Although the so called “blue wave” was more of a ripple, Democrats nonetheless came home with total control over the House of Representatives. Democrats, especially in New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania and some Rust Belt states, made huge gains in the House and flipped more than half of them from Republican control.
Besides Republicans maintaining control in the Senate, Democrats now have a whole other chamber of power that could damper the GOP’s agenda as well as putting pressure on President Donald Trump, seeing as now he has a divided government to worry about.
What this means for Republicans and Trump are a number of things. Firstly, there’s now a check in Donald Trump’s escapade as president. Whatever Trump wants to put forth in his administration, still has to go through the House. Whether it be tax reform, infrastructure or immigration, Trump’s biggest hurdle in his political career could be handling Democrats, who seem to be critical of the president since day one of their campaigns.
With Democrats being so against the president on every topic, the possibility of investigating him is also a real prospect. From obtaining his tax returns to protecting Mueller’s investigation, Trump’s administration could be backed into a corner if any of these investigations become reality. However, impeachment is still far beyond the eyes of many Democrats as their main goal could just be impeding the president, rather than impeaching him.
Despite their gains in the House, however, Democrats still have to worry about the Republican majority in the Senate. Republicans flipped three senate seats in Florida, North Dakota and Missouri, and thoroughly maintained their control. With Republicans controlling the Senate until at least early 2021, the possibility of additional Supreme Court nominations for Trump has steadily increased.
With the oldest justices being two liberals, Ginsburg at 85 and Breyer at 80, Trump could easily nominate two more justices if one of them were to pass away or retire. Furthermore, even with control in the House, Democrats are still divided among progressives, moderates, age and experience. As of right now, Nancy Pelosi’s future in the House is yet to be determined, but she is more than likely to gain the Speakership since there is no one as influential to replace her.
Regardless of last night’s results, it seemed to be a victory on both sides of the aisle. Democrats were slow to pick up the House all evening and Republicans maintained the Senate, but were lucky enough not to defend more than 10 seats, unlike the Democrats.
Like or not, what this means as a whole is that we, as a nation, are expecting another Congress in gridlock for the next two years. So don’t expect any compromise until at least 2020.
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