides lessens, as in reality it doesn’t do either side any good but to show our baser qualities.”

      I would hope so to, but I doubt it will happen. *IF* there had been the “blue wave” that put dems in control of both houses, then perhaps it might have. Not because I think the dems are any better behaved, but because it would have repudiated Trump’s tactics of using offensive, racist lies to get what he wants. And it has “done good”, it got many Trump supporters elected. So they will keep doing it.

      1. There was a “blue wave.” The Democrats’ victory in the House was larger than the “red waves” in 1994, 2010 and 2014 and the Democratic “wave” in 2006. If those elections were waves, then this one is, too, and that’s in the face of heavily gerrymandered districts in favor of the Republicans.

        1. While I agree that the House “wave” was significant, parts of your statement are incorrect. Republican gains in 1994 and 2010 were both larger than the Democrats’ gains in 2018. So maybe it could be called a wave, but not the tsunami some were hoping for.

          1. Well, Libertarians (Losertarians?) call any Libertarian being elected third assistant dogcatcher in Petticoat Junction outside Hooterville “The First Of The Great Libertarian Wave Sweeping the Country”…

        2. You seem to have missed the more significant part of what I said, which was basically that the dems needed to take control of both the house and the senate. That would have sent a strong message that Trump’s methods are NOT acceptable to the majority of the US population.

        3. 1994 and 2010 were both in excess of 60 seat swing. This was only 40. 2010 was only 13 seats; 2006 was 31. So this isn’t bigger than 1994 or 2010.

          Does it matter? Probably not.

  10. I expect more gridlock, except Trump may need to back down on some things. I’m not a progressive, and I’m not a MAGA either. I don’t believe in abortion or gay marriage, but I also can’t support white supremacy and locking mothers with their children at the border. I ended up voting a split ticket, and I keep most of my political opinions to myself.

    1. I’m not quite sure what you not believing in abortion or gay marriage has to do with anything. Nobody is suggesting that you do either one.

      1. Basically, anonymous is saying he/she is a conservative (and probably republican) who doesn’t like where Trump is leading the republican party.

        1. I got that as well, though I agree that the “believe in” over “agree with” is often wrongly used like that and does sound a bit strange. In this case, however, the point was elsewhere.

      2. They’re two of the Litmus Tests for being Born-Again. He has to virtue-signal his credentials or he’ll get turned into a pile of rocks by today’s “Trump is LORD!” crowd.

  11. I didn’t know that the GOP politicians were actually done giving yet another beating (the ten thousandth?) to the equine remains of Benghazi. I suppose everyone moves on – eventually. Even Republicans….

  12. I live in Florida, so I don’t think I need say much more about how our races went. One of the few positives was the passing of Amendment 4 which restores voting rights to felons who have served all the requirements of their sentencing. The process before was a shameful, arbitrary circus and wholly unAmerican.

    We now have the ability to provide constitutional checks to an executive with serious issues. Let’s hope it is exercised firmly but wisely. There is a lot of work to be done before 2020.

  13. I am hoping Democrats exercise some oversight, but unfortunately, I am not optimistic. That may stem from the fact that people in this country kept two indicted congressional representatives in office, and in Nevada, they elected a corpse, so my faith in humankind is a bit lower than usual.

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