A Purple Puddle

The mid-term elections contained a few surprises, but were basically pro forma. Glen Reynolds describes the outcome nicely:

Well, it wasn’t the huge Blue Wave we were promised, a change in Congress on a par with the Tea Party’s “shellacking” of President Barack Obama in 2010, or President Bill Clinton’s big midterm losses in 1994. It looks more like a Blue Slosh. Or maybe a Purple Puddle. The Democrats regained some ground, but it wasn’t the overwhelming repudiation of President Donald Trump and the Republicans they were hoping for.

We'll now move into the gridlocked atmosphere that characterizes much of the preceding administration. Congress will get little done, but since the only thing a divided congress every does is grow the size and scope of the federal government, that's not an entirely bad outcome.

Sure, the Democrats in the House will insist on harassing Donald Trump and conducting meaningless investigations that will further divide the country. That will almost certainly lead to chaos in Washington as Democrat luminaries like Adam Schiff, Maxine Waters, and Gerald Nadler take over important committee leadership and work hard to ruin the final two years of Donald Trump‘s first term as president.

Exit polls indicate that Trump's combative style does not play well across the electorate, even though the same electorate think that many of his domestic and foreign policy accomplishments are pretty good.

Overall, I'd say the mid-terms were a win for the Dems who are now back in the game. But very few of us who differ with the Democrats on important policy issues will respond to their win by:

— Going into a deep depression,
— hyperventilating or screaming primally,
— threatening to leave the country,
— suggesting that the destruction of the nation is just around the corner,
— calling anyone a Nazi,
— joining any #Resistance,
— destroying property in faux protests,
— wearing costumes,
— indulging false claims of sexual harassment,
— blaming the Russians or the electoral college, or any other aspect of the voting system ...

or generally having a two year tantrum that might befit a 3-year old.

It's possible, I suppose, that Donald Trump will moderate his tone, but I don't count on it. It's also possible that the Democrats have learned a lesson from the Kavanaugh debacle and will moderate theirs, but I doubt that as well.

It’s almost as if both the Dems and Trump can’t help themselves. But maybe, some innate wisdom will prevail, and the Democratic Party will try to work with the GOP to actually accomplish things that benefit the people of the United States.

Nah ... that won’t happen either.