Overall a good night - with dark shadows
Largely through the hard work of the Resistance the Republic lives to fight another day. With Democratic control of the House, Trumps crimes will not be swept under the rug. There will be no more tax givaways to the rich. Republican corruption will be probed. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Obamacare have protection in the House of Representatives, where Democrats now govern by a relatively comfortable margin. This is all HUGE. Had Democrats failed to take the House everything was at grave risk with a power hungry and emboldened Chief Executive reigning unchecked in the White House. This can't be overstated. Thus if for no other reason, it was a good night.
Americans now have voted, with significant majorities, against Trump in the popular vote in 2016, and now against Republicans in both the House and Senate if the cumulative votes for members of both bodies are tallied by party preference. That at the very least says something at least mildly reassuring about the American people, even though our political system is slanted toward rural America by granting every state two Senators regardless of its actual population. With the House systematic gerrymandering in favor of Republicans muted some of the Democratic surge but it could not stop it. And the machinery by which Republicans managed to install those gerrymandered districts has now shifted somewhat against them. With Democratic pick ups in important Governorships and with Democratic gains in State legislatures. much of that gerrymandering now can be reversed for subsequent elections.
Democrats elected new generations of leadership last night, something our Party desperately needed. Many dynamic younger candidates won seats in Congress, they represent a positive future for all of us. The same holds true for State and local contests where strong new candidates were recruited - and won.
It remains frightening however exactly how much racism remains active in America, and how many low information voters continue to fall in line behind a wannabe Strongman in Trump. This would terrify me if our resistance had not proved its mettle against him last night. We rounded a corner with Democratic non presidential year turn out finally starting to surge. The battle is now engaged. We have to build on these victories and not be discouraged by our losses. Remember, this was still "an off year election" and statistics about the economy favored the Republicans. The odds of an economic slow down before 2020 are relatively high. The potential for damning information about Republican rule emerging from Democratic oversight in the House are great. And then there is the work of Special Counsel Mueller yet to be fully revealed.
New leaders are emerging in our Party even if all of them could not yet break through last night. We must keep up the fight, we are actually (slowly) winning.
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