Now that I’ve gotten my eeyore post out of the way, I am coming around to more positive thoughts on the election last night.
While it’s true that Republicans won’t make much good progress in the next two years and that is disappointing, it’s also true that last night could have been much worse. In fact it’s what the left was hoping for, as Geraldo Rivera points out:
Dems went for a knockout of @realDonaldTrump but his ferocious counter-attacks blunted their blows. By fighting back he minimized Dem gains to the House, even as he expanded his majority in the Senate. It's divided government now, but not one that can threaten to unrail @POTUS.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 7, 2018
True. They were hoping they’d win enough races to even impeach Trump. But instead all they won was the House and they didn’t win it by much.
Another good point was made by Ari Fleischer:
My observations:
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) November 7, 2018
1) GOP losses in the House are in line w the historical average. R gains in the Senate were unusual.
2) If Rs had held the House, the margin would have been so small, nothing of substance would have passed anyway. Senate continues to give R judges.
I think he’s right. It was difficult enough to get significant legislation passed in the House with the majority we had.
As Jon Gabriel points out…
The Democrats take the House, so we can watch Dems not advancing legislation instead of Republicans not advancing legislation.
— jon gabriel (@exjon) November 7, 2018
They did win power so they will bear this as a responsibility. But I also think many Democrats will give them a pass for the most part because…Trump.
So yeah, from a defensive standpoint I admit this was a big victory, as Geraldo pointed out. And perhaps I was a little too eeyore this morning.
Cup back to half full.