It's a stain on this nation's history that Trump was not repudiated more soundly and it will only get worse as Republican Senators peddle their out-dated, out-of-touch and vicious policies -- even when they are unconstitutional -- through the courts.
But even with shameful gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics at an all-time high during Republican tenure in power, the Democrats DID win the Midterms. There is a whole new, young, ardent, and smart group of congressmen and congresswomen who WILL do their constitutional duty. Their oversight may be enough to curb the rampant corruption of Trump & Company and to restore fundamental American values to policy making. These new congresswomen and congressmen have no intention of shirking their oversight responsibilities. Nor do they intend to waste a minute of their terms when real problems that effect real families require immediate attention. It may not be too late to save lives, the planet and American integrity. I'm betting on this freshman class of 2018.
3
While shopping I overheard a man that appears to be in his 60s ranting about the “Caravan.”
Later I was talking with a relative when he expressed worry about the “caravan “, this was after the election.these were both middle aged white men that appeared to be actually fearful and angry.
It was hard to believe that these Men would get so upset and focus on what Trump used to win the vote , but it happened. And Trump really does not care about these Men’s lives. ...so sad .
I never thought Politics could become so cruel.
1
This elections were a godsend to the American elite, because it kept the democracy illusion (alternation in power) alive in the people's minds. Wall Street has just shot up.
1
Trump is a 'champion' in the way professional wrestlers are 'champions' to their fans. Trump's huckster persona agrees with their world, a good-enough-to-get-by attitude that is as opportunist as it is faux-sincere. Where 'success' is defined as standing up to, and staring down, 'experts', who dare to defy the chosen narrative of their chosen hero. The hero scores no points for being accommodating. He is there for one thing only, to 'win', and preferably by body slam. And make the audience feel good and entertained about 'winning'. The hard work of governing in a democracy? He pays people for that. (The same people who couldn't save his four Atlantic City casinos from bankruptcy. Casinos. The closest thing we have to money growing on trees, and Donald Trump screwed even that up. But the audience doesn't care, it's thinking about how to navigate the evening traffic on the E275 out of Puntaloosa.
2
Trump: one of the greatest con men ever, right up there with Bernie Madoff. I continue to be amazed by the ignorance demonstrated by his base.
6
The author says Trump “is much loved as a champion of his voters”.
Much loved? Is it love one hears and sees at Trump rallies?
Nope, plain old rabble rousing: inciting violence, division, and the naked id.
7
Dems won MORE VOTES in both the House and the Senate.
HOUSE:
Dems ~48 million votes, 230 seats
Rs ~45M votes, 205 seats
Senate Vote Totals
Democratic Party: 44.9 million votes
Republican Party: 32.9 million votes
2
Trump's dangling of infrastructure bills, strengthening the ACA, lowering drug costs-- but ONLY if Dems drop all investigations into his corrupt dealings and conspiracy with Russia to steal the election-- is blatant extortion and abuse of power. Public corruption at its worst. We can wait 2 more years for a Democratic President and Congress to fix all this and more. Right now we have to stop this disgusting madman from single-handedly ruining this country.
3
To claim that Mr. Trump "is also much loved as a champion of his voters" is laughable.
He and his Republican cronies handed the 1% the biggest tax cut ever... Where did the benefits go?
4.3% of workers got a one time "bonus". 95.7% got zero, zip, nada.
soybeans rot in the fields (exports down 94%) due to the "easy to win" Trump trade war. (Tariffs are TAXES that the consumer ends up paying)
To help the farmers Mr. Trump has damaged the Feds will give them $12 billion in taxpayer money. t
433 out of 500 of the Fortune 500 have announced ZERO plans to share their Corporate Welfare with their workers.
Corporations have executed $4.8 billion PER DAY in stock buy backs since the tax cuts were enacted which has increased share prices benefiting the top 1% of the country.
The budget deficit has soared to $780 billion for this year alone. Projections are that the deficit will top $1 trillion per year by 2020.
And the Republican solution top the budget crisis they have created? Gut your Social Security and Medicare.
Yes, Trump supporters, they are coming for your Social Security and Medicare in order to pay for those immense sums given to their corporate and rich masters in the form of "welfare" for the rich while you go deeper in the hole.
That would not make him MY champion...
2
I know Daniel, just keep dismissing all those Democratic voters who outperform Republicans at the polls but get fewer seats. Do you somehow think that's what our founding fathers had in mind?
We're on to your game: voter purges, rigged machines that change Democratic votes to Republican votes (here's looking at you GA & TX), voter suppression, and gerrymandering. There's more of us and we're closing in.
OK. You've got Trump. So did half his administration until they didn't. Watch your back. He has his own agenda.
3
I suppose it's not surprising that a supporter of a party that believes in "alternative facts" would build a bewilderingly fact-free argument (at least, free of facts challenging the assertions). But I expected that a writer here would at least have read the paper he's writing for, and faced the facts laid bare there. If reading is too much work, he could at least have had a look at the graphical summary of what happened yesterday: "Sizing up the 2018 Blue Wave" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/07/us/politics/how-democrats-took-the-house.html.
Among the missed facts:
* The republicans lucked out with a perfect storm of pre-election events in their favor, badly timed for the democrats, e.g., the Kavanaugh hearings, and especially the refugee (not "migrant") caravan.
* The senate seats up for election comprised a subset that highly favored republicans. A number of them were won by razor-thin margins. In the case of Arizon, if it falls red, it will likely be due to early votes for a Green Party candidate who dropped out and endorsed the democrat.
* The popular vote margin McCarthy dismisses was historically large, larger than in 1994 & 2010.
* Nearly all of the districts where republicans won moved to the left vs. 2016, many of them substantially.
* Democrats had major victories among governor races, which bodes well for weakening the gerrymandering that contributes to outsized republican representation.
The trends do not bode well for republicans.
It's always hilarious to hear from so-called "conservatives" (they are actually anti-liberal extremists). When the Senate Majority Leader denied Obama a Supreme Court seat and dozens of seats on federal courts, that's not an accomplishment to fill those seats when Republicans control the White House and the Senate. It's stealing.
As for exploiting an opponent's weakness with well chosen insults, that's not a compliment. It's an indictment of Trump's character. Immature nine year-olds are also adept at this.
Finally, 20 million jobs have been created in the current labor market recovery, with only 4 million of them created under Trump. Think of Trump like a back-up quarterback who comes in the game in the 4th quarter when his team already has a huge lead. He can't claim all, or even most, of the credit for winning the game.
1
Being told to “go back where you came from” began under Reagan. It has increased twofold under Trump. As an American citizen, Mr. Trump is my President,even though he does not think so. He thinks he is president of his base. This Hispanic woman, whom Trump apparently thinks should not be able to live in this country, let alone be an American, is not going anywhere. I am proudly born on foreign soil (Germany) of American citizen parents; the daughter, wife, and mother of both retired career military and currently active duty personnel who have fought in American wars since WWII to the present; and a progressive Democrat who, sadly felt compelled, for the first time in 50 years, to not vote for a single Republican. My family members have put their lives on the line to protect those who kneel in peaceful protest as well as those who loudly proclaim that people who look like me are a menace to the power Mr. Trump misuses daily. I will continue to not stay overnight in “sundown towns” - there are many in Texas and brown and black persons know which they are - and look for exits and possible safe places when in public spaces. I do not enjoy that I must do this and more to protect myself from Mr. Trump’s supporters who think nothing of threatening me in front of all to see. I will not back down and I will fight to my dying breath for the ideals of America even when the minority in power ignore and trash those ideals. You will not win; and I am not going anywhere.
2
The author states about a Pennsylvania candidate who lost that “he had nothing of the president’s star power or talent for exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses through well-chosen insults...”. Such is the effect of trumpism: our politics are now to be devoid of civility and comity, a wasteland of Machiavellian back-stabbing where nothing is accomplished save by a diminishing, zero-sum process.
4
Trump was rewarded, *and* repudiated.
He was rewarded by the right - by his fans who see him as their poster child, cult leader, the guy who gives their bigotry cover, who delights them every tme he attacks those they despise, and the rest, who see him as the ticket to victory for their agends.
He *is* an aberation and a departure fro the norms of politics, an unpopular and polarizing figure, whose administration is ideologically extreme; to his supporters this is a feature, not a bug, or just the price they're willing to pay to remake America in their own image.
No one who has been paying attention during the past 2 years expected his supporters to repudiate him; the only question was how the rest of the electorate would react. And the majority repudiated him by turning the House back over to the Democrats.
Daniel McCarthy is right about one thing - the 2018 midterms were only a skirmish in the battle for the soul of America. But, in true Trumpian style, he attempts to perpetrate the fiction that Trump won it, when in fact, the opposition to Trump did.
As the events of today clearly demonstrated, the preliminaries are now over. The extreme right wing movement has coalesced behind Trump unleashed, and the opposition has risen to meet it.
Which side will prevail? Will Trump unhinged bring about the demise of the American experiment in democracy? Will liberalism be overrun? Will the rule of law and America's better angels survive?
It is far to early to tell.
Consider these three factual things:
(1) The GOP has waged a vicious assault on representative democracy for years.
Firstly via over-the-top prejudicial gerrymandering to leverage GOP power in legislatures. No Party should be able to weaponize redistricting like the GOP has; no true honest American Party should do it even if they legally can. Blatantly disgusting.
Beyond that GOP suppression of voting really rivals that of top-notch Banana Republics.
Procedurally they create barriers to voting that generally impact those more likely to vote against the GOP. Essentially disenfranchising citizens that have every right and reason to vote against them.
Psychologically they diminish the reasoned vote by breeding apathy, cynicism, fear mongering, and confusion. The GOP's wanton disregard for the truth of matters and rules of evidence/civility are encased in a well financed and orchestrated propaganda machine. Elegantly sinister.
The GOP needs this trickery to survive. Overall it makes them seem about 10% more representative of the USA than they should be. Important because they are a 42% Party really.
(2) The MAJORITY is grossly underrepresented. Even given above trickery the Ds garner more overall votes almost always - this election an example. Yet the GOP rules! Think about that - especially in context of below.
(3) The GOP - MINORITY PARTY - is about to tie-up this Country for DECADES with a regressive plutocratic favoring SCOTUS. That is NOT how it should be!
1
Well said and on point. Something I'd add to that is how the Anti-Trump news media tries very hard to make it all about DJT. It's not as much about his as it is the American people. Especially average, working class Americans. It is *they* that are making all this happen. Pres. Trump is an effect not a cause. And for those who ridicule and condemn those Americans with intolerance and hate, I say it is we who are the good and just America...not you.
1
"President Trump will be [...] an integral part of the Republican Party — its head as well as its right arm." One does not have to be Krugman to think that this is the most scary result of this election.
2
Sorry to have to repeat this but it is worth noting: the economy follows its own cycle...political cycles can on occasion influence it significantly but this current cycle shows that only absolute incompetence (like massive money printing or a sharp reduction in government outlays) will stop an improving economy from continuing to improve. Teaching civics about the relationship between the economy and the government would stop voters making this rookie error...
1
Had the Democratic performance included a larger House majority and capturing the Senate, I would be cautioning against overconfidence. These results, while providing a check on Trump are sobering for more than one reason. Primarily because Trump's entire agenda is to exploit for personal gain, the serious fractures in our Republic. It is evident that he has no moral center, and there is not one scintilla of evidence to suggest he has ever sought to serve anything but himself. Far worse is that a huge part of the country either agrees with his perspective or opts to overlook it. Trump reflects a huge part of America that has no moral center, an America which sheds tears for its wounded veterans, yet never questions the purpose and morality of our wars, an America which touts family, but looks the other way when families are separated at the border, an America that accepts blatant financial excess and corruption by public officials, an America that is so overcome by fear it arms itself to the teeth and does nothing in the face of the gun violence that occurs in schools, at concerts, and in places of worship, an America that despite the emerging evidence will opt to dampen an investigation by law enforcement into the facts surrounding foreign meddling and possible collusion and conspiracy by the president's campaign, an America that is so isolated and turned in on itself that it will coddle dictators and overlook massive violence done on others not to mention the planet.
8
Hearing about gerrymandering and voter suppression and seeing extremely long queues for voting I wonder if this was really an election in a mature democratic country. That aside it is disheartening to see a substantial portion of the population did not have a wider and longer perspective.
1
It is truly stunning how many conservatives are trying to paint this election where:
The Democrats took control of the House
Returned to their same Senate numbers as the last 2 years of Obama's presidency
Control a majority of state attorney general offices
Flipped SEVEN governor races (compared to zero for the GOP)
Took Ted Cruz's 16 point margin of victory 6 years ago down to one point yesterday.
Flipped control of a dozen legislative chambers.
As a defeat for Democrats.
If the economy is so good, then why didn't Trump run on it?
BTW, is it true the caravan has disbanded and its participants have returned to Honduras?
3
Mr. McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Quarterly. So I looked at his "conservative" quarterly. The lead article is one effusively praising Victor Orban for his valiant leadership of Hungary, against the vile forces of liberal democracy, which is what we understand as democracy.
15
The Guardian newspaper if full of anti-Trump diatribe. One opinion piece offered a scathing verdict of failure on the part of the Republicans based on the fact that they lost the House, no mention was made that it is the norm for the sitting president to lose full control of House and Senate during the Midterms. I see this author has acknowledged that Bill Clinton and Obama lost the House and some Senate seats during 1994 and 2010 and went on to be re-elected. In defense of Trump (and no I am not a US citizen), I will say his supporters see him as a man of action. "No kicking the can down the hall" like Obama or "kerfuffleing" like some other presidents over issues. He was commenting over the deployment of Troops to the US/Mexican border. Trump strives to keep his election promises, which so many elected officials never do. After reading just a few of the comments here, I think you all really deserved to have had Hillary as your president. How unfortunate that you did not get what you deserved.
19
@S Sm I totally agree woith you that we did deserve to have Hillary as president. Trump is not Clinton, and certainly no Obama.
2
@S Sm
Except for the fact that those 'promises' are either promise we can't keep, or promises we shouldn't keep.
His supporters may be attracted to the action of this president, but it presumes the 'action' is more than that of a moth to a bright light, doomed in it's attraction to that which will end its existence. You (and Trump) fail to recognize 'discretion as the better part of valor'. Trump cannot grow his constituency beyond those who act on an urge more readily than they think about the consequences of the act. Imagine Trump during the Cuban missile crisis. The human species would likely be decades extinct at this point, because Trump would've acted decisively, whereas Kennedy practiced restraint and discretion, and won the peace of half a century (of American hegemony that Trump is busy convincing his supporters is "America getting ripped off!") That kind of behavior is unthinkable under Trump. And that makes him dangerous.
2
@S Sm I agree with the last thing that it is really unfortunate that we didn't get Hilary. How unfortunate will only lern when this President is done with ruining the country and the world.
3
You failed to mention that the senate roadmap highly favored the republicans this year which is why they gained seats. In an era where truth is no longer relevant, thanks to the lying of the president, turning the house was a huge achievement. When 67% of Floridians say climate change is a serious problem and elect 2 climate change deniers to the top 2 offices, something is seriously wrong.
When people no longer no what is true, thanks to the constant lying of the republicans led by the president, something is seriously wrong with the country.
26
@Bill
Florida is a the new Kansas: a decimated tourist industry, and years of Republican malfeasance...and STILL, they're not done feeding at the trough of Republican rot. What good have they done the state, except to have it be the shameful partner in a campaign of science denial and governing malpractice.
2
@Bill
Lying by this president and the republicans? How about lying by the democrats? Or are democrats always truthful and pure? Both sides are guilty.
And the media sides with the democrats. The press will spin the news to put democrats in the most favorable light possible, while conservatives are demonized.
I'm sorry, but the reason we no longer know what is true is because we don't who to trust anymore.
1
You failed to include how Trump campaigned the past couple of weeks. Lies and racism! Apparently that motivates his supporters. Very impressive if you are a liar and racist, just like your supporters.
26
There is nothing so good as being led by a President who thinks a mafia boss is the height of aspiration. Who thinks there are very good people among white supremacists, who loves authoritarian leaders, who hates Muslims, Mexicans, and maybe Jews. Who is willing to lock children up in cages, forget who their parents are and have no plan to get them out of this dead end situation. Who brags about assaulting women, Who hates democratic institutions and the press. Who lies 30? times a day. Who is systematically undermining democratic institutions. And so on.
Who could possibly be better?
20
@joyce. He has also shown us that a significant minority of our fellow Americans are indeed deplorable people who are willfully ignorant and choose to believe his lies and exaggerated claims of things that will never happen.
1
There was a 10% swing against the Republicans in both the House and the Senate. That is the true effect of Trump. He was just lucky that the Senate races did not include more marginal red seats. The House reflects the national vote better. As the economy cools, Trump's incitement and lies will lose their remaining effect. So if things remain the same, Republicans will lose the Presidency in 2020 and the Senate in 2022.
10
I keep wondering why the rest of America doesn't follow the lead of New York, Trump's home state and in particular, Trump's home town New York City? Trump couldn't even take Queens in 2016, the borough he grew up in. Why? We know too well what an awful human being Trump is. Since 1974, the first time Trump was dragged into court for racial profiling his equally repulsive father's rental properties, New Yorkers have overwhelmingly refused to vote for this popinjay monster and his vile agenda.
Why can't the rest of America understand we know whereof we vote? I doubt seriously Trump could win an election for dog catcher in New York City. Although a part of me would be delighted to see him following dogs to scoop up their droppings. It's what he deserves, with what he shovels.
32
@ClayB
It's hard to take New York voters seriously when you elect a lightweight like de Balsio.
13
Because we as a nation are so divided that much of the country outside the “blue” spots and strips on the election map have decided that if a majority of New Yorkers and Californians are against someone or something, then he, she or it must be good, and if New Yorkers and Californians are in favor of someone or something he, she or it must surely be bad. Rather like the picante sauce TV commercial of a few years ago where the cowhands on the cattle drive rebel when they see that the picante sauce they are being served on the trail was made in New York City, whereas the advertised brand being pushed in the commercial ad authentic is made in San Antonio, Texas. The message of the commercial was less about the alleged inferiority of the sauce made in New York than the fact it was made in New York City and thus must be inferior to that which is made in Texas.
Honestly, had Bill and HRC moved to Illinois after he retired from the presidency and HRC had become a Senator or Representative from Illinois (or Ohio or Pennsylvania), rather than New York, I believe she probably would have won her presidential bid.
Would New Yorkers or Californians vote for a presidential candidate from Oklahoma or Texas or Utah or Louisiana? No. The same phenomenon or syndrome works in reverse.
2
@AZPurdue
You mean DeBlasio?
1
Not much to say here. The writer says that Donald Trump is not to be considered an "aberration" or even a "departure from the norms of politics," but, as is implied, a standard-bearer, a perfect fit to lead the Republican Party going forward.
What planet is this? Was I kidnapped by aliens? Am I Rip Van Winkle 2.0? Even his staunch supporters admit he is crude and abrasive.
"Integral part of the Republican Party." Not much to say here.
32
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact NPVIC if adopted by enough states with electoral votes equal to 270, would ensure that the president would represent the majority of Americans. The compact simply says that the electors of the state will vote for the presidential candidate who win the popular vote. The compact currently has 10 states representing 172 electoral votes signed on(mostly blue). See Wikipedia for a map. If Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania (all magenta states) signed on that would be 249, If Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota (purple) signed on, the compact would be effective. This would end the "tyranny" of the electoral college
7
@arturo60 Republicans fiercely oppose the NPV initiative. It would be democratic
"Mr. Barletta ran what was almost universally deemed a poor campaign, and he had nothing of the president’s ... talent for exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses through well-chosen insults."
Wow. Is that really the standard by which we are judging would-be public servants? As a certain person would say: SAD.
26
My analysis: Together, a strengthened Senate, the Supreme Court, and the executive branch will (pardon the pun) trump an ever-mutating Democratically controlled Congress (after all, there are "Democrats" who are Trump supporters!)
We are in a Cold Civil War and are just too stupid, romantic, and cowardly to realize it.
6
Trump's "talent for exploiting an opponent's weaknesses through well-chosen insults". And that's why you support and admire the guy? It just sounds like the description of a bully, not a leader. Attacking someone is not a defense, it is an offense, and very destructive as well. Have you no shame?
32
I’ve echoed this sentiment many, many times. As a man, if a friend of mine were as abrasive as trump, he wouldn’t be a friend for long.
If one of my children were to select a spouse with trump’s disposition, said in-law would immediately be persona non-grata.
Would any of us accept his coarse behavior, over the top lies & putrid history from even the closest of family? A Co-worker? Your neighbor?
Absolutely not. But it’s ok for the WH?
trump is so unhinged 2 years in, the media finally gave up on the “He starting to sound presidential” attempts at accolades.
Yet we still get various forms of media consistently telling us trump’s indefatigably abusive, dismissive and crass conduct is effective and/or a facade for a clever intellect.
It is not.
It’s a disgrace and a stain on the dignity of the WH, our nation and our collective integrity.
We may not be able to totally remove ourselves from that friend, family member, coworker or neighbor.
But we will vote trump out.
"Conservatives" now celebrate being led by a supremely dishonest, disloyal, amoral thug. They exult in supporting a xenophobic bigot who trafficked in racist conspiracy theories and colluded with a hostile foreign power to get elected. They worship a person who lies about literally everything, and who continually attempts to undermine the rule of law to cover up his own crimes.
Glad you're putting this all on record.
31
@Barbara I guess we should all give thanks to Don The Con for unmasking conservatives as morally and ethically bankrupt. There is no sound basis for their twisted belief systems. It’s just hatred, racism and irrational fear.
17
Without the Dems' help, Trump might not be that successful. Kavanaugh was a distraction. And Warren's talk about her possible 2020 run as well as that DNA stunt. All self-inflicted
8
"It (the party in power) has to defend the real record of a real leader..." Too bad trump is not a leader in any sense of the word.
4
@Bailey
And of course Fox News and the GOP's 24/7 fake news cycle made sure that no conservative in this country was aware of their record in the first place.
The party in power only has to defend a real record IF they have the guts to openly admit that record.
The GOP precisely created its fake news Fox News propaganda machine in order to never ever have to publicly admit to their base what they're actually doing in DC again.
16
@Ana Luisa
Well said.
2
Lets not forget that Democrats had to outspend Republican by over 2 to 1 to achieve even their modest House pickup, while Trump helped the GOP gain in the Senate without the massive outside money spent by Democrats.
The Trump brand won last night.
And on top of that, Trump no longer has to content with the likes of McCain and Flake in the Senate. He can appoint anyone he wants without even bothering about Democrats or RINOs like Collins.
12
@Baron95
So the GOP not only lost seats in the House but even also control of the House, and it lost the Governor's races, but it got to keep the few red state seats in the Senate that were up for grabs ... all while having even LESS votes than in 2016, when they already lost the popular votes by millions ... and THAT is how you guys prefer to define "victory"?
I hope you'll be a bit more demanding/realistic when it comes to dealing with our foreign enemies ... ?
And why such a low bar to start with, by the way? Didn't Trump claim that all those who disagree with him are the enemy of the people and merely fake news ... ?
7
@Baron95
The reason that Trump didn't spend outside money is because he was using tax-payer dollars for his vicious, divisive and ultimately evil stumping. Trump is in effect stealing more from America than he already has.
15
The Republican Party and 45 have now conclusively, positively absolutely, irrefutably, and incontrovertibly proved the basis of their electoral success on 6 November 2018: racial demagoguery, xenophobia, and anti immigrant intensity, playing the race/anti immigrant card, and persistently informing their now diminishing base that ‘they’ are better than ‘them’ due solely to their pale racial complexion. The noxiously but dangerously repetitive rancourous tirade that Caucasian male privilege and Caucasian women were threatened if they didn’t flood to the polls is classic 1968 Southern Strategy. 45's grandiose, pathetically nuanced self serving press conference this morning only further substantiated this official position, coupled with the viciously incessant assault upon the media and the press, especially personally attacking CNN’s excellent reporter Jim Acosta simply because he pressed questions on the Mueller probe and potential federal indictments. Denigrating and maligning the two Black American female reporters serves as another example of reinforced belief that racial mongering is beneficial and works so well. The racism spewing from the faucet of the short handed chief executive is on full display for both America and the world to witness. Unashamedly, the Republican Party and its dwarf commander are now tripling down on racial invective, inciting, engendering, fomenting, and encouraging racial internecine, anti immigrant attacks, and extreme xenophobia. Race matters.
36
"Republicans lost fewer seats in the House of Representatives than Democrats lost in 1994 or 2010, when Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were in their first terms as president."
It's no secret why this happened: gerrymandering. In yesterday's election, the Democrats had 7.0% more of the aggregate popular vote than Republicans across all congressional races. Compare with the 2010 midterm wave: with a smaller 6.3% differential,, Republicans voted in more than twice as many as the Dems did. Last night, the mainstream media was already projecting that the Dems would have had to poll 12% higher than Republicans in order to achieve a similar change in membership to 2010.
But Republicans can credit themselves with one thing: they had a long-term electoral program in reserve, one built on the naked will to power and a blatant disregard of democratic norms. Gerrymandering is, of course, only a part of the underhanded tactics employed by the minority party.
But keep in mind that Democrats have their own secret weapon: a desire to actually serve the vast majority of our citizens. Most voters were onto that yesterday and if the Democrats can maintain their enthusiasm, there will be a reckoning for the cynical Republican apparatchiks in 2020.
23
Run the numbers all you want Mr. McCarthy, I still cling to the old fashion notion that principles count.
If you and your brethren and Trump's voters are content with an unprincipled, misogynist, raciest you are welcome to him.
Finally, Trump as the "head" of the Republican Party?
Surely that's a sly joke.
22
So long as Trump and the GOP continue to successfully gaslight working people with the trickle-down supply side con that enriches the already wealthy (especially those who inherited it), sapping the wages & earned benefits of working folks while blaming the stagnant wage growth on immigrants, they will continue to win, especially in rural red states. You've got to wonder though, what would happen if all those folks that have empowered this coalition of grifters woke up and decided they've had enough.
8
Basically, what it proves, is that the average American is probably not qualified to vote for what would be considered good government. Go back to George W. Bush, and the Middle East catastrophe, with millions dead, millions of refugees, and trillions of dollars wasted, one third of it borrowed. Then, moving on to the disaster of not leaving troops in Iraq, while giving the country billions each year, ISIS moved back in, Gaddafi of Libya was killed, all while Barack Obama was in office, and two years ago, DT was voted in. I mean, something is wrong with the reasoning ability of the average American, and we are getting the government we deserve, if we elect mediocre people to office. Also, decent people would self term limit themselves after 12 years, and that isn't happening as they serve themselves. How is all of that working out for the country? I would say, not well, not well at all!
10
An integral part of the Republican party?
God help them.
Your points are well taken, Mr. McCarthy. One does indeed wish, the Democratic victories had been more sweeping. The Senate--and not just the House--would have been nice. And yes--the Democrats sustained massive losses in 2010. As opposed to the GOP which ADDED to their precious tally of senatorial seats.
Mr. Trump continues to be a disaster.
Has he delivered on some campaign promises? Oh yes. Especially judicial appointments--and I know evangelical Christians around the land were pining for THESE. Now they got 'em. Congratulations, guys.
Where was I? Oh yes.
Mr. Trump continues to be a disaster.
As a human being, Mr. McCarthy--what good is there to say about Mr. Donald J. Trump? Consider, sir--we elect a HUMAN BEING to be our President. Not a string of judicial appointments. Not some super-duper conservative program.
We elect a man--and we came pretty darn close, two years ago, to electing a woman. Would to God we had!
'Cause the man (for the third time) is a disaster. Impulsive. Self-centered to a T. Has no real program--no real principles--stands (really) for nothing but himself.
Childish--my stars! Mr. McCarthy. The taunting nicknames--the endless focusing upon people's alleged IQ.
Coupled with those nonstop Hallelujah choruses in praise of his own "genius.". A "stable genius." Remember?
For the fourth (and last) time.
The man is a disaster.
Admit it.
18
" that on several key issues — perhaps most important, judicial appointments — the president had delivered"
most important? what else has he delivered on?
mitch mc connell delivered the judges, not trump
6
The problem with Trump isn't that he doesn't win--that he has won is a fact. This whole piece asks whether Trumpism can win, not, "at what cost and do we want it to win?" And this quote needs to be put in a blockchain and kept accessible and immutable until the next bout of conservative moralizing: Trump's "talent for exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses through well-chosen insults." I can't belief I miss the smugness of the moral majority.
4
A little hard for me to understand the writer, Daniel McCarthy's perspective here. Trump may have done better than expected for a president in the mid-terms, but what was the ultimate cost of this "sort-of" victory? Making racism more obvious again? Poisoning the atmosphere with vicious lies, ratcheting up the white's fear of black and brown people? Trump has "won" at the cost of permanently destroying civility.
15
Face it, America, we are on our way down. The fact that Republicans did so because of Trump shows that ethics, truth, and compassion are out and greed, racism, and lying is in. It will take years, but America is going the way of the British and Roman empires. Impressive at their heights, but brought down by evil leaders and evil objectives.
12
@felixmk
Unfortunately, I agree with you.
But fortunately, I live in far upstate NY, just 15' south of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and just 90' away from your wonderful city. I plan to spend as much time (and as much of my American money) there as I can, unless the rest of America gets it act together.
7
You left out gerrymandering of congressional districts which held down the blue wave's impact, and saved many a GOPer in swing districts. Yet in the Senate you do have reason to crow, I'll ruefully admit. There is no gerrymandering there. The frightening thing for Dems is, whether they ran a moderate (Tenn. and Indiana) or a counter-intuitive choice as in Texas, all lost.
In other places they nominated candidates at the head of the ticket who may have pulled down their Senator to re-election disaster. In Fla., gubernatorial hope Mayor Gillum thrilled African-Americans and rightly so. He ran as an unapologetic black man unmediated by any campaign makeover into an Obama or a Colin Powell. That had its pluses but only a willfully blind person would deny it also had minuses.
You also left out the ballot measures outlawing or restricting gerrymandering in 3 or 4 states, the restoration of felon voting rights in Florida plus the fact that Wisconsin and Michigan state Republicans can't gerrymander with Dem governors. The process is slow but that grinding wheel is working against GOP hegemony.
9
You conveniently omitted the extreme GOP gerrymandering and voter suppression in your essay. As we saw in Pennsylvania, when voting districts are impartial to either side, the TRUE outcome for a district reflects the desires of its residents who vote. I’m not holding my breath waiting to hear Republican voters like yourself voice outrage let alone criticism of gerrymandering and voter suppression. It is your and your fellow Republican voters’ moral compass that is in question. Oh, I forgot! Republicans don’t have a moral compass.
7
We've been subject to hearing interviews with Trump voters for two years. One this week in TX was saying the endtimes would arrive if Dems won. She talked about God, of course, and said she was fearful her children wouldn't be able to do what they want to do with Dems in power. Then she went on to say gays shouldn't her able to marry and women shouldn't have reproductive rights. She thinks it is her right to intrude on other's intimate decisions but others have no right to talk about restricting guns. The Trump voters who love him are a strange breed, not well-acquainted with facts or how government works. They exude god-fearing cruelty.
9
"Champion of his voters"? The ones he lies to nonstop? The ones whose own economic interests are damaged by Trump irrational actions? Trump neither won nor lost. The American people continue to lose big, however.
10
"Conservatives" should really stop calling themselves that. The fate of the planet is in the balance and this guy calling himself a conservative is treating it like a sporting event.
8
Winning Senate seats is where the real power lies. POTUS knows this and so do the Democrats. POTUS and GOP will keep appointing judges and justices and these are lifelong appointments unlike the house which in 2 years may go back to the GOP.
Trump and the GOP will appoint hundreds of Judges and if Trump wins in 2020 possible two more Justices. Amy Barrett may well be one of them which will send the Democrats into a death spiral. What will they try to do to her? The Kavanaugh debacle was a disgrace for the Democrats who tried to use smears to taint and Judge they knew was clean as a whistle.
4
@Mr Chang Shih An
Whether Mr. Kavanaugh committed sexual assault or not would be difficult to prove at this time. Sexual assault by its nature is difficult to prove.
However, Mr. Kavanaugh had multiple roommates, classmates, and friends who came forward and stated that he frequently drank to excess and lied when he said - under oath to the US Congress - that he did not drink to excess. That is a federal crime. He should have been denied a seat on the bench for that alone.
He arrogance and condescending attitude toward the Senators questioning him - at least toward the Democrats- showed an entitled attitude that clearly makes him unfit as a judge in any court.
6
What Dems do over the next 18 months with the limited power of the House will determine their fate in 2020. For the last two years, the Dems have largely been relying on the never-Trump movement to get out the vote. This election showed the limitations of that strategy. You can’t just be against, you have to be for something. Trump represents security, America first and more jobs among other things to his supporters. And that was why they turned out for him. You can disagree with the message and most people can’t stand the messenger but he has a message and it resonates and motivates people to vote. Can the Dems day the same? As a Dem, I’m tired of voting against. Please, House Dems, give me something to vote FOR in 2020.
5
The dramatic (and eleven unresolved) key races this midterm are absolutely a repudiation of Trump and the Republican Party. Barely 1point separates winner from loser in each key race in my state (FL) and this is a heavily gerrymandered state. Trump is in trouble. The pendulum is finally swinging back toward the informed, progressive center and nothing short of policy reversals on healthcare, immigration, and environmental policies will slow the coming change.
A generation of voters has been actuated and it’ll only get worse for conservatives unwilling to recognize the effects of income inequality on the electorate’s future. So much can be accomplished to improve average Americans’ lives with just a little re-prioritization it’s now time to educate the uneducated, reverse gerrymandered districting and show people how easy it’d be to improve standards of living nationwide.
Trump and his compatriots are callous and venal. Change is coming. 2020 will seal the deal. Here’s to a kinder gentler more inclusive America. Send Trump back to NY...or jail.
6
Things will change Mr. McCarthy. Trump will no longer be protected by enablers in both the Senate and the House. I can't wait to see his tax returns. We will see how well he rules from a jail cell.
4
@Steve
I hope Mr. Trump serves two terms: one in Federal prison and one in a State prison.
3
This was a referendum on democrats; and they didn’t do very well.
Their future is grim; as they now must defy Mr. Trump completely or deal with him and deliver, albeit at the risk of turning Mr Trump even more popular.
The Big Blue Splash
4
I wanted every single Trump enabling politician to lose badly last night. But lets face it, that was never going to happen. Trump's base was revved up by his uncanny knack for spreading fear and hatred. They were encouraged by a good economy, riding on the coattails of Obama's economy and turbo powered by Trump's willingness to deregulate absolutely everything- a strategy that is unsustainable and reckless beyond belief. And finally, his people were aided and abetted by gerrymandered districts. This is no credible victory for Trump, and if the Democrats can somehow find a message: that healthcare matters, that the environment and education are severely being eroded by this administration and that McConnell and company are coming for our Social Security, we are assured of victory in 2020.
6
This great economy that Republicans keep touting is just a continuation of the economic recovery sparked by Obama’s policies. True, it has currently been put in overdrive by huge, irresponsible tax cuts handed out to wealthy individuals and enormous corporations. These deficits and the tax cuts that fuel them, rather than being helpful, actually put our economy into more danger - previous federal tax cuts led to bubbles fueled by money of the wealthy sloshing around looking for profitable investments which, when they burst, led to devastating consequences for poor and middle class citizens who were effected by first the Savings and Loan crises and later the bursting of the housing bubble. Now Republicans are trying, once again to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, using the Deficit as their excuse. So enjoy the brief swell of the current bubble in financial institutions, the inevitable collapse will be a rough go. I just hope the voters are smart enough to blame Republicans for their destructive policies.
4
The good news is that the Dems did flip the House . What they do having had this victory will determine what happens in 2020. Stabilizing medical care costs has appeal. Getting rid of ICE is a terrible idea, but dealing with immigration in different ways -- why does everyone seem to want to go to a major coast megapolis (including Amazon)? Making sure the actual reporting on employment is correct would be helpful!!! Starting a national online university IMO would be worth the effort. Meantime, Coursera, EdX, and Udacity need to be publicized. Climate change should be pushed as an issue... and rebuilding with federal insurance in locations which have been devastated more than one needs to be stopped. I think it's time to stop arming the world -- and being its policeman.
1
"If Mr. Trump were the abject failure that Democrats and some embittered former Republicans would like to believe, the Republicans should in fact have performed much worse on Tuesday, even with such a favorable economy."
I was long an Americanophile and I don't mean to be rude, but that would be discounting the twitter-fueled mental divide, world-awareness and Facebook 101 level of political education of many American voters. They, after all, are still the ones who decide.
3
So enlightening to know that conventional Republicans want lower taxes, fewer regulations and more conservative judges. Apparently they don't mind higher deficits, nor the complete absence of intelligent discourse to solve problems, because candidates who exploit an opponent's vulnerabilities with well-chosen insults are now the ones who run "good" campaigns.
We haven't yet gotten to lies (more than 5000 in less than 2 years), racism, xenophobia, or intolerance to anyone who isn't straight, white or male. Not mere misogyny but acceptance of sexual assault against women. Incessant attacks on the institutions of democracy, including a free press. A complete abdication of America's role in the world as a counterbalance to the forces of authoritarianism.
Thank you, Mr. McCarthy. I now understand what "conventional" Republicans want. I have one thing to ask: WWRD (What would Reagan do)?
8
Of course the economy didn’t tank he inherited a market in total upswing and unemployment in total downswing... thank you Obama, he just said lower taxes and less regulation... the real work was done.
3
Daniel,
You're whistling past the graveyard. Given the structural advantages they had, if the Republicans couldn't add a couple of seats in the Senate, to quote Mitch McConnell on another topic "we should go into another line of work." As far as the two states you cite; winning Ohio (BTW Sherrod Brown won) was more a factor of the popularity of John Kasich than anything else. And Florida is a southern state, so why should we be surprised it votes Republican? Outside of the southeast part of the state it's rural and Southern, it's also filled with old people. It's voted Republican for years.
And I'm sure the Senate loss in Pennsylvania, is only because of the poor candidate, also the Wisconsin governor's race. Probably Kansas, too.
As far as the House results, once they got past 219, the Democrats won the night. Flipping seats in Texas, Staten Island (amazing) and OKLAHOMA! was only gravy.
I agree the lines of conflict are firm, time will tell which way they move.
One last thing, your Twitter handle is cute, but no intellectually honest Tory would call himself an anarchist, nor vice versa.
5
Mr. McCarthy ignores the social significance of living under what is in effect minority rule. He is technically correct in saying that when it comes to House and Presidential elections, a nationwide majority is not relevant. (A statement that clearly indicates he puts party above country.) However, a nationwide majority is highly relevant to the public's confidence and faith in the US Government. If the slow drip of conservative imposed rule by a clear minority continues, the majority will begin to protest, and in some cases that protest will cause social unrest and violence. If a conservative minority tries to impose political apartheid on the centrist and liberal majority, they are sowing the seeds of an epic national conflict.
13
....and there's the problem. His. Voters.
But he is not a champion of the United States, the Constitution, the People, the middle class, justice, freedom, education, international cooperation, global peace, the young people who will inherit what we leave them if we leave something, the environment or even just polar bears.
He is not a champion of much of anything that matters--just of himself self self--and even that, he does not do much to recommend.
13
The unfortunate reality is that so long as the electoral college is in place - for national elections the entire US is essentially gerrymandered. It's elimination is critical and Democrats should be introducing legislation continually to eliminate it.
The Democrats must focus on expanding voting/voters - particularly in battleground states. It will be very interesting to see how Florida's enabling referendum to allow 1.5 million newly eligible voters will impact these history of razor thin wins the state has provided Republicans.
7
Rewarded by having his party lose the popular vote by even wider margins than in 2016? You want us to believe that having less Americans vote for you is a something to celebrate? You don’t like Americans or just democracy?
22
Betting any presidency on the strength of the economy is a fool's gamble. Voters may give credit to the party in power, but it can turn ugly quickly. Economists don't expect the sugar rush created by the 2017 tax cut to last. Interest rates are rising. And the trade war is starting to take its toll. Trump inherited an economy with 7 years of momentum behind it. It's not likely he'll sustain that through 2020.
15
No surprise here.. Trump beat Hillary on economic policy, and Democrats still haven't offered an alternative.
Of course even the fact that Trump voters very motivated by economic issues (rather than being a 'basket of deplorables) was never acknowledged by Democrats. But it's becoming a moot point -- if Democrats come up with a better way to help the middle class (better than Trump's immigration crackdown and trade wars, which have little effect), it's because they would finally recognize the core issue -- which is the relentless rise of income inequality since 1970s.
12
@Yuri
The GOP cannot and will not link healthcare to "economic issues". That IS a big deal to the middle class. No republican voted for healthcare.
3
@Yuri
Just LOOK at those economy graphs: there is NO Trump or GOP dent AT ALL. Nothing.
And you know why?
The GOP didn't pass a single economical bill either.
Everybody who pays attention to the economy knows that this is still the Obama economy. And GOP voters should have rewarded Democrats for it, rather than voting for a party that has proven to only know how to destroy economic growth, increase deficits, and increase income inequality.
And here's just one way the Democrats continue to help the middle class: a whopping THREE red states just voted to force their state Congress and Governor to adopt Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.
Now can you please explain how the only bill that the GOP passed under Trump, the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that double the deficit will somehow reduce income inequality ... ?
No you can't, because it does the exact opposite. Which you would have known, IF you would have really been interested in economics rather than "alternative facts" tweets ...
4
@Yuri Trump's "economic policy" is an oxymoron, like "military music" or "voting equality."
2
I read this editorial closely. Mr. McCarthy is right about this election. But at least there are a few months to breath normally before the bunkum takes over again.
4
While I celebrate that the Dems won the House, I was troubled by the the enormous turnout of Trump supporters who flooded the polls in their own red wave to hold their positions and they frankly did well. Seeing so many pickups in the Senate cannot be ignored. Democrats came out in droves because they needed to. Republicans came out to fend them off. I don’t want it to be true but Trump fared better yesterday than i could have imagined otherwise every race wouldn’t have been so tight! Democrats do need to get over the hysteria of trying to prove Trump is bad and get on to presenting clear plans, great ideas and their own pipeline of fresh and energizing candidates. Trump supporters consistently say they are willing to give him a pass on his lies and immorality because they feel he is “doing things”. Dems need to do things, too. Not just whine. This is far from over and I think this column is pretty fair. Winning the House should not be considered victory for the blue. It’s a start but we are far from secure.
99
@Bernice
It's absurd to still believe that we're in the 20th century and GOP voters are fired up by what the GOP does in DC and stands for.
Two decades of Fox News have shown time and again that they actually don't have any idea about what Republicans are doing in DC, and blindly believe the "alternative facts" that FN and the GOP leadership tell them instead 24/7.
The voters of three red states just forced their state government to adopt Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.
For the first time in decades, polls show that a majority of Republicans actually agrees with the Democratic campaign platform and policies. The reason why they ignore this and will never ever even think of trying to find out or voting for a Democrat, is because of the fake narrative that FN has made them make their own.
That means that fighting back needs to happen along a new strategy too.
First of all, we should NEVER give up the truth ourselves too and start suggesting that Trump is NOT bad. According to any objective standard, he is. Whereas his own voters want more and better healthcare coverage, for instance, he supports Ryancare, which does the exact opposite, and he already destroyed the healthcare of 13 million Americans with his tax cuts for the wealthy.
Soon Obamacare will be a decade old and have saved an additional half a million American lives (many of them conservatives). They are the ONLY party truly doing something and having ideas. And GOP voters will never find that out.
22
@Ana Luisa
No one makes them watch Fox News and that have plenty of alternatives. Why? What has “mainstream” ( meaning Manhattan and D.C.) news media done to turn them off and cause them to tune out. Could it be that they see those media sources and the Democratic Party elites as waging a sustained war on their values?
7
@KBronson
Time passes, things change. That’s what FOXfolk bitterly resent. They resent and reject liberal education, science, and secularism. They resent change, and blame “elitist” others for making it happen. They want to turn the clock back to some idyllic imaginary time, which is what FOX encourages them to want. They’re regressives in a rage against progressivism, moaning about their anti-modern values being looked down on, and blindly complaining they’ve been left behind.
1
Number one reason more seats didn't go blue - GERRYMANDERING!!! Republicans have been distorting true public opinion for years by rigging the maps in their favor! Despicable!
139
@Lisa M
The flipside to that argument is the impressive degree of democratic gerrymandering, which essentially won Pennsylvania. The next democratic wave of newly minted voters with a felony record in Florida is also an impressive example of voting manipulation out in broad daylight.
Or the NAACP winning a lawsuit to allow polls in predominantly African-American areas to stay open hours later than anyone else- another impressive example of democrats putting their thumbs on the scales.
5
The Republican Party is not in charge of drawing congressional district maps. State legislatures are. Whichever party wins the elections in their state draws the district to favor their side. Democrats do it as aggressively as Republicans. Since the state legislatures foolishly gave up their other two levels of power over the federal government that they created (Senators and Presidential Electors) and have since been reduced to near provinces, it is one of the few levers they have left and can’t be faulted for using it.
The state legislators who draw those maps were elected by and represent the people. Also note that some of what you call Gerrymandering is created by progressives clustering together being altogether too snobby to consort with ordinary Americans.
4
@KBronson
There have been more conservative controlled state legislatures and more of the gerrymandering has been of the republicans doing it than the Dems. The Republicans have been better at it. How else could Hillary win the election by 3 million votes and yet lose the electoral college?
4
Dear Mr. McCarthy,
You lost. Period. Trump lost. Period. Republican's lost. Period.
You sound like a sad little sycophant whose daddy lost and he can't get over it. This is not to rub it in, it is to remind you of reality. Whataboutism is futile.
Rural areas will always vote for Trump because they don't know how to get along with "the other" Cit's are more liberal because we have learned tolerance, diversity and inclusion. We had no choice and it's turning out pretty good.
In conclusion. Finish crying, pick yourself up, rest, and remember you lost. Can you be a loser who can liv with it, or just a baby that wishes he ruled he world?
10
@Hal Paris Many people in rural areas are more conservative because they don't like being on the short end of the stick all the time. Rural America is where all the basic stuff gets done. Food, mining, fishing, manufacturing, trucking, all are rural activities. No matter how clever we all get in the cities we still need those things. If the Democrats can get across to the rural voters that having great healthcare will come to them as well as the city, good jobs, better roads, communication systems that are up to date, they can be persuaded to get on board. And truth be known, there is actually a labor shortage in those areas that was being filled by migrant and immigrant labor.
9
@Hal Paris
2 more years of Senate judicial appointments and maybe another SC justice or two will make it clear who lost.
3
@Hugh Robertson
First, define short end of the stick. Then tell me which party has been talking infrastructure investment and better healthcare for years, and which party got us into endless wars and nearly destroyed the economy. Oh, never mind.
1
The writer proves that enough voters will accept hatred and cruelty in return for right-wing policy measures and grievance against the other side. It's a moral calculus that one day, sooner or later, we will come to regret as a country.
21
@Mather Pfeiffenberger
course NJ voters reelected someone credibly charged with corruption. So seems like there is plenty of more calculus on both sides (side note Alabama voters had the moral fortitude to reject Roy Moore. What happened NH?)
8
The next few weeks will expose trump for who he really is - a desperate despot.
14
Actually , if the Electoral College was made proportional , not winner-take-all, a lot would be solved, but the reactionaries do not want that at all...
12
What journalists overlook is that people feel they already know Trump. Whatever name recognition a democratic candidate achieves over the next 2 years, it won't outweigh the 20 or 30+ year connection many voters feel with the Trump brand.
Dems need to seriously consider recruiting someone with a national *media* standing like Stephen Colbert or they'll looking at another 4 years of Trump.
I love Warren and if she ran in 2016, after all the focus on Clinton, she would have lapped the field. But they'll only be lying about her from now till election day, and you know the media execs who ran every Trump rally will turn against her. She's too progressive for them to sit idle.
Colbert or bust. That's it in my view.
@Robert
I've learned from people who know him that Colbert is a nice guy...….I wouldn't wish it on him. Though its true he is FAR smarter than tRump and can actually empathize with other humans.
1
@Robert I guess you want hand-outs rather than work for a living. I don't care to support you or any freeloader with more entitlements. We're taxed enough!
1
@MCH
I have worked since I was 13 years old. I have had some very nasty jobs and I worked hard for them because I wanted to improve my life and hard work was the way to do it. I put myself thru college and graduate school. I never got anything I did not work for. There were no handouts.
I have met few people who are really so lazy they do not want to work.
What I have seen my entire life is that the people who succeed sometimes stumble, sometimes need help. I have also seen that some people struggle throughout life. Maybe because they suffer physical or mental handicaps. Maybe they have suffered injury or illness that prevents them from working. I have met many people who are working two jobs in order to care for their families.
I do not care why they need help. They are human beings. They deserve respect. I vote to increase my taxes to build housing for the homeless. I give money to people on the street who do not have food. Maybe some of those people are scamming me. I don't care. I will take that risk rather than risk that they truly need help and I deny them.
I do not understand the people who would deny helping those in need while professing their Christian faith. Jesus fed the hungry and cared for the poor, why can't we?
3
Complex and compelling argument that is worth making, worth reading, and very important for Democrats in the House to take into account. The Trumpian threat, now soundly based in the Republican Party, can in no way be dismissed; or we are looking at a second term of it. Who knows how it could permanently transform our country. The specter of Hungary, among other examples, is not imaginary.
97
@Bbwalker
And after Trump -- the brand is going to run out in six years -- then what?
If we have droughts, storms, in the end agriculture does count, inflation, a flu epidemic, a massive electrical outage....
What about the deficit?? The rest is yet to come.
8
@Make America Sane
In the land of make-believe there is always a way of explaining it away, blaming it a way, or pretend it's something it's not. Reality is whatever you want it to be. The only hope for the Democrats is finding a way to reach and turn out folks that aren't living in a mind-warp. The Trump voters are probably a lost cause.
4
I agree. According to an ABC exit poll, the folks who were apparently in a mind warp yesterday were the 18-29 year olds who didn’t show up to vote accounting for only 13% of voters. It would be wise for the Democrats to understand why and to try to change that.
2
This headline is misleading. He was repudiated by those who see him as an unparalleled embarrassment and also he was rewarded by those who thought the world considered Obama to be a laughingstock.
Only one of these fellows was openly laughed at by members of the UN. I don't know, I guess that whole deal could have been a false flag planted by the same nefarious cabal that stuck toilet paper to the stable genius' shoe.
15
Just curious: How much did Trump force taxpayers to pay during his failed personal vendetta against Montana's Sen. Tester?
12
Good point about the House, but it was more than an uphill battle to get the Senate. With most of the candidates Democrats (many of whom came from very red states) they had to have kept all of them and flip 2 Republicans. Political Sisyphus.
3
Trump sells hate and fear. Any mediocre mind can do that. Those buying his product need to look deep within and figure out what is wrong with them. Falling for the tactics of a demagogue shows a lack of character and knowledge of history.
15
Re: last paragraph
He is an aberration, an indecent human.
9
Dude, your use of superlatives to describe Frump... all I hear is sycophant echoes. Sure your boy is an awesome con man! but seriously, who wants that title? Your boy now has a check which he didn't have before. Minimize it all you want, but even he knows it otherwise... would he make veiled threats if his records are looked into? I think not. ;-)
8
I don't know who wrote this headline, but it made me laugh out loud.
6
Trump's base needs policies that will reverse the slow depopulation of the countryside and its small towns, but Trump is unlikely to push for such policies. His Republican partners do not advocate messing with the free market except when it benefits them directly, preferring lower taxes and fewer regulations. Trump himself does not do complexity or nuance, so his base will have to make do with feel-good speeches and Trump promises (which are kept by maintaining that they are kept).
As long as his base can be bought by speeches and images and the joy of giving the finger to the elites, the countryside will dwindle slowly enough that they will not notice. Democrats would try to buy their votes with actual programs designed to make it easier for the countryside to attract and keep people, but these are much less exciting than slogans and speeches and two-minute hates, so his base does not listen.
5
"He is widely hated and feared, but he is also much loved as a champion of his voters."
It's too bad that the vast, vast majority of his voters can't see that he has done, and will do, nothing for them.
9
Trump has shown that appeals to racism and hatred are one sure path to victory. When the conservative white old men figure out that the real goal is to cut their Social Security and Medicare, they may not like it, but, like the farmers whose crops cannot be sold to China, will simply say it "has to be done."
1
The facts, simply stated by Daniel McCarthy, are difficult to assimilate. Hence, I suspect, the reluctance of readers to respond to his article. Joseph Conrad: "The horror. The horror."
2
@Kieran Flynn
A horror, indeed, that so many of our fellow citizens have been seduced by the empty promises of a narcissistic, morally-compromised, carnival barker. One wonders if folks like the author have ever understood what this country really stands for.
1
Trump for all his flaws and his negative opinion ratings remains a formidable figure. He survived the mid-terms with no more damage than any other recent president, he is the no.1 gorilla in the GOP by far, his base is solid, his plus-minus opinion spread is better than many other politicians. The Dems are going to have to find a challenger for 2020 who has name recognition - although s/he won't have that of Trump (unless it is Hilary again) - and who can mobilize both the moderate and socialist wings of the party, no easy task, but with every last vote needed a necessity.
Gridlock may not be a problem for Trump. To the extent that it stymies his agenda (and anyway his real agenda is just to bait liberals incessantly), it will also confer the benefit of being able to fulminate against Democrats in the House for whatever goes wrong (real or imagined).
In brief, little has changed. The culture wars will rage on, the Republican kleptocrats will make out like the bandits they are and Trump will remain the odds-on favorite for 2020 if he doesn't first explode from too many cheeseburgers.
10
Will he still be loved once his tax returns have been made public? Let’s see how far the cult goes.
2
@Jacalyn Carley He will be worshiped even more by his cult members, once they see proof of all he's gotten away with in his life. Most Republican voters are gleeful outlaws. They want lawbreakers in office. Look at what happened with Collins in NY and Hunter in CA. They're both under indictment for serious crimes, and they got re-elected.
2
@Jacalyn Carley
That's the problem with cultists. Reality means nothing to them.
1
He got a big gift from the scare-a-van and that's why it wasn't worse.
1
Is this column the best Daniel McCarthy, the editor of a conservative journal, can come up with? He sounds just like a corporate bureaucrat writing a report for his boss showing how well the company is performing in the second quarter, and how well it will continue to perform for the foreseeable future--more cogs are on the way, and at a cheaper cost, than the nearest competitor can ever hope to match.
Of course, Mr. McCarthy steers clear of mentioning how disturbed, narcissistic, bullying, vulgar and immoral his boss is. Nor does he bring up the countless times his boss has lied or hurled insults at anyone who dared to challenge his "facts." Nor has he mentioned how his boss cooked the books by borrowing millions of dollars to make all this glorious success happen. As for the fact that his boss is openly stealing company funds for his personal gain and the gain of his family, nary a peep.
How quaint to remember the time, not so long ago, when conservatives traced their thought to Edmond Burke.
8
The Republican is intellectually, ethically and morally bankrupt. Completely and utterly so. They have nothing to offer but racism, anti-immigrant hysteria and tax cuts for billionaires. Conservatives are trying to pretend that this election validates that approach and that simply isn’t true. They may continue to win elections for a while through voter suppresssion and naked appeals to white nationalists but that is not a winning strategy for the medium to long term.
I’m deeply disturbed by what’s going on in this country but I take comfort in knowing that the Republicans have sowed the seeds of their own destruction by their embrace of a racist con man.
I only hope that whatever rises from the ashes isn’t something even worse.
6
On the status of the US economy, Trump was handed a functioning, growing economy in 2017 that was rescued from near-collapse by Ben Bernanke and Pres. Obama.
In Dec 2017, the GOP passed an extraordinary tax cut that benefits the wealthy and corporations significantly more than the average US family. So yes, Wall Street zoomed upward.
At the cost of $1 Trillion deficits for the foreseeable future. The GOP just mortgaged the nations financial future. Many of these lawmakers do not expect to be around when that bill comes due, so why not?
5
@GTM
good points - I would add another -
His environmental 'policy' will, according to experts, cost lives and taxpayer money in the future. Relaxing environmental standards has made some corporations feel better and perhaps invest more. An example of the sickening hypocrisy: Obamacare includes a clause specifying that coal miners suffering from black lung will be taken care of for the rest of their lives. Remember; those freedom living real American coal mine owners declared bankruptcy, kept their homes and cars, but acted like victims. Trump keeps saying he will bring coal back. Residents of coal states: demand more honesty and investment in something better.
It's imperative that Nancy Pelosi turn over the gavel to a younger leader from a battleground state. We've seen rural America deliver us a template for 2020 vis a vis the electoral college. The Senate could worsen.
Personally I ran the table on my ballot, picking the all winners on a straight Democratic ticket. Let's win big time in 2020!
4
@Apple Jack
How do you think Trump fears most as Speaker of the House: someone with an extremely impressive record, who knows how to win elections and get difficult bills through Congress, or a good-looking newbie with no experience at all ... ?
THAT is what should determine how we treat our most outstanding and high-performing Democratic politicians, NOT age/gender/race/... !
If Americans want to see a change in politics, the press has to start making a deep and argumentative analysis of the state of the nation. Not the habitual behaviorist rethoric that goes both ways: thinking that the actual situation is part of the identity. Americans are alienated by these questions of identity.
3
What can we expect for the future when tens of millions of voters think Trump is their ideal as a politician? And a future in which rural America has a large built-into-the-Constitution electoral advantage over urbanized America?
7
@Bob Garcia
Without an honest political process, what we can expect is Revolution.
Republicans are in a demographic and gender death spiral, which the writer obviously avoids discussing, and for good reason. The Trump Republican Party has turned off multigenerational women, young voters, and people of all color through its policies, biases, and neglect. Independents are clearly trending Democratic. Soon enough, it will be running out of old and non-college educated males to fill its limited pews. The party’s “circle of love” is inexorably shrinking, a highly optimistic turn of events for the good of nation and the planet.
9
" they were heartened that on several key issues — perhaps most important, judicial appointments"
highly touted but a nothing burger. the "accomplishment" required a presidential signature, nothing else.
but thank trump for motivating people to vote. his despotic behaviour was the trigger.
4
The hard right endorses corruption and treachery.
12
Sadly, I have to say that this is a reasonable analysis of the election. He is not, however, "a champion of his voters," unless to them a champion does things to hurt instead of help them, plays to their worst instincts instead of their best.
The president did not create his followers - they created him. The Republican Party has spent 60 years plowing, sowing and cultivating that fertile ground - fear, hatred, bigotry, racism, selfishness, resentment - but that soil was there before Republicans started to work it.
And now they have this bitter crop - nearly half the people in this country. Enough to make my country unrecognizable to me, enough to reverse the progress we've made in the 230-plus years since we swore allegiance to a Constitution that set us on the path toward freedom and democracy.
Other presidents have manipulated the toxic side of human nature, but today governments everywhere seem determined to turn back the clock on freedom, and the pollution of 7.5 billion people has put our environment on the edge of permanent destruction. Never have people's decisions been so critical.
The half of Americans who have made their choice to continue on this backwards path have shown a conscious betrayal of their fellow citizens, a failure of character that portends a failure of the United States itself. I always imagined I'd reach the end of my years seeing the strengthening of the idea, the very dream of America. Instead, I fear I'll be seeing its demise.
34
The Democrats have to focus on 2020, not only winning the presidency, but also the Senate, and holding the House.
To do that, we have to accomplish things that are meaningful to millions of American voters, including some of the 60 million who voted for Trump in 2016.
We are not going to do that if we obsess over Trump's tax returns, or immediately move for impeachment, especially before Mueller has concluded his investigation.
We can't make abolishing the Senate, ICE, or the Electoral College a focus over infrastructure programs or shoring up ACA.
59
@Talbot We have to register more people to vote. That's the only answer to Trump's fear mongering and race baiting.
6
@Talbot, the Democrats can also run on a platform of restoring democracy. They should attack gerrymandering, money in politics, and voter suppression to name three issues. By the way they would likely benefit, but they might also start to repair the damage done over the past couple decades by Republicans at the state and national levels.
4
@Talbot
With any luck, Nancy Pelosi will continue the trend of utter incompetence of a Democratic House, giving Republicans more gains in 2020.
4
From unstable genius to evil genius in one midterm election.
7
Once upon a time, PA elected Rick Santorum and then had to give him the boot. This time we passed on Lou Barletta. I call that progress in electing our representaives.
6
Thanks for an actual analysis instead of a post-election rationalization.
5
Wait, what? Daniel McCarthy is the Editor of “Modern Age” which describes itself as “the principal quarterly of the intellectual right”. His column mostly lends credence to the already quite obvious rise of Trumpism within the GOP. Yes, Trumpism has won elections! Honest, objective analysis of Trumps past (and present) reveal him to be a gifted Con Artist willing to say or do anything to “close the deal”. This column says nothing about the possible long term implications for the Party (or Conservatism or our Nation, or the World) of embracing a man so obviously lacking in character, temperament, honesty and “intellect”. Those are “intellectual” questions worthy of discussion.
16
At this point in history, right-wing intellectual is a contradiction in terms. Right-wing political philosophy is whatever Trump tweeted last. Nothing intellectual going on there!
6
In my entire life I have never seen so many white men and women who are so spineless. They allow a thug to insult there wife, family members and come crawling back to him for his endorsement. These spineless white politicians are not real men and it is sad to watch how pitiful they act around him. However when it comes to being superior over minorities they have a great deal of mouth. Mr. King is a good example of a old white hater along with so many others.
To have respect you need to give respect, Trump is a ignorant fool who threatens people because he doesn't know enough about anything to have a conversation. Applaud Michael Cohen for finally getting his self respect back. Better late than never.
Now that the Democrats are coming back to their roots, Trump better learn how to be an adult because they are coming for him. Democrats won big last night and the beginning of his hateful presidency is coming to an end.
14
Spin, spin, spin, the NYT's maps of the shift to blue vs red today repudiates this oped.
2
@Veronica,
The shift was inevitable, even if it weren't Trump at the helm. What's remarkable is that it was a much smaller shift than either Obama or Clinton experienced during their midterms? Why couldn't the Dems take the Senate like they should have?
As long as the pillars of the Democratic party are abortion, higher taxes and regulation, identity politics and illegal immigration they will continue to lose.
10
Whatever makes you feel better, Danny boy.
5
Daniel McCarthy styles himself "@ToryAnarchist". Nuf said.
6
Champion of his voters? Do you mean they are happy with the level of white nationalism and xenophobia ? I guess that is the new American Exceptionalism.
7
Seriously? You're off your rocker. Trump is disappointed and subdued. He said he didn't know whether he was happy or sad. Most preschoolers know whether they're happy or sad.
5
The midterm election is over.... We now return you to our regularly scheduled program: The Mueller Investigation.
Oh, you didn't forget about Meuller did you?
17
Regardless of partisan gerrymandering and the constitutional bias in favor of small states, it is obvious that many millions of Americans support Trump in spite of his lying, incompetence and probable criminality. It seems that the only time the nation has been this divided was during the decade preceding the Civil War. Can we learn from history, or must we repeat it?
7
Going back to the days of segregation and George Wallace about 1/3 of our electorate was and still is racist. Trump hasn’t got any admirable leadership qualities, he’s an old fearful racist appealing to worst in his followers. (He’s the guy that’s too busy to visit the troops stationed in the Middle East.)
13
@Loren Rosalin:
I think the word is "too chicken" to visit the troops in the Middle East.
5
"Mr. Barletta ... had nothing of the president’s star power or talent for exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses through well-chosen insults."
In short, he was utterly unprepared to run a proper campaign in the Trump age. We'll make sure future candidates master the art of the insult before they run.
No shame.
10
Let's hope he keeps getting rewarded that way.
3
How masterly disingenuous an article that masks the author's fear
as boldness in attempting to defend and rationalize the corruption of an administration having consorted with a sworn enemy of this country in order to destroy it. If that happens to be the definition of success, then so be it. But at least try to be truthful about it.
11
Trump isn't finished with us yet. He won't be until this country is molded in his image and suits his own personal gain.
People blindly voted party instead of for the good of the nation.
Voters can't get any dumber than this.
6
It's the Republicans want "more conservative judges" comment that makes my blood run cold. It makes it clear that they see the judiciary as simply another branch of the executive, one that will defend Trump's executive actions and criminal behaviour out of pure partisan-ship, largely ignoring something as inconvenient as the law. Truly Orban-esque and terrifying.
8
I am waiting to see what Mueller drops on Friday-
This article is largely on point (which is rare for McCarthy), but it mistakes Trump for some kind politician, with policy ideas and ideological goals. He is nothing of the sort: he is closer to a cult leader or a warlord. He thrives only in conflict and chaos, and he now owns the little slivers of the GOP that did not belong to him before the election, while the surviving Party now knows in their bones who’s their Daddy. He is also at peak MAGA. He will gain no one new, and he can only lose the true believers by governing.
With Sessions gone, Trump is now looking for an AG less burdened by his Constitutional Oath, as part of gearing up for battle with people that both he and his followers consider deadly enemies NOT political opponents (spend some time on QAnon sites to get a feel for this sense of existential conflict). Centrist Dems believe that the GOP is still committed to the Constitution and would not dare precipitate a fundamental crisis by gutting Congressional oversight — those were your grandparents’ Republicans. With Impeachment DOA on the Senate Floor, SCOTUS politicized and Trump’s inner circle soon to be fighting multiple criminal charges, I see little evidence for such confidence. Mainstream pundits have consitently not accepted Trump’s assessment of himself as unique in US politics. I fear that they are about to find out that, despite Trump’s aversion to both reality and the truth, he was deadly serious in this one statement.
6
I don't think Trump was rewarded.
How many HOUse seats did the GOP lose.
Look at the swing states Pa., Oh., Wisc., Mich.
HRC lost them in 2016 but Obama had won them in 2008 and 2012.
The Dems won Senate races in those states by large margins.
The Senate states that Dems lost were by narrow margins.
I don't know any political "science?" but I don't see how the above data show that Trump was rewarded.
Trump still has the support of rural America which HRC lost for the Democrats by talking down to them and ridiculing them and calling them "deplorables".
Unfortunately rural America is getting the royal shaft from Trump's policies.
3
Rural areas basically live off of handouts from blue states. I’d be happy to see those stop, having spent pretty much my whole live in states that send more to the federal government in taxes then they get back.
2
@Ken
Careful what you wish for. If the bulk of American farmers in those rural areas decide to throw in the towel, we'll be looking to import the bulk of our food.
The results I see is the Democratic party expanding its range into places like Kansas, Iowa, Upstate NY, and formerly Republican suburbs nearly everywhere, while the Republican party appears to be reconstituting itself into the party of backwaters and decline.
11
Democrats better have a real message for 2020. I pray they aren't relying on "Not Trump."
In the meantime, let's all recognize that the gloves are off.
4
@Chris
You cannot be serious.
Trump told the world that this election was about him, and the Democrats make him lose both the House and the Governors' races, and somehow it's the Democrats who would have a problem, and that problem would be "message" ... ?
Fact is, people knew VERY well that it was crucial aspects of America's current greatness, such as Obamacare, that were what was truly at stake here, and they showed up in historically large numbers to save what was the very core of the "real message" of the Democrats: healthcare.
Even three Republican states now voted to not only NOT "replace and repeal Obamacare", but to finally also adopt the last part that their state didn't adopt yet, namely the Medicaid expansion.
And if you see what a horrible president Trump is, "not Trump" is certainly an important aspect of what 2020 will be all about.
3
". . . he [Trump] is also much loved as a champion of his voters."
The problem is that Trump is NOT the champion of his voters. He's the con man who tricks his voters into thinking he's their champion. In fact, he and the Republicans he empowers are NOT the friends of working people. They are doing things that will end up hurting the Trump voters, as well as the rest of us. Will his voters still think he's their champion when the Republicans declare that the deficit their tax policy created gives them a reason to cut Social Security and Medicare? Do none of Trump's voters need those programs, which the Republicans call "entitlements" even though all of us have paid into them throughout our working lives? The Republicans have for years wanted to destroy those programs and in fact fought to keep them from ever being created. And how about the climate change Trump and the Republicans refuse to acknowledge and prepare for? It will hurt the economy, reduce the amount of livable land (causing more and more refugees), destroy or greatly harm agriculture and the fishing industry, and destroy the beauty and health of the only planet we have. Will Trump's voters then wonder why no one did something about the oncoming disaster before it WAS a disaster? If they do, the answer will be this: because Trump's voters voted for him.
15
I believe that Trumpism is winning as a campaign strategy and as a governing approach. It has two elements: (1) flat out lie about one's own policy positions even when the lies contradict one's own record; and (2) launch demonstrably false personal smears about one's opponents and watch as the media spreads the false smears, free of charge.
Exit polls from Florida show majority preferences for the Democratic candidates' policy positions. yet many of those voters chose the Republican candidate. How can this be?
We need the media to change their ways. Most critically, do not let the stories told on a daily basis be so significantly dictated by any one person (e.g., Trump). Best example is the recent media obsession with the "caravan." Second, redefine objectivity away from the "he said/she said approach" to a more THINKING, informed person's approach. If a personal smear walks like a false attack and talks like a false attack, then it likely IS a false attack.
We HAVE to do better. The movement towards authoritarianism is real. Winning the House is important but we have to pay attention. Just moments ago, Sessions was fired. What is next? Very quickly, this year, expect legislation to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. Anything is possible despite enormous public opposition.
11
@Joan Johnson Yes. If those Central Americans want to call themselves a caravan, they should get camels!
Let’s keep in mind that trumps voters were a minority in 2016 and more than likely their numbers have diminished since. They can love him all they want, he still does’nt represent the views of a majority of American voters.
6
@Psst Actually, there were more voters for Republican House of Representative candidates in the 2016 election than for Democrat House of Representative candidates. You are only focusing on the Presidential results which don’t tell the whole story.
2
Much more accurate than the mainstream coverage
7
This is a silly pro-Trumpian argument. Trump made the fight about him and lost or barely squeaked out wins in places that a competent politician would have run away with things. He lost the House because of his intransigent approach and his poor choice of issues as well as his overly strident language. His insensitivity to anyone but himself is legendary: witness his tasteless visit to Pittsburg and his bemoaning the 'bombs' that distracted attention from himself.
As is well known, and well documented, there is no policy or message discipline in the White House or the House and only the semblance of it in the Senate.
Truly, his voters love this, but his voters are fading away with their rage at change, hatred of people not like them, and willingness to hug Trump even when it hurts them. That combination of poor judgment and readiness to fall off cliffs will not last.
10
What is left unsaid...large rural areas of this country seem content or even pleased with the xenophobic, white nationalist, authoritarian nature of the current GOP. We have two separate nations within a nation, watching different news channels, having very different realities confirmed by their choice of media outlets and social media contacts. The fact that it is essentially a 50/50 split across the nation is a sad commentary on our society.
18
I didn't read the full article, but when the writer says "If the administration were as incompetent as critics charged, the economy should not be doing well" he is very, very wrong. Trump has not been in power nearly long enough to have much influence on the economy, and he took over an economy that was already doing well during Obama's tenure. And of course the economy is booming - cutting taxes and running a big deficit in an expansion will do that for you.
26
I enjoyed watching Mr Trump’s press conference, in which he claimed a big success in the midterm elections.
When I was young, my parents sometimes took me to the circus. They had to pay for an expensive ticket so that I could see and enjoy the clown.
Now, with a simple click of a button, the whole world can watch the clown for free!
16
I don’t know about Trump being widely hated as McCarthy states, though it seems plenty of American citizens are disgusted by his public behavior not only in itself but for the discredit this behavior has on the office of president. As for being widely “feared,” I rather doubt this. No, it’ll be cold day you in “you-know-where” before that happens. Though he and many Republicans may want a monarch whose authority rests on fear from the masses, it ain’t going to happen.
6
In an essay published today in the Washington Post, Jeff Flake notes that "the conservative party in the United States seems to be the party that scares you into supporting it. I would have to say that it is the party fueled by anger, by racial and cultural resentments, by outlandish conspiracy theories and by what can only be described as an irrational fear of immigrants." Senator Flake asks if the Republican Party can move beyond the cult of Trump's personality. Here, Mr. McCarthy provides one possible answer. Not only does he not want to move past Trump's cult of personality, he wants to embrace it more fully. Mr. McCarthy is content with his party descending even further into the voice of white racial grievances and cultural resentments. Based on the evidence to date, the Republican Party is likely to follow Mr. McCarthy's advice - to their everlasting shame and his.
12
@Charles L.
The answer is no, they can't move beyond the cult of Trump's personality, because without a tweeter in chief who faithfully copy-pastes Fox News lies hour after hour, day after day, no single conservative in this country would still be voting for a party that does the exact opposite on Capitol Hill of what it constantly tells its voters it wants to do and America needs.
As the GOP knows for more than a decade need, to be able to cling to power it needs a MASSIVE "alternative facts" producing machine, and then enough clowns in DC to play along and pretend that the emperor has cloths.
Just watch Stephen Colbert's recent interview with Chris Wallace for instance. Chris was arguing that something has to be done about all those people crossing the border and asking for asylum and then disappearing. When Stephen asked him how many of them actually showed up in court, Chris, who just won a "freedom of the press" award as the best that the GOP can to today, when it comes to journalism, eagerly answers: "only 10%! Trump is right to want to do something about it!".
Colbert then fact-checks this number. It turns out that it's 60%, a majority, that shows up in court. So on the MAIN campaign issue, for years, of the GOP, even Wallace lies and cheats.
In real life, it's OBAMA who tackled this problem, as his new program managed to have more than 90% of them showing up in court. But that, of course, Wallace didn't mention ...
8
Congress needs to enact some protections for the American press and they need to deal with gerrymandering and media that lies to the public by pretending to be some unholy hybrid between journalism and entertainment. No one including this president should be pointing out our press as "the enemy of the people" without consequences. Enough. If he wants a free pass he can quit his job.
And we need a media that indicates its percentage of FACTS not jokey entertainers that are indeed propagandists for this administration- the Fox entertainer Hannity was a disgraceful mess getting up on the stage and campaigning- the guy is a fraud.
6
Many voters supported Republican candidates in retribution for the disgraceful Democrat treatment of Justice Kavanaugh. All because the Democrats weren’t willing to allow the president to nominate the person of his choosing. When Republicans win the national election, we can expect conservative judges.
7
@Reader In SC
Absurd. Kavanaugh's ridiculous behavior at that hearing should have had him out the door. His juvenile meltdown was his character right in front of our eyes.
Are you kidding?? Merrick Garland was the judge "the republicans "weren't willing to allow the president to nominate the person of his choosing".
Obama's choice was cut out by McConnell.
7
@Reader In SC
Were you defending President Obama's rights to nominate the person of his choosing when he nominated Merrick Garland and was blocked by the Republican Senate? When Democrats win national elections we can expect "liberal" judges, right?
Hmm? I 'm listening. Oh, you weren't defending Obama's right to nominate and have hearings for the Supreme Court nominee of his choosing? Well, see, that is the definition of hypocrisy.
4
A "champion of his voters?" What has he done to improve the lives of his average supporters?
4
@Pat He's made them feel respected and relevant. I don't think they ever thought he was going to make them all billionaires. Tho, in fact, not all of them are as penniless as Democrats seem to assume.
3
"Indeed, if the administration were as incompetent and ideologically extreme as critics charge, the economy should not be doing well in the first place, some 22 months after Mr. Trump assumed office."
Once again, for those in the back, everybody knows that giving the corporations a big ol' pile of cash has some short-term economic benefits. NOBODY, not one soul on this planet, thought that cutting corporate taxes would result in an an immediate downturn in the economy. Non-GOP-apologists simply took a longer view, and the fact that there was a short term economic boost is completely meaningless in that context.
3
"Much loved" in Russia, as a "champion of his voters" in the Kremlin.
Don't kid yourselves. That's the problem with a strategy based on lies: you start forgetting that you're making up stories.
It is already out in the open that the GOP stalwarts at the county level pulled out all the stops in as many places as they could in order to suppress votes that would punish Republicans. This goes hand in hand with age-old racist tactics. "Missing power cables"; "dead batteries"; new street address requirements for Native Americans who had previously been allowed to vote -- a crude manoeuver intended to deny Heidi Heitkamp support; Kemp choosing whose ballots he would accept in his own race for GA governor... That's just the stuff we know about. Who knows what went on in Texas? We all know about Florida, as of 2000, and we know why it is a place of "such special focus" for GOP operatives... The Party of Trump, the Party of Putin, the Party of Lies may think it has been "rewarded." But Americans know better. And for that matter, so do Russians in Russia. They are very worried. They spent decades carefully building up covert networks across the USA, and now those risk being torn down forever, just because they got greedy, arrogant & rashly bet on Trump. Even if he succeeds in harming America (and that pleases Russians, of course), he will coincidentally be ruining Russia's prospects with the civilized countries of the world.
Trump's shrinking base did not deliver for their leader
3
Guess all that Republican gerrymandering wasn't such a big deal after all, huh?
2
...and the apologists come out swinging!
Look, we knew what this election was and we knew what this election was not. Straw men and shifting goalposts are just an attempt by conservatives—Trump and never-Trump alike—to grab control of the narrative so that they can minimize the election’s significance and change the topic. Don’t fall for it, readers, no matter how well and seemingly sincerely it’s written.
4
Mere spin from the writer.
In spite of gerrymandering, voter suppression and 24/7 corporate fascist propaganda Trump lost the House and several states. In a fair fight he would be crushed.
If Democrats finally understand the connection between state government and gerrymandering, the senate and judiciary the Party of Putin is finished.
Trump and the Republicans are about Democrats not showing up to vote. Nothing more. We can stop this anytime.
4
According to Daniel McCarthy, victory consists of losing the House of Representatives and losing (at least) seven pivotal governships, while winning Senate races in only bright red Republican states.
What on earth does defeat look like?
But then, what do I know? After all, I continue to insist that the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series.
3
This is what you call being rewarded? You lose a branch of government to the opposition and you've won? That's Trump math: 1 minus 1 is still 1.
2
There is nothing conservative about this administration. It is autocratic, tyrannical, and servile to dictators, while hostile on trade and alliances.
Anything but derision toward this administration is a complete betrayal of conservative values, of American values, and of any kind of amoral compass.
4
It is a sad indictment on America and the human race that Trump has any supporters at all.
11
Yes! My thoughts exactly. It’s hard for me to understand anyone voting for such a thug.
2
If this is what 'winning' looks like to the author then I would hate to see how he defines losing. Trump lost PA, MI and WIS in a complete repudiation of his Presidency. These are the 3 states that gave him his victory in 2016 which he has acknowledged. Trump ginned up the fear factor in the Southern red states to add a few seats in the Senate, but since the Senate now operates more like the House, anything short of 60 seats for one party is meaningless.
Meanwhile, his handpicked boy Kobach got trounced, and Devin Nunes is headed for the obscurity he held prior to Trump coming along. Democrats run the House and have vowed to reopen the Oversight and Judiciary committee investigations of Trumps relationship to the Russian mobsters than run that government.
3
This entire article is so depressingly cynical, but for some reason this sentence stuck out to me:
"But Mr. Barletta ran what was almost universally deemed a poor campaign, and he had nothing of the president’s star power or talent for exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses through well-chosen insults."
I'm sad for anyone who would present this as an acceptable notion, and sad that it's been published in the NYT, but I guess good faith conservative notions are almost impossible to come by these days.
132
@Alex: I'm doubting if there is such a thing as 'good faith conservative notions'. Or, for that matter, 'good faith liberal notions.'
Maybe there are just humans hungry for power and position. Maybe political parties just exist to provide cover when 'We' are in power (Democrats in the Clinton era, and Republicans in the age of Trump); and feign moral outrage when 'They' are in power (Democrats in the Trump era, and Republicans in Clinton and Obama eras).
Cynical, I know, but this is how I feel after 2 years of awfulness and last night's underwhelming midterm. I would love to be convinced otherwise!
3
@Alex As a resident of Pennsylvania who had to watch all. those. awful. ads. and listen to the ongoing frenzy, I gotta tell you: Lou Barletta was a spot-on 45esque candidate. Better-looking and three shades tanner than the president, he sought to portray Bob Casey as sleepy. But Casey has done a fine job, and Pennsylvanians are not as stoopid as he hoped. McCarthy, it seems, thought similarly of his readers and hoped he could pass off cliche assessments of both the state and the candidate as "reasons" for Barletta's loss. I propose this: Barletta isn't a good guy, and Pennsylvanians didn't want to vote for him in sufficient numbers so as to make him victor. No awesome riff of insults could've won him that seat.
12
Sell newspapers. You know who else helps Trump's? NYT, by saying his name over and over. Keep him in our minds Avery which way you can, and you help him. Show his face, say his name, give five page editorials on his tweets, wonder what he does at 3 AM, and be sure not to talk about policy-- because, as we all know, policy is hard, and it does not sell newspapers.
1
"Indeed, if the administration were as incompetent and ideologically extreme as critics charge, the economy should not be doing well in the first place ..."
The editor of Modern Age seems to lack understanding of modern economics.
Presidents— and even Congress — have very little to do with the state of the economy. The economy is proceeding along a pretty straight line begun during the last administration.
Even so, only government pundits and narrow-blinkered analysts would describe the economy as "doing well," when the average household requires two earners, bringing in no more in real dollars than they did a quarter of a century ago.
Even the stock market, touted as being on the rise due to confidence in Trump, has begun to dip. Regardless, the market has no effect on the fortunes of the man and woman on the street.
But I have to agree that Trump is not an aberration: he IS the GOP, and they are him. That these should be a power in what once was thought to be an enlightened nation, providence help us all.
9
It seems to me that this midterm election is different from previous ones in that there now are strong authoritarian, ethno-nationalistic headwinds sweeping the rural areas of this country--and, indeed, the world--and leaning into those headwinds and striving forward is heroically arduous.
4
While "rewarded" is not the term I would use "appreciated and supported" is. Considering the many retirements, the typical loss of house seats, the vast sums of money spent, and the MSM attacks, this result is supportive for the president's proposals and successes. It has little to do with his style, or personality.
3
@vulcanalex
And those "proposals and successes" are, more precisely?
And if the American people would support them, why did they just take away the only legal power he had to ever sign them into law ... ?
Any ideas?
1
What we saw was razor thin wins in Trump Country not crushing defeats of Democrats. Then Again Trump did tell us he was victorious and responsible for the stunning Republican victories.
7
@GUANNA He would have declared victory and his critical part in it well before the election. We already know his is the greatest administration in history, right? Sort of simplifies things. Lincoln was right, you can fool some of the people ALL of the time.
1
He's a "YUGE" loser - plain and simple.
8
I disagree. With the possibility of investigative committees in the House, particularly with the possibility of a timely release of a report from Mueller, this is a necessary precondition. And, honestly, pundits have gotten this so wrong since 2015, I hold little faith in the pronouncements of the pundit class.
2
More than the success of the Dems in the House races the disheartening result was the close to 40-45% support that the GOP had nationwide. Through the obvious overture to fear, resentment, and white nationalism of Trump and his supporters - which brought back images of George Wallace - and has normalized immoral appeals, we can now see how ingrained those feelings are in American life. America has truly a long ways to go achieving a just society and not revert to the MAGA goal of a "Christian Anglo-Saxon" nation of the past.
16
Mr. Trump is a thug. He used his notoriety and television persona to build a campaign based on brutish, atypical behavior that has thrilled millions of voters who appear to believe the being politically incorrect is akin to having great political wisdom. Mr. Trump's "organization" looks a lot to me like the mafia or other organized crime family. It is all about brute force, intimidation, and pay offs. Whether he is truly criminal in his activities we should see soon enough as the Mueller investigation ends, and House Democrats take control of key committees. We will see.
38
@Patrick Stevens You are right. NYT insists on running conservative opinions that are so dumb they are laughable. I expected the guy to say well we lost seats in the House but we wanted it that way, and really we won the election because the Democrats lost more seats in the past. Oh. So we took care of business last night and now it's on to end of Mueller investigation and an ugly campaign by Trump and his evil cabal. Let the fight begin.
Trump’s mischaracterization of his poll numbers with Blacks perfectly illustrates his eagerness to lie about simple matters. He knows some people will take that to mean his polls compared with other politicians, but he really means, which is also but not so flagrantly untrue, compared to his historical pattern. He is so disgusting, he makes me want to puke.
5
His voters are stupid if they believe he’s their champion.
24
@Kip
That sums it up very nicely.
2
Republicans Congressman Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins both won reelection despite being indicted.
Evidence against both of these Trump supporters is quite substantial.
The GOP has truely crossed over to the "Dark Side".
26
Steve King, whose racist rhetoric is too much even for some Republican leaders, won re-election as well.
14
well sure.... racism and bigotry is what they believed made America great.. and they want to make it "great" again
4
This writer isn't really telling us much here. We already knew that President Trump is a formidable political force- if 2016 didn't show that, then look at exhibit B- the way in which he's bent the Republican party to his ends. He's shown himself to be pretty unscrupulous in his pursuit of power. He ignores pluralist, democratic norms. Have you seen those commercials with the guy who murdered the police officers juxtaposed with "rioting" immigrants in southern Mexico? If you don't realize that, by appealing to our worse angels, President Trump makes a potent appeal to a large and passionate slice of our electorate, well, you just haven't been paying attention. So of course such a large and passionate slice of the American family showed up to vote yesterday.
The real story is that, in the face of such demogoguery, the Democrats gave a forceful, well planned and successful response. I deeply admire President Obama, but I was often a bit frustrated by the fact that he was always so restrained in the face of the unfair and often unrestrained tactics of the Republican party. Until now, that has generally been the progressive tone in the U.S. But yesterday the Democratic party put together a focused and aggressive assertion of progressive values and it had wide appeal. And thank God for that.
16
Trump is a "winner" if you think rule by a super-partisan for a minority/Confederacy version of America is sustainable. In fact there is no "America" for Trump. There is the co-opted GOP. Period.
Most of us who care about our families and the planet we have to keep alive don't see him as capable of anything more than lining his own pockets long-term. Feeding his supporters fairy tales at rallies only works for you if you are on SS and Medicare. The tax cut ends at 5 years for the little people and he laid a trillion and a half $$$ egg on the deficit. Fake-Believe. But he is old and rich so So What says Trump.
12
Yea, Trump fired up his base. After watching part of his news conference I was again nauseated by the performance. He is an uncivil ,arrogant, racist liar. Yet the republicans love him. Conservative opinion writers who purport to be deep thinkers such as yourself love him. He may represent the ultimate triumph of the tea party movement but it stinks. Really stinks. Is this really the America we want?
27
@Pancho
The Tea Party wanted lower deficits and lower taxes for the middle class.
The only bill that Trump will have signed into law during his only two years with full control of Congress, do the exact opposite.
But if you know that it's the Koch brothers who founded the Tea Party in the first place, it's obvious that those poor voters have been lied to from the very beginning.
And then we're not even talking yet about the fact that many Tea Partiers didn't adhere to racist ideas at all.
It's not Trump who is firing up the GOP base. It's Fox News that has created a false narrative for its base for two decades now, allowing the GOP to not keep one single campaign promise once they control Congress, all while being reelected time and again.
All that Trump does is to take over Fox lines and tweet them.
This is not the America that the majority of the American people want, it's not even what a majority of conservatives want (who all while voting for Republicans just also voted to adopt Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid, for instance), it's just that the corrupt GOP's propaganda machine managed to mount a highly successful conspiracy of the wealthiest 1% against their own GOP base.
1
Political rot is hard to get rid of. Have patience! This chaos of mean-spirited language, dishonesty and anger has taken YEARS to develop. And the critics think that it will be turned around in one mid-year election. Get bloody real! Disengaged voters, lack of community involvement, entitled politicians, greedy corporations and lax ethics has seeped deep into this country. We built it layer upon layer. Politics has always been a sausage factory behind the scenes and now we are watching it made out in the open. It's likely going to take a few elections to repair. But I'll say this---going back to "normal" isn't an option. That "normal" created what we have today.
9
For better or worse, the popularity of a leader is related to how he connects to people, how his message resonates with them. Obama for example, would, when speaking, touch my spirit and my heart. He was positive and hopeful.
Conversely, Trump's continual lies, self aggrandizing, misplaced priorities and hateful, divisive tweets and statements connect with and speak to his devoted base, people to whom these same impulses have been stoked and nurtured until they there is no further room for rational thought, just blind devotion to a very unstable leader, who intentionally or not is bringing us all to harm.Truly there is a cult like following for Trump. Turning a blind eye to the environment and global warming and the threat that poses to our children, to the loss of adequate health insurance, to the massive tax cut for the rich, to the agricultural losses due to the tariffs. All would seem to take some of the shine off of Trump for his followers. Frankly, picking a Supreme Court justice wouldn't be an adequate trade off, for me.
8
@Diane B Great for you Obama disgusted me totally, while many times Trump is inspiring. We are different people, and no I am not a white nationalist either.
3
@Diane B And yet others find Obama to be divisive, and at times outright racist. Contrast that with Trump who for all his controversial commentary periodically shows that he's genuinely compassionate. He halted a recent political rally to ensure an attendee got the medical treatment she needed, and there's past stories about how he's helped others. Either he doesn't boast about such acts, or the MSM ignore them as being contrary to their narrative. And if Trump's supporters are cultlike what is the element of the Left for whom Trump and his supporters are the Devil and his minions? As for global warming, that's a mix of myth and money, certainly not a looming threat for your kids. As for the tax cuts, those weren't exclusively for the rich - many others benefited too. As for agricultural losses, something needs to be done about China's inequitable trade practices. They don't like an equal playing field however and will fight back however they can. Since most of your concerns are groundless the ability to nominate people to the Supreme Court doesn't seem to have a high price.
3
@Andrew Mason
Halting a rally for an ill attendee doesn't seem optional or a sign of compassion. It is what most people would do, without requiring commendation. Since there doesn't seem to be anything Trump does not boast about ("I am so smart, rich and know more than the generals", etc,) I can't imagine that any good deed hasn't been trumpeted, so to speak.
You have pat answers with no facts backing them, but have judged that all my concerns, which many share, are groundless. Ultimately, time will tell, which of us is seeing this president realistically.
Would like to see a comparison of how many hours Trump spent campaigning for Republicans vs. Obama's non-participation in the midterms when his party lost Congress. Trump was all over the place, and it likely cost Gillum and Nelson in Florida, O'Rourke in Texas and who knows how many others a chance at victory. If Obama had to do it all over again, I wonder if he would have hit the campaign trail.
1
Funny how poorly the GOP and Trump do when their Russian henchmen are not pulling the cyber levers.
8
Maybe, maybe not. I think many Republicans are better than their president. Most of them care at least a little about 'us' the ordinary, nice, freedom loving Americans. They also understand that dissing their ancestors, and most of us come from immigrants, heck all of us do, including DJT, and to demonize the 'poor, the starving, the huddled masses . ." you demonize us. Then again, Reality T.V. still reigns as 'reality'. It isn't.
1
Trump lost the House vote by Ten, yes 10, percentage points. This was a huge blue wave, so why do people like you pretend it isn't? Well, you cheated and violated the law in 2010 in redrawing the national map so as to make a Democratic victory impossible. (Or so you thought). The structural impediments you put in place should have precluded Trump losing the House under any circumstances, yet the Democrats defeated him anyway.
What Democrats just accomplished in the House is a total repudiation of Trump because it's arguably the greatest tsunami in the history of American politics.
Republicans, after losing to President Obama, perverted the 2010 census and turned a demographic disaster into Republican legislative majorities considered so unassailable that analysts universally said that Republican victories were assured until after the 2020 census. The new Republican mapping technologies were so precise that they totally resegregated all Americans, creating congressional districts where only a Republican further to the right could win. In resegregating Republicans studied every previous wave and redistricted so even if Democrats matched the largest wave on record they'd still lose the House. It means the Democratic wave is larger than any previous wave in history. You built a fortress around Trump, and he still got soaked.
Republican cheating should have guaranteed Trump a win in the House, yet the Democrats savaged him anyway.
So much for your post-truth disinformation.
7
@Robert B Because typically considering the circumstances 40 -60 house seats might have been lost. And no senate seats gained.
3
@vulcanalex Sorry, but Republican redistricting should have held Democrats to a maximum gain of approximately 15 seats even if they matched what the Republicans did in 2010 when they gained 60 seats. So Trump should have had a House majority no matter how well Democrats performed. Even so, the Democrats so outperformed, as previously stated they won the House by whopping 10 percentage points, that they’re on track to gain 36 seats. So you do the math; that would have been a breathtaking gain of 81 seats for the Democrats if it weren't for Republican redistricting. Not much can be drawn from the Senate because it's not only increasingly unrepresentative, this was a highly disproportionate red-state Senate election. The Senate was formed by the Founding Fathers based on the model of ancient Greek City-States. It worked when there were a very small number of states with similar population concentrations because that's what the Founding Fathers designed it for. Wyoming now has just over a half-million people and gets two senators, while California has nearly 40 million people but also gets two senators, meaning every Wyoming resident gets 80 times the representation of a California resident. It sounds very fair and very democratic to me. Let's not even discuss that Trump lost 7 governors seats, and in states supposedly filled with "his people." If that’s Trump being rewarded, I very much look forward to him being punished.
1
The country is now even more divided.A truly sad state of affairs and one no better illustrated than today's staggering White House press conference in which Trump pouted and sulked,aired personal grievances,lied and ranted while abusing several members of the free press...behavior more familiar with tinpot dictators and despots.
8
At the core Trump phenomenon is Tribalism... and is a symptom that civilized people is descending to barbarism.
6
@ugoguido Is Tribalism Trump related though? According to a recent report society is divided into about 7 groups. From memory the Fringe Left only comprise about 8% of society but they're the ones the MSM quote and the Democrats serve.
2
The Democrats are a ship of fools if they elect Pelosi speaker.
Congratulations, Nancy!
1
Anyone can borrow large amounts of money, and then say "See how much better off we are." It works for awhile. True, part of it is an investment in the US. But we have heavy debts already, and there is real danger that a large portion of the money might have been misdirected. Party for now, the voters are somewhat content in relative terms, but the real election returns are several years out when we have increased debt, insulted allies and trading partners, and a dimmer view of our own humanity.
4
You remind us that we do not elect the president by popular vote, and we don't elect members of the House by national popular vote. That, plus the effects of gerrymandering, voter suppression and the rural-state bias of the Senate, explain why the GOP has more political power than popular support. But I wonder how sustainable is it for a party to hold power with only the support of a minority of the population. The GOP holds onto its power because of peculiarities in our Constitution and the concerted efforts by the party to minimize the vote of Democrats. That cannot last.
11
@Larry Chamblin Sure it can and it will. Those that don't like it can either leave, or do what the constitution indicates, that is make their states to their desires.
1
What a wonderful collection of cherries plucked by Mr. McCarthy for this piece.
With a wave of his hand, he discounts popular vote as meaningless and points to the number of seats picked up when compared to previous elections. A cursory understanding of logic and statistics reveals the flaws here.
In both 1994 and 2010, the popular vote margin were both a shade under 7%. A vote margin of over 8 percent as it's currently expected is extremely rare in midterms(2006 is the only other time in the past 30 years a midterm house election saw an 8 point margin of victory).
Instead of focusing on the fact that a clear drubbing in the polls showed the republicans beat, Mr. McCarthy picks the ugly weaknesses of our flawed electoral system and treats them as if it's validation. It should be a shameful thing that the side that receives the outsize share of votes does not always get the outsize share of elected seats. Anything less puts partisanship above patriotism.
155
@Steve
Good points but Mr. McCarthy completely discounts gerrymandering and how hard it would been for the Dems to retake the Senate.
14
@Steve
What do you call it when a party wins only one presidential popular vote out of the last seven, yet gets "elected" three times?
In most places, it's a rigged election; in the United States, it's called "constitutional".
Yesterday demonstrated one systematic truth about our electoral arrangements. The Democratic Party has to overcome a 7% handicap in order to get a narrow win.
45
@Rina Bergrin
How in the world does gerrymandering have anything to do with the Senate?
And, if the Republicans' alleged gerrymandering was a factor in anything, how did the Democrats win back the House by a large margin?
Democrats simply do not make sense.
7
As usual, the devil resides in the details while the Devil resides in Trump.
Let's look at the trends from November 6. By any measure, it was a stunning victory for minorities, women, and LGBTQ's. They showed up at the polls in record numbers, posted wins in unexpected places, and came uncomfortably close, for America's naysayers, in several other races. That hardly can be construed as a positive harbinger for the far-right in 2020.
Regarding the economy, to the average lower and middle-class family, which typically struggles to make ends meet after basic medical, food, housing, transportation, and educational expenses have been met, the standard GDP measure typically employed by economists means little.
So what if the stock market has boomed when only a small fraction directly benefits from that. After ten long years of a "booming(?)" economy, a token 3% wage hike hardly keeps abreast of inflation, albeit a low number. And the much-ballyhooed tax cut? For whom, the top 10% and the largest corporations? All to the tune of the record-setting federal deficit and national debt increases which we get to pass along to our children and grandchildren.
When examined under this light, who is being fooled and who is doing the fooling becomes clear. The ultra-conservatives can crow all they like from behind their masks of false issues, but a disturbingly slim majority is not fooled. America continues its slide toward mediocrity under its misleading messages of hate and intolerance.
15
The triumph of last night was an AMERICAN triumph. Democrats might have won the house but a more important thing also occurred for ALL AMERICANS, silently but undeniably. Last night we found out that Obama's legacy is not only safe-- it is untouchable, majestic and advancing over our nation. Hundreds of women, people of color and immigrants took over our government- but not in the way our fear-mongering, ignoramus president and his constituents are worried about. It's the huge win of a lifetime. There is a new face on the American political landscape and while it happens to be Democratic, it is the most American thing I can imagine.
9
@Eric Obama's legacy is almost gone, two more years and perhaps it will be totally gone from a legal point of view.
1
@vulcanalex I'm not so sure you understood me: my point is that his legacy doesn't solely exist in Obamacare or any of the things that can be eradicated by law or by Trump's pen. His legacy is also the acceptance of -and governance by -a diverse group of Americans: people of color, gays and lesbians, etc
1
Read the polls.
He's got white men, the older the better.
Now read the demographic trends.
Then, think about what Mueller's report is likely to say.
I think Trump is in big trouble.
15
@RickP Yes think about how long Mueller's report is taking, and then consider it won't say anything much about the president. If there was something there, before the mid terms was the time to put it out there. Perhaps the new cabinet member will insist on a report and a time frame for completion.
1
@vulcanalex
News reports were that the Justice Department policy is not to release politically sensitive material for 60 days prior to an election.
Meanwhile news reports indicate that Mueller and the Grand Jury have been very busy.
The wait is frustrating, but, not unusual for a major investigation. Given the campaign manager and personal lawyer have been convicted and have turned on Trump, I don't expect Mueller to exonerate Trump.
Whether Trump will ever really be brought to justice is a different question.
1
Trumps only reward from last night was that he can claim that he did better than Obama which of course is very important to him. Yet that is the most superficial understanding of the significance of the outcome.
It’s clear that Trump’s path to re-election is even less likely than his improbable election in 2016. Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin put Trump in the White House by fewer than 80,000 combined votes. All 3 states now have Democratic governors, with Michigan and Wisconsin flipping last night. Democrats picked up 3 seats in PA and 2 in MI. Name a state that Clinton won in 2016 that’s going to flip to Trump. A lot can happen in 2 years, but even with the best economy in recent times he’s losing ground where he cannot afford to any. If the economy falters or middle/lower income wages don’t rise faster than inflation, he’s doesn’t stand a chance 2020.
10
This editorial is moral vacuousness. We can concede that Trump is now the head, heart and right arm of the Republican Party. That does not imply that his racism, bigotry, lies, and demagoguery represent American values or our Constitution.
16
He was rewarded? Really? and how does this "reward" affect him-meltdown on TV- aide grabbing Jim Acosta's mic. Calls Acosta "a terrible person"-for reporting? Accuses PBS reporter-who happens to be black-of a racist question--it was about Trump "nationalist" label. Trump unglued.....
10
Texas is a ticking time bomb for the Republicans. When Texas goes Republican's route to the Presidency is dead.
5
I would definitely agree on some points for the election from yesterday. But for 2020, things will be different. Donald Trump may have to go to other areas of the country to exploit. Not sure that Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio will fall for the same story as before. Trump can only win in rural areas now. The only bad news is that we may have to elect another Republican president to get rid of Trump but I am game for that.
4
1. Republicans winning in Missouri, Indiana & North Dakota weren't exactly stretch goals. it's the result of increased nationalization of races. FL is competitive as always. The Democratic pick up opportunities this election were with the exception of Nevada only in red states.
2. The seat count is the result of gerrymandering, fortunately due to gov pickups & ballot referendums 2020 will be the last election with such a stated map. Also worth noting that popular vote is above 2010 margins
3. a terrible president inheriting a good economy will continue to have a good economy for years. ditto with a good president and bad economy. The economy moves in cycles, the president isn't the CEO of the economy.
8
". . .he is a much loved champion of his voters." Which voters? The Proud Boys? The "Jews will not replace us" marchers? The bomb mailers? The "better Russian than Democrat" crowd? The Pizzagate believers? The David Duke Republicans? I'm sure that he is "much loved" by all the above groups.
19
Trump cares only about Trump. He is about to
be attacked on at least 3 fronts, New York State,
The House of Representatives and the people who voted
Democratic last night. The Democrats almost
won the Texas Senate. I predict that in 2020,
Texas will at long last - turn blue again.
8
Wow, Democrats flip the House and Mr. McCarthy concludes that Trump is winning. So much winning!
I guess the column does show that you can make something out of a sow's ear. I just don't believe it's a silk purse.
5
He was given the keys to the party he hijacked. Rewards don't get much bigger.
3
@Lorem Ipsum He already had the keys. He has not used them wisely and will continue to go more and more off the rails.
2
He won votes through playing on people's fear--and fear of the facts--which always brings out the lack of character in the uneducated, unsophisticated middle class voter....and those who want to blame everything on immigrants and the poor.
3
Democrats - let's reward him more in 2020 by winning the Presidency, Senate, Governorships, and House
10
The “winner” in all this sniping and chaos, may be slightly disappointed in the House result, but I can almost hear the laughter and backslapping going on I Putin’s circles.
Let's just say you have a rich fantasy life Daniel! As of the latest count, your party lost 26 seats in the House (thus losing the House by a large margin) and lost 7 governorships - including Kansas and Wisconsin. Any way you look at that, you lost and lost large. Your racist, nationalist, low-IQ president (with a 39% approval rating) is about to be hounded mercilessly by investigations for however much time remains on his disaster of an administration.
Yeah, that sounds like a fantastic outcome! Have fun spinning the news of subpoenas that start issuing from the House.
6
It's a huge stretch to claim that Trump was "rewarded" in these mid-term elections. The decisive loss of control of the House of Representatives will be a continual hindrance for the Trump Administration through the 2020 Election. Trump is certainly pleased with the Senate Seat wins in South Dakota and Florida, but even HE would admit that the GOP was very concerned about the close races in Texas and Arizona...and extremely disappointed with the Dems wins in Montana and Nevada, states which he visited and whose GOP candidates he campaigned hard for in the in the closing weeks.
Perhaps what should be most concerning for Trump and his backers are the strong DEM victories in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. After all, if history is any indicator, a loss by the 2020 GOP presidential candidate (presumably Trump) in any one of those states, will probably mean losing the Electoral College.
4
Trump's standards and methods and attitudes towards issues are now an integral part of the Republican Party. For many Republicans, lower taxes, fewer regulations, and more conservative judges are worth the loss of reasoned political debate and the respect for institutions, traditions, and the rule of law that are the hallmarks of conservatism. A smaller, less powerful government clears the way for plutocracy, and conservative judges are more inclined to safeguard the rule of the rich and powerful over everyone else.
With Trump, there is no such thing as a reasoned discussion of what our policies or goals should be. Reasoned discussion is limited to what policy and goal images can be most readily sold and will contribute the most to the Trump brand.
Dubya tried to substitute images of victory and progress for reality in his Iraq war. This strategy got him reelected, and the surge repaired to an extent the reality-produced rift in these images, but the images became thin, reality showed through, and rather than reasoned discussion of how this all came about we moved on to other images that were more pleasant and exciting to look at.
Unlike dubya, Trump is all image, and we are trying out an all-image government. Since image trumps reality, what could go wrong?
1
Re "Trump was not repudiated"
I disagree. But then, I know Trumpists have yuge capacity for spinning, when unable to turn to out and out lying.
@M.R. Sapp
Ah, yes, another noble and enlightened trait of Democrats: they never spin. Or lie.
5
This is not a democracy but a republic. The Constitution's methods of indirect muffled democracy. meant to prevent a majority mob from taking over, have been stood on their heads by the modern extreme right to enable a takeover precisely by a mob, and a minority mob at that. Mr. McCarthy, who styles himself an anarchist, probably holds Steve Bannon in esteem. Mr. Bannon in turn holds in esteem Vladimir Lenin, the all-time champion of quashing a majority with an extremist minority. All these Leninites in the Republican Party will learn that governing with an extremist minority eventually provokes a huge backlash from the majority.
4
"Indeed, if the administration were as incompetent and ideologically extreme as critics charge, the economy should not be doing well in the first place, some 22 months after Mr. Trump assumed office."
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc! It's almost as if a president and, indeed, even an entire presidential administration isn't the main driver behind the economy.
The fact of the matter is that Democrats did indeed win the House, despite the current state of gerrymandering which favors Republicans. The Senate map had a full 10 seats defended by Dems in states that went Trump in 2016, whereas only one Rep was defending a Clinton state (NV). That's an absurdly difficult map for them, but Dems only lost three of those seats (assuming FL and AZ are Rep) and flipped NV, doubling the ~2.5 point Clinton margin to ~5 points.
And what about that state control that Republicans tout so often? The Dems gained seven governerships, which is definitely a shellacking or wave or whatever you want to call it. They also gained trifecta control of six states while Republicans lost control of three (assuming GA gov. is R).
Since the high water mark was Trump's "biggest electoral college win since Reagen", this election certainly looks like a repudiation of Trump to me.
6
I cannot understand why people tout the economy as a success. Yes, this administration did build on what Obama started. But Trump borrowed from the future to do it - in the form of the deficit, reversing action on climate change and a good deal of the enviro deregulation attempts. You cannot evaluate the economy without considering the ways in which we will be paying for it later.
46
@Syliva and to the extent to which prosperity is shared among the many or the few.
3
Indeed, if the administration were as incompetent and ideologically extreme as critics charge, the economy should not be doing well in the first place, some 22 months after Mr. Trump assumed office.
Clearly the current administration is not incompetent. Unscrupulous, but not incompetent. Indeed, that is what is so frightening. If a significant portion of the Trump base was actually cognizant and aware of the extremist attitudes instead of patting each other on the back for sticking it to the other side, they might realize how they are being screwed by the same administration they adore.
4
Keep on spinnin', Mr. McCarthy. Yesterday was a huge day for pushing back on the politics of the right -- particularly the politics of Trump. Make any excuse you want -- but for me yesterday's results are a great source of optimism for the future -- it seems America (at least part of it) does have a soul.
8
Every candidate that Obama showed support for lost. Every candidate that Trump supported won.
8
@jaco
Oprah didn't do her candidate any favors either.
2
@jaco Yeah. Poor Jacky Rosen.
@jaco That isn't even remotely true. Perhaps you should go back and take a look at the election results, and then review who Trump and Obama endorsed, and who they also rallied with. There are as many Trump losses as wins. Obama endorsed 81 candidates, and more than half won.
1
I feel good knowing that my county is 65+% Blue and that there is not a single Red spot on the electoral map where I would choose to live.
4
Trump is a champion of himself. If he really cared about his supporters, he'd spend more time in Washington working for them instead of holding rallies so he can listen to them cheer.
2
@Julie Why work when you can travel on AF1, play golf on other peoples money and spend like there's no tomorrow? Again on the taxpayers dime.
Trump is still the bad teenager banging on the drum in the garage next door at two a.m. in the morning despite all the talks with the "parents" and calls to the police. He's a distraction.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the bubble economy is still humming along sending $billions up to the rich who already own and control the lion's share of the country.
If I'm not mistaken, Trump continues to appoint judges to our high courts who will support corporate power and corporate greed for the next several generations.
Maybe it's just an impression, but people went to the polls in record numbers only to find their hopes and dreams canceled by the hopes and dreams of other voters who were influenced by a different corporate media. Real issues were rarely discussed or debated.
The Trump Gong Show continues, the audience is riled up, but outside and up top, the system continues as if this election never happened. There are only a few new faces to watch on TV.
5
He may be the “head,” but it’s going to take a lot more than his right arm to extricate it from its current location.
4
"The president made the midterms a real battle instead of a running retreat. He is widely hated and feared, but he is also much loved as a champion of his voters."
Kind of a loaded statement. First of all, the GOP as a whole sacrificed vulnerable House members in order to "rile up" the base and maintain control of the Senate. Their analysis (correctly) indicated that the same embrace of Trump and dog-whistling rhetoric necessary to motivate the Trump base in key Senate races would simultaneously imperil their control of the House by alienating... everyone outside of Trump's core. Now that's a cold strategic decision... but a demonstrably DEFENSIVE one, which is the nature of retreat. It's not unlike Ted Cruz deciding that he doesn't care how disgustingly Trump insulted and slandered Cruz's wife or what presidents Trump said the Cruz family helped to assassinate. He prostrated himself before Trump to stay in the game, did a little dog-whistling down in Texas. Ted chose not to fight for his dignity/self-respect and concentrated on securing his fiefdom instead.
The fact that the GOP gained Senate seats is nice for them, but it is (again) a consolidation of a chamber they already controlled while control altogether in the other half. It's like gaining an extra bedroom upstairs while losing the bottom floor of one's home. Nice to have a new guestroom, but an obvious net loss.
2
Trump is a blatherskite--he talks at great length with great foolishness. His habit is not new to US politics. The technique can be more successful than many would allow.
I wish the new House members well and hope that maybe Congress can get some necessary legislation through, including on infrastructure, job retraining, immigration and health care. The odds are against them in our time.
1
Great article! Nothing says American values more than fearmongering and falsities of ginormous proportions!
2
Any reasonable person can see that Trump plays to the most gullible audience because he loves the adoration they shower on him. They want to believe everything he says and the Fox echo chamber drums it into their heads. This is the moribund part of American society that will eventually consume itself and die off, thankfully. The midterm election of 2018 will be recorded in history as the beginning of the end Republican party.
3
Mr. McCarthy's argument is summed up his invocation of the idea that winning the popular vote is meaningless because America is a republic, not a democracy. When Republicans win it is often largely because of structural elements undreamed of by the framers of the Constitution, such as California having 65+ times the population of Wyoming but each getting 2 Senate seats (in 1790 the date of the first census the biggest state had only 12 times the population of the smallest state). Add to this gerrymandering and systematic voter suppression and Republicans win by subverting democracy. McCarthy apparently thinks that that is fine.
7
This argument in favor of 'trumpism', or at least that it wasn't repudiated in a meaningful way yesterday starts off with two serious omissions in the first two paragraphs.
First, yesterdays shift in the House wasn't as large as that in '94 or '10 in the other direction for two very simple reasons: GOP hyper-gerrymandering after the 2010 census in many swing states, and GOP voter suppression efforts (partially enabled by the abandonment of stipulations laid out in the voting rights act). The Brennan center recently released a study illustrating exactly how severely this has tilted the playing field. Curiously, Mr. McCarthy actually does point out that the House popular vote differential was about 8%, but fails to point out that in past cycles that would've resulted in a larger change of seats.
Second, as far as the Senate goes, the Senate map that democrats were dealing with - having to defend 26 of the 35 seats in play, including 2 in red states that trump won in 2016 - was almost insurmountable. They were actually lucky to lose as few seats as they did. Of course the Senate map for republicans in 2020 looks equally as bleak.
The piece is a premise in search of an argument. And as Mr. McCarthy showed us, his argument was pitifully short on facts.
6
Let's give credit where credit is due.If the standard is losing seats, Trump reversed that trend. His 'stamina' during the campaign is undeniable, while using the power of the 'dark side' to do it, he generated and sustained an enthusiasm for his cause that almost no other politician could. His innate skill at denying the presence of any bad news is for him a huge positive. And the temper tantrums of the press give a boost that no one else could provide.
2
The branding is finished now, and how applicable that word is to this situation, both in its modern sense of product narrative and also as the mark an owner burns into the hide of his cattle.
Whatever claim the GOP had to responsible policy making or philosophical integrity is gone. Now they're property, committed to fishtailing at the end of Trumpism, with zero independence. Trump's toxic rallies served notice on them that they're his to deploy for his purposes, or his to discard. Their job is to repeat his lies, cover his flanks, hide his paper trail, and kiss his babies.
The army of shills like our Mr. McCarthy here (and the even more embarrassing Chris Buskirk, who seems welcome in these pages) have been reduced to prolific paid sophists further undermining whatever claim the Right has to intellectual rigor. We're watching one of the pillars of American political thought being eaten from within by its termites.
7
Ah, the bliss of ignorance of the contemporary Republican voter: Willful ignorance (or completely inability to grasp) the mounting national budget deficit and air and sea temperatures. Analysis of evidence is not their strong suit. Let's party like it's 2099!
But these economic and ecological stresses have to be repaired; these will not go away. But not today, not for the Republican voter. No siree, no problem!
But those problems will not go away. Someone has to clean up. Any takers?
5
@Victor Mark
We just believe our lying eyes I guess. Great economy, a president who is serious about curbing illegal immigration. A president who does not start unnecessary wars.
4
@jaco "A president who does not start unnecessary wars." Something new for the Republicans? Americans are still fighting two wars begun by the last Republican president. I sincerely hope that we do not get another one - but Trump still has time.
2
@Ken
You mean two wars that a democratic president had 8 years to end but didn’t? Yeah you’re kind of right.
2
What this shows is that due to gerrymandering and voter suppression, dems have to super-win to win.
9
Why is Trump such a force? Given his long list of lies and crudities, why so many votes?
The answer is not that it was murky and a hard choice. The answer is that 40% of voters (more than double that for Republicans) are brainwashed by the propaganda machine run by a handful of dubious billionaires. The Mercers, the Uihleins, the Wilks, the Kochs, the Spencers, the Adelsons, to name the better known.
Fox News, Hannity, Limbaugh, Alex Jones, disinformation on scurrilous web sites, Trump on Twitter, Facebook trolls and robots, YouTube videos, Instagram ... it’s huge, it’s successful, it defines reality for the 40% that don’t believe anything else.
Until this machine is disassembled, demagoguery and fake news will remain decisive in many elections and frame the debate as one over bigotry and the id.
5
Woe betide our children with a role model such as this!
7
The average American watches about 4 hours of TV a day. Trump was a TV star, playing the successful businessman he never was in real life. Now he plays at being President and has big rallies that feed not just his ego, but the egos of his fans in dying parts of the country who need any type of community they can get. As we refuse to allow any real education in our schools, this is what the future will continue to look like. Witness the enthusiasm when someone floated the prospect of Oprah running as a Democrat. The slide is greased and we are on it.
11
@Mike B You are so correct. This country in another generation will be even further in its ignorance, illiteracy and stupidity. My daughter's selective middle school teaches science without a textbook, humanities, without a textbook, foreign language without any precepts of grammar. By the time these kids get to college, it's too late.
As far as I can tell, the Democrats who won yesterday were not running against candidates in 1994 or 2010 -- they were running in today's toxic political climate, so any comparison to those elections is completely moot.
Trying to make this election look like a big win for Trump has clearly become a cottage industry. What I know is that the Democrats took back control of one of the three branches of government and they stole several governorships. In anyone's book, that's a win. A big win.
17
@Clyde
This.
If Trump won by stoking fear, and he did, then the Democrats’ first job is to figure out how to counter those fears. Immigration does seem like a good place to start. Gun control might be another if it can be presented in a way that makes them believe their guns won’t help them defend themselves.
2
If Donald Trump is the Republican Party's head then it would appear the Republican Party has no brain.
14
@Alex Kodat
Alex, how could you suggest that Trump has "no brain"?
What an unkind thing to say! But maybe you have a point.
But, what might we do about Trump's foolishness?
Let me suggest more creative TEASING of Trump
For example, how about silly gestures and silly sounds?
How about making moreUmore with fake this and that?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Trump makes a mockery of democracy, so why can't we tease him about it, all the time and see what happens?
This article simply reflects the tone deaf and brick headed attitude of many in the Republican party. Their refusal to acknowledge the hateful atmosphere and divisiveness that they have created under the aegis of their supreme leader will be their undoing.
While it is true that most Americans at the end of the day like the economy to be healthy, and our borders to be safe, we also demand that our elected leaders be articulate, diplomatic, decent, honest, ethical and embracing of the diversity that defines this country. The GOP bombast represents none of it. Quite the contrary, he is a person who will not flinch about walking into a crowded theater and shouting "fire" simply because he wants nobody to see the movie that is being screened.
Yes, we will out him in 2020 if Mueller's team does not get to it before then. "Vote 2020" is the new mantra.
19
@Plato
"we also demand that our elected leaders be articulate, diplomatic, decent, honest, ethical and embracing of the diversity that defines this country. "
You and I may demand that, but clearly a sizable proportion of Americans does not demand this. Not even a little. And that is the sad truth that may give Trump another term.
1
"Indeed, if the administration were as incompetent and ideologically extreme as critics charge, the economy should not be doing well in the first place, some 22 months after Mr. Trump assumed office."
Perhaps the question is not whether the administration is incompetent and ideologically extreme (which he is), but what kind of damage is being done to get economic good results. Denial of climate change is driving the world into a brick wall, restrictions of pollution loosened, national monuments plundered, military-industrial complex revved up with war in Yemen and sales to Saudis et al. — enjoy the good economy. Ever think about the future of your children? A lucrative economy does not mean a healthy world or society. Similarly the Republicans holding onto the Senate was, to my observations, propelled by all-out disgraceful, racist, lying propaganda campaign. Some victory.
29
It feels like Trump won, because he's still in the White House spouting bile and lies. But as many others have pointed out the Dems did well despite gerrymandering. Let's be clear: No one expected the Dems to take the senate. It was a long shot largely because so few Republican seats were up for grabs compared to the Dems. Moreover it was also the case that Republicans were able to flip senate seats that had a large pro-Trump base. Again, not a surprise. Once soybean farmers go bankrupt in a few months, that base will erode.
I find this Conservative finger wagging and gloating to be unbearable. They're trying, and succeeding, to play down a change that has evened the score somewhat and hopefully put a check on Trump's abuse of power and rampant corruption. For the many, not the few!
8
All anyone ever needs to remember about Trump is "very fine people on both sides", when complimenting Naziwannabes. No argument to support Trump can withstand this perverse thinking. Period.
8
Yes--agreed, Mr. Trump will remain the center of attention for the foreseeable future. That also means the country at large will remain in a mean-spirited, divisive dark age of racial dog whistles, sarcasm, and anger.
8
I suppose that is why, during his morning-after-election-hangover press conference, he resorted to his fallback position, that of a blustering, bloviating, bullying blowhard, utterly bereft of ideas, and as bankrupt of substance as the Trump Shuttle, Trump University and the Taj Majal Casino.
9
All anybody needs to know is that Trump said that the sun came out during his inauguration speech, while everybody could plainly see that it was overcast and raining.
That really is all you need to know. I mean, think about it - what else do you really need to know?
10
Repudiated. By large margins in the aggregate votes for seats in both houses.
3
" if the administration were as incompetent and ideologically extreme as critics charge, the economy should not be doing well in the first place, some 22 months after Mr. Trump assumed office."
Unless:
1. a decade ago the CBO already predicted, thanks to objective calculations, that thanks to Obama's economic policies, we'd have a decade-long steadily growing economy and historically long job growth
2. the GOP didn't sign any major piece of economic legislation into law
3. Trump's objectively dramatic executive order proposals on the economy haven't been signed yet, for most of them, or only in part and very recently (for some of his trade war ideas).
Conclusion: the only way to HONESTLY analyze the economic record of an administration is to look at what it did, and how that change the previous situation.
But anyone still interested in real analysis and intellectual and moral honesty knows that you can't expect any GOP pundit to still uphold these values anymore, since more than a decade now.
So please continue to lie and cheat. History has shown that in the end, the truth always prevails. In the meanwhile, those having the guts to run on fact-based policies and moral values and character, already took back the House. Soon more will come.
Lies NEVER made America great, remember?
12
Two strokes of luck stand out as defining the landscape of these midterm elections;
1. The retirement of Anthony Kennedy and nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. This high-stakes drama electrified Republicans to an extent baffling to anyone outside of the fold. Even after confirmation, this seems to have held considerable sway against conservative voter lethargy.
2. Migrant Caravan. Exploited mercilessly by the President, even with some extremist killings here and there, with exactly the imagery he dreams of.
It is also a testament to the apparatus of power and media propaganda Conservatives have built over decades. It is a force to be reckoned with, and large swathes of the country are all but unreachable to any dissenting argument now or probably the foreseeable future.
But - a big one - with the House no longer another arm of insulation for the President, his luck may just start to run out. It never lasts forever, and contrary to the 'everyone out to get him' whinge he loves to dole out, now he indeed has powerful and dangerous enemies that will not spare him from his own incompetence and misdeeds.
14
Trump lost the popular vote by about three million in 2016. So his divisive strategy did not win him the most votes. Yet he won in the electoral college. He won in spite of what he did, not because of it. When he tried the same approach again, he won the senate (in seats that Democrats were defending in red states) but lost state houses and lost the House of Representatives. This is not a reward for good idea. This shows how lucky he was in 2106, when not even he thought he would win; and that appealing to the worst of our instincts has its limits.
6
Trump is such a con man. M. Bloomberg was correct in that characterization at the Democratic convention. Only a con man would mislead a campaign rally audience that Dr Ford had recanted her accusation against Judge K. Of course Trump left himself wiggle room. He did not name names. Typical Trump. The con man’s game.
11
Just watched the press conference by Trump. Well, he certainly sees himself as the greatest POTUS that ever lived or served so no change there. Otherwise it was more lies, more blaming the media and basically the usual Trump alternate reality.
I mean come on Trump saying "Nancy Pelosi is a great leader"?
Who believes that?
It looks to me that Trump does feel himself not only vindicated but emboldened. More racism and division will come our way because it worked for him.
The one area where Trump is "concerned" remains his red line, no go zone of his tax returns. That is Trump's precious, Trump's forbidden fruit. NO ONE must ever see them. And he has clearly stated he will fight to the death to keep them secret.
I don't care about impeachment, let Mueller finish. But every time Trump erects the only wall he will ever see as POTUS being built around his tax returns, the more I want someone to see them. How much does he have in loans from foreign banks/countries?
239
@Elizabeth
Very true. Ever the dealmaker, trump is probably hoping he can trade the promise of bipartisanship on a couple of key democratic policy goals (that vast majorities of Americans already support, btw) for the democrats promising not to pry into his spacious and full closet of legal skeletons.
The answer to that should be to commit to work on compromises, but that the legal issues going away is not on the table. In any way shape or form.
20
@Elizabeth
The Republicans have proven very effective at smearing all of the leading female Democratic politicians, be it Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, or Nancy Pelosi.
No doubt he'd like Pelosi to be back in charge if only for that reason. Many of whose followers seem to rejoice in the attacks which would continue with Pelosi as Speaker. It is not her fault; however, IMO the Democratic party would do well to install a new, younger, and yes male Speaker to end the sexist attacks on the Democrats.
12
@HEH
A new Speaker can be a woman, of course, just not Nancy Pelosi, she's 78 years old, and extremely wealthy and comfortable...she's done. We need someone with fire in the belly, and not shy about confronting the cowardly bully Trump. Diane Feinstein is also done, 85 years old, very wealthy, and a Republican lite, a waste. Chuck Schumer, weak and stale. The Democrats really need to overhaul the leader ship. Sad to see Beto, Gillum and Abrams go down. I wish there was a serious study and investigation of the voting machines, the Republicans keep pulling these "convenient" wins after trailing in the polls, some by wide margins.
15
Have to agree with DD from California. Donald Trump may have lost a few henchmen but no-one critical, and in effect the election served as something of a purge that gives him an more even more supportive Congressional base. And Congressional Republicans are even more firmly tied to him and therefore will see their futures bound up in his. One can anticipate the Democrats will soon splinter into rivalries as the presidentially ambitious seek to position themselves for the Democratic nomination. Corporate Democrats will seek to consolidate the mushy center and big donors while progressives will quarrel among themselves. Some will seek to play to their base via calls for impeachment, calls accomplishing nothing besides a brief headline while confirming Republican fears their leader is under baseless attack. We can anticipate every policy choice, from how to deal with immigration to trade policy or environmental regulation, will proceed in terms of short-term Republican Party advantages for the 2020 election. In this respect Democratic use of investigatory powers needs to be strategic, directed heavily toward building criminal indictments where possible, underscoring the fundamental argument that Republicans have become a party of plunder and pillage that ravages the countryside leaving a brutalized population to pick up the pieces and clean up the mess. Donald Trump as Attila the Hun, surrounded by brigands indifferent to, even reveling in, their destruction of American society
56
@usa999 What's with the "doom and gloom" analysis that gets a NYT pick? Instead of rejoicing that this democracy actually does work (I think the Dem's taking back the house is cause for rejoicing and proof that it works) we get this constant barrage of negativity. There's no fruit in it. None whatsoever. Life is hardly perfect. If we didn't get the senate now we will next time. Trump will not survive another term and the House's flip is an indicator that his days are numbered.
8
At its soul our government is one of representation. From the mayor of the tiniest town to the President of the United States we elect people to represent us - thoughtfully consider and act in our best interests. Donald Trumps supporters are of a mind that no one on the planet represents them as well as he does. Which politician of the Democratic party has such following and fervor? The job of the Democrats going forward is to discern how to foster thier party to represent at least the moderate supporters of Trump while maintaining without losing the movement to the extreme left. An exceptional leader with vision and wisdom is required. The 'old guard' would do well to empower and enable and begin to themselves graciously fade.
2
Classical Republican nonsense claiming victory no matter what.
12
We need to give Trump less airtime and fewer editorials. Report the facts, publish his tweets but let them more or less speak for themselves. Stop filling page after page and hour after broadcast hour screaming about him. When he lies report it, say simply “that was a lie” and move on to the next story. It is not news that the President lies, it is a sad and well known fact. Outraged editorials are not read by his base and are preaching to the choir. You are doing more harm than good and playing into his hands.
If you want Trump to lose in 2020 downplay him and focus on anything good and upbeat the Democrats or moderate Republicans are doing. And if there are any moderate Republicans anywhere give them good press because we really need to support them also. There are people who cannot bring themselves to leave the GOP. So we need to figure out a way to shift the GOP back towards the center. I suggest registering Republican and voting in the primaries is probably the best strategy for that.
12
The fact that Republican hacks are happy with a loss in "a real battle" (because of Trump's terribleness) despite the built in advantages they have (good economy, defending red states) shows how low the curve once again is for Trump.
It's in the Marianas Trench along with their integrity and their commitment to rule of law and democracy
5
The Democratic candidates under-performed relative to expectations and pre-election day polls. The senatorial losses last night, combined with the 2020 map, make a Democratic takeover of the Senate in 2020 difficult. Although the Democrats won the House, some of the seats that just flipped will be hard to defend two years from now. And the gubernatorial victories in the big swing states of Florida and Ohio will help cement Republican structural advantages there (i.e. gerrymandering, voter I.D. laws, etc.). But the biggest takeaway from last night is that a lot voters of have biases and are not particularly well-informed, and that Trumpian appeals to white racial and cultural anxieties worked well as a political strategy. So, yes, Trump was rewarded more than he was repudiated. But I don't think that we can say the same for democratic norms and values.
5
By becoming "an integral part of the Republican Party - its head as well as its right arm", Trump will kill the Republican Party. It will never recover from what it has become, and over the next two years, Trump's perpetual tantrum is going to get old.
Not to mention that now we will have real oversight from the House, instead of the frantic attempts to defend Trump at all costs practiced by quislings like Devin Nunes.
The right wing can't change time, and it can't change demographics. In the next two years, a lot of embittered, angry, elderly Trump voters will die, while more and more young people of all stripes will be eligible to vote. The GOP is now facing the tide of History. It will sink.
6
The key point that Daniel McCarthy is missing is that Trump's coalition from the 2016 election shrunk. He won suburbia in 2016. This time suburban districts sent a clear message that they don't like the direction Trump is taking us. Another take away from this election is that gerrymandering is a prime cause of the divisive state of affairs.
7
gerrymandering affects the house not the Senate. the Republican hold on the Senate shows how the country is split
3
The Republicans did as well as they did in this mid-term election because of two factors:
the way the Democrats have behaved since the 2016 election and the way the media, especially the NYT, has covered this presidency. Instead of taking Michele Obama's advice the Democrats and the media (in general) decided to get down in the swamp with Trump. Take the high ground!
1
I disagree. The Republicans did well because of the economy... which of course is Obama's legacy not Trump's. Trump's only contribution was the tax bracket which fueled the economy now but will screw things up later. like a sugar high.. Trump was lucky to be able to ride Obama's wave.
4
@Susan
typo! tax bracket should have been tax break.
This is exactly the kind of messaging we want to see if we're going to get rid of Trump and his minions in 2020.
Theses such as these will encourage Trump to overreach by making sillier and sillier decisions.
Thank you, Mr McCarthy.
6
I believe this is the first time Americans have feared their president.
5
@Louisa Glasson
I think it's more like they feared what he was doing to America and never getting rid of him.
1
What.you fail to mention: working class whites will follow him off a cliff and they just did. There is no message except anger and fear. They see the world changing, they don't like it, and they want a strong man to make it like it was. Trump lies to them and tells them it can go back to the way it was. That's it. There is nothing else.
15
Trump's followers don't care much about Trump, except that they want him to deliver on Supreme Courts and other Federal Courts; that explains the Senate majority. They are not going to stand by him if the House Democrats subpoena his Tax records or impeach him. He is just another soldier who delivered.
1
@AKA, you are wrong. Trump's followers are members of a cult. They like and admire him, some worship him. The GOP leadership and pundits will dump him if needed, but his cult members will still be there. How else do you explain an UN regulated militia, heading to the Mexican border? If that's not nuts, i do not know what is.
2
Exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses through well-chosen insults is now being seen as a talent. We are already on the slippery slope when the press is normalizing this type of behavior. Just like the press jumped on the band wagon of the Beer president under Ronald Reagan.
2
This is a clear and insightful analysis. From the left, I've observed Republicans stoke fear, in a subtly way, to turn out the vote. Trump has super-charged this approach. To my surprise (and dismay) it appears, the more fear, the better the outcome for conservatives. This midterm is exceptional, in that Trump said wild, xenophobic things just before the election, and probably helped Republicans across the board. I think Democrats fall into a trap by stoking anger towards Trump. The left brings out the vote not on fear, but on hope, as evidenced most recently by Obama.
35
Does anyone truly believe the left’s message over the past 2 years regarding DT and his potential has been hope, rather than fear-based? From where I sit as a moderate dem, it has been pure and unadulterated catastrophizing
9
@Allison "Helped Republicans across the board??" I don't know if you've been keeping up with current events but they just lost the House. It is precisely because of Trump's fear-mongering that the Repubs no longer hold the house which is a fairly good repudiation of the president's methods. I'd say the Democrats are doing exactly what they should.
4
@Rick
You seem to have a very high threshold for what constitutes a "catastrophe"
This is the voice of power for its own sake. How many Americans voted for Democrats yesterday? How many for Republicans? The fact is, and has been for some time, that the people of this country prefer the Democratic philosophy and approach. I get it, save your breath, “under our system...”. Conservatives and GOP reactionaries have played the system well. They’ve suited their game to the ballpark and when necessary inserted their people as umpires as well....”under our system”, you know. But they also know that they are a ruling minority with often radical and very rejected ideas. This means they must, if they are to retain power, lie enormously and constantly to the people of this country. I’m hoping that we will tolerate this for only so long.
11
"Republicans on Tuesday did lose the governorship of Michigan, and they failed to win races for governor and the United States Senate in Pennsylvania. Those states, too, were part of Mr. Trump’s electoral map two years ago and are apt to be critical in 2020. Would the president be unable to win them again?"
Republicans on Tuesday also did lose the governorship of Wisconsin.
Those three states can and will decide the election in 2020.
3
@AGuyInBrooklyn, and if the elections n these 3 states are clean this time-- monitored, regulated--- the GOP will not win. That's one reason why VOTING legislation should be at the top of the House dem's agenda. Even if the senate kills what should be called The Freedom to Vote Act of 2019, the dems need to keep at it.
2
The Democrats took back the House in spite of 10 years of Republican gerrymandering since the last census and a whole host of voter suppression efforts all across red states. If those weren’t factors, the gains by the Democrats would probably have been much greater. That doesn’t sound like much of a reward to me. It looks more like a very sound rebuke of Republican governance.
4
@WesternMass, Dems may have won a battle but they have lost the war.
2
No, the president was repudiated. If you need to game the electoral college system to win an election, you're not in the strongest position. What we saw Tuesday was democracy in action, and the 'wave' would have been larger except for the republican gerrymandering if districts.
21
@Steve of course the key point is that the gerrymandering does exist. can the dems get it together statewide do undo such gerrymandering, and also FAKE neofascist Voter ID "laws" Pray for the health of Ruth Bader G.
5
@Steve If anyone's interested in looking at some good examples of this gerrymandering, take a look at the Austin, TX area, where liberal votes were quite effectively diluted by chopping up the city and tacking on parts to outlying rural areas. It looks like a giant pinwheel. And Republican gerrymandering worked in this last election, with near-losses in places like TX District 21.
Disgusting.
"President Trump will be at the center of that conflict, not as an aberration or departure from the norms of politics but as an integral part of the Republican Party" - this means that racism, narcissism and greed are the pillars of the Republican Party platform.
6
@George Warren Steele I left out dishonesty as a pillar of the Republican platform.
1
Donald Trump and the Republican Party depend on extremely white rural areas to give them a majority in the Senate. To the very end Trump deployed a masterly and insidious tension to earn the "love" of his voters in these areas. But what Trump does, what Trump says, and what Trump represents is upside down and repulsive. Trump is an angry diversion from the reality which is a racially and socially diverse and urban America. We can all be very thankful he is no longer in total control. Next step is to prepare for 2020 and the chance to remove him from office.
9
Republicans held on to the Senate and no message was sent to Trump (not that he would listen even if a Boulder was thrown at his head), thanks to an all out assault on the truth.
Trump lies dozens of times every day and it’s barely a story. Fox News openly campaigned for Trump on Monday and it was barely a story.
It’s easy to win elections when truth doesn’t matter.
1
"Trump was not repudiated????????" Sorry pal, but he just lost the House only two years into his presidency. Spin it however you want Mr. McCarthy (are you any relation to Kevin perchance?) but the Dems fought and WON an uphill battle. Congratulations to them! I am tickled pink.
8
@hmsmith0 tickled lavender!
1
Trump may still be "a champion of his voters", but they are still very much in the minority no matter how much he, and they try to whitewash their so-called patriotism with vicious and racist lies.
The results are in. And We, the PEOPLE have spoken.
6
Yes, Trump ran on the impending invasion of the road warrior hordes from Mexico and received a big fat accolade from nearly half the country. It was all a big fake show and he spent millions of tax payers dollars staging it.
Now keep in mind that nearly all of Trump loving supporters are hard working people who think reasonably in their personal lives. It’s just that Trump brings out a side to them that does not seem much in touch with reality. They hear nothing reasonable nor factual from him but he just sings out how they feel with the same true and intense emotions as great singers do, and they just know that he is the greatest and will give them everything that they might want.
We are in trouble, now. Trump has the Republican Party more firmly under his control than did Reagan but he knows far less about and cares far less about Presidential responsibilities than any previous President. The tax cuts are feeding a faux economic boom and are jacking up deficits rapidly. The economy has no fundamental factors to support even the current rates of growth unless the consumers of goods and services earn far more than they are. That is why inventories are growing and capital expenditures on building productive capacity are not increasing. We are going to have to raise taxes or deprive hundreds of millions of Medicare, Medicaid, federal pensions, and Social Security. Trump’s base will go silly with joy, at first. Then what will they do? They need those programs.
4
Full disclosure - I am a democrat and I worked for Trump to be totally repudiated.
Trump was not. Where he presented himself, those he supported mostly won. Trump is not to be under estimated, and that is what I fear the Democrats have done.
To counter Trump and his "nationalist" narrative, the Democrats should:
--- Advance a valid middle class oriented agenda including protecting Obamacare, investing in the country (read "infrastructure, but it is more than that.), and work to close income inequality.
--- Advance policies to correct the worst elements of the election and democratic process including laws to counter voter suppression, laws to protect election integrity, and policies to eliminate gerrymandering.
--- Investigate the worst of Trump's excesses and abuses. Limit the worst of his trade and foreign policy policies.
--- Propose true immigration reform.
And last, focus on building a Democratic Party infrastructure at the local and state level. Do that and national elections will take care of themselves. To long the local offices (city council, school board, etc.) and the state offices (state attorney, legislator, etc.) have been ignored.
Reach out to more women, veterans, young people, minorities, and senior citizens and work on both getting their support and getting them to the polls.
That is the ticket to success in 2020.
10
@M. Pippin, We will never get true immigration reform, not in our lifetimes.
2
@M. Pippin. “Where he presented himself, those he supported mostly won.”
Not in Montana, not in New Jersey, not in Kansas, not in Illinois, not in Michigan, not in Wisconsin, not in Minnesota, not in Nevada, not in Pennsylvania, not in Virginia, not in W. Virginia.
1
@MS
I truly don't understand why this is so difficult. We should not embrace anyone who breaks our laws to get into this country but everyone should be afforded a hearing, further those caught coming in shouldn't be given in effect an appearance ticket then we never see them again. E-verify is a must, any business that does not utilize this service shall be fined accordingly until they comply. We should also apply a quota system. The taxpayer who ends up footing the bill should not be forced to supply endless amounts of funds to take care of those coming in.
2
Some points to consider:
-Comparing this to past midterms is a false equivalency. Practically everyone agrees there has been nothing like this election in recent memory.
-Also, Obama and Clinton were trying to push through difficult health care bills, and Bush, Jr. was in the middle of an unpopular war. Trump is presiding over a booming economy. In that context, the performance of the Republicans can be seen as an abject failure.
-The Republicans lost seven governors' races last night. With a census year coming up, that means seven less chances at redistricting and seven less gerrymandered states.
-Probably most importantly; suburban voters and women voters in general deserted Trump in droves. I'm not sure there's anyway you can spin that into a win.
7
I hope tRump’s constituency enjoys the continued opiate overdoses as much as they seem to enjoy the constant lying. The numerator gets smaller each time another Fox News viewer dies. Let’s hope the country holds together long enough to rid ourselves of his mendacity and hate.
3
In fact, Trump went down to Georgia and battled with Oprah and Obama and won. Unbelievable.
7
Obama and Oprah got into the game in Georgia way too late. Oprah should have been touting Abrams all along. And what we also need is some campaigning and money flowing to the least objectionable GOP candidates at the primary level. By the time you get to the general election the choices are too stark.
@Mark, As in 'the Devil went down to Georgia...'.
I wonder what Republicans would have said if, in the 1990s and 2000s when they were shrieking about the godless liberals and that "character counts!" and investigating a president over a consensual affair and sermonizing the country about how fraught with Christian moral and family values they are and how lacking in them liberals and Democrats are and describing Dems as the "If it feels good, do it" party, someone had told them that, in a mere two presidents later, the leader of their party would be Donald Trump and their base would become purely about, "His dividing Us from THEM and his kindergarten ad hominem attacks on critics and his vilification of people with skin pigment darker than snow makes us feel so good, so good that we don't care that he lies to us 30 times a day, could care less about the Constitution, is a lifelong conman and criminal...because he just makes us feel so good to get our hate on!"
2
So, Mr McCarthy, do you have children and if you did, would you want them to grow up to be a lot like the current President? Really. Economy aside - because the Economy is a political football and is controlled in large part by buttons and strings that we don't the keys to, but look at what some people - people like you - have said to the world, "Here he is, our leader, we elected him, are proud of him, and like how we are represented in the world, by him."
I have not said that, nor will I ever.
Conclusion: Trump and McCarthy are awful examples of what it means to be an American and a citizen of the World.
We can have a strong economy regardless who is in office, so why not put a good person in (Obama?), and learn how to get the button pushers and string pullers to abide - since they can anyways?
Honestly, I don't think the NYT and its readers really know what it's like out there in the 'other' America beyond their liberal bubbles. The mostly red map is a clearly an example of this. There are seemingly more of them than there is of Democrats.
To re-phrase a popular saying, 'It's all about the endless, illegal immigration, stupid'.
Pay attention.
4
The "mostly red map" isn't anything like that -- it's just a function of massive but sparsely populated swathes of the country that vote Republican. Break it down based on population density instead and it looks much, much different. And, as for the ongoing illegal immigration you mention, look at the stats. It's been on the decline for a long time. And if the fear of immigrants is their taking American jobs, how does that square with the current unemployment rate?
6
@MS
There are seemingly more Trump supporters, but only seemingly. There's actually more Hillary voters. Trump supporters are in a bubble of their own. Addressing gerrymandering would a great way to address this problem.
2
@Brian, Yet those massive but sparsely populated swaths also have 2 Senators per state. There are obviously more red states than blue ones.
3
Why is the Times giving white space to Daniel McCarthy? I thought the standard was everything "fit to print." I don't think McCarthy passes muster. We can hear a conservative opinion without legitimizing partisan hacks.
2
@Andy
It's called freedom of speech, don't like his leanings? Don't read them. Also wouldn't it be boring reading articles of people of which you agree 100% of the time? Or are your delicate eyes and ears afraid of hearing or reading differing views?
1
Even a conservative should agree that an economy that depends on a trillion dollar deficit at a time of full employment is not sustainable. Sure, in the short term, Trump's numbers look good, but to think that his economic policies will prove successful over an economic cycle is purest moonshine.
Besides, his power comes mostly from groups that have little benefited from his tax cuts. It seems clear that his naked appeals to racial prejudice are the foundation of his appeal to the vast majority of lower educated whites who are and from his birther beginning always been the core of his support.
What this election has proven is that over the last two years the vast majority of Republican politicians have become adept at embracing the fruits of racism.
3
Thank goodness the Democrats saved us from those Russian's meddling in our election instead of pushing M4All and other issues that matter.
1
I wonder:
Was any President of the United States ever the most hated man in the country?--even Lincoln?
Closest would have been Lincoln, which should give everyone, both Trump haters and Trump lovers, pause.
What happened to the blue wave? It was Trumped! God Bless America and God Bless this President!
3
I wouldn't break out the champagne just yet. Do you not understand the huge impact the Democratic House can now have on Trump and his policies? This election is just the beginning, and it was a significant Blue win.
1
Trump still wind with shocking Tweets! and actions!
==========================================
I think Democrats and critics must learn how to zap with Tweeter, and by other means. They should stop relying so much on endless ramblings, and intellectual theories, alone.
Trump keeps winning by dominating the daily news cycle, with his threats, with words and with actions...
Hopefully, with the new Democratic House, Democrats will push back and out trump Trump, at his own game!
D's will do what they can and then be blamed. This election normalized the gaslighting.
1
Apologist.
3
No, he wasn't repudiated. He was rebuked. Fixed it for you, Times headline writers.
2
No, Trump is not "feared", he is despised. He makes a joke of everything he touches. The two true outcomes of this election night is: 1) the country is more fractured than ever, so much so for "leadership", 2) the USA is now part of the global wave of the populist demaguorery.
1
The fact that around 42% (according to 538) approve of someone as divisive, as racist, as misogynist, and as heartless as Trump was ample gauge that the election won't result in a sweep. In such a setting, winning the house is a huge deal.
3
Hard to say who really won overall in this election.
But there is a clear loser: America.
Two years after their shellacking in 2016, the Democratic establishment has obviously learned little. Two years of hue, cry, handwringing, and flailing wildly for excuses in any direction, rather than looking in the mirror, and have they got to show for their "efforts"?
1. Trump is normalized, and in a sweet spot of being able to now blame a Democratic House for his utter inability to govern -and via this "gridlock"- has a free pass to tweet to his ego's content.
2. He's been "normalized" by drawing Democrats, journalists, pundits, and much of society down to his gutter level, trashing America's traditions, corrupting its politics, gutting the efficacy of its government, and making a long term wasteland out of US foreign diplomacy, national security and international clout.
3. Republicans have shown they can survive, even with a pompous dishonest clown as their leader, just by thriving off Democrats' ingrained tokenism, indecision and timidity. They have two more years now to prepare for a future strategy of Trumpism without Trump, rightly trusting that the Democratic establishment has shown itself deeply and continuously ill-equipped for mustering a credible opposition, let along being capable of ever really fighting for anything substantive.
4. "Progressive" minded Americans are stubbornly slow to wake up to how they've have been conned and used by self-serving Democrat politicos.
53
I don't get your "normalizing" hypothesis.
Democrats have systematically refused to descend to the GOP's level of lying, cheating and personal insults. That, together with the policies they stand for and that not only the vast majority of the American people support but even often also a majority of GOP voters, is why notwithstanding all the gerrymandering, voter suppression and fake news, they've already taken back the House.
As to the GOP: for more than a decade already Fox News has fabricated an "alternative facts" world based on the most horrible lies. Trump didn't build that, all that he does is faithfully retweeting what Fox pundits say, which then gives the GOP voter base the feeling that "he gets it" and "he's one of us".
It pure and simple PR strategy, developed by a GOP who lost all sense of a moral compass years ago already, and that's precisely why they picked Trump as their leader in the first place.
There's nothing that the Democrats can do to wake up GOP voters, or nothing more than what they already do.
Now, it's time for the 50% of the American people who still didn't vote to take up responsibility, start analyzing who's doing what in DC, and then vote for the party that actively supports the policies they too support - and to understand that in a democracy, ALL real, radical, lasting progress is step by step progress, so you HAVE to go standing in the mud yourself, rather than standing at the sidelines and yelling "not enough" ... ! ;-)
15
...5. Against the worst US president and by far most shameful president of all time, the Democrat Party has barely achieved the average midterm bounce-back (for House seats) of the past 80 years.
6. @Ana Luisa:
"What else could the Democrats do?"
It would take 10 comments to even scratch the surface of their many failures. For starters, though, if you want to get non-voters to vote, and vote for your candidates, then (see Political Organizing 101), you have to work on them skillfully, shrewdly, systematically, thoroughly and tenaciously (like Rove's Republicans in '04 did), not just chant "vote, vote, vote"; a disgracefully dumb approach worthy of a North Korean election, maybe. Establishment Dems had two years to prepare, most of the mainstream press behind them, and heavier funding than the Repubs, and they managed to get something like 10 million fewer people to vote for them than in 2016! In comparison, Neville Chamberlain was Stonewall Jackson.
7. Democratic Party leaders lose on the issues because they don't really care about winning, just about keeping their jobs. That is why they voted for Bush's tax cuts, and his Iraq fiasco. That is why they sat on their hands when Obama was president, letting Republicans in Congress walk all over them. That is why in 2016 they nominated Hillary Clinton, Trump's perfect dream "opponent." (Google for New York Times, "When Hillary and Donald were friends"). And that is why they have largely squandered the last two years.
6
@Sage You enumerate trees, and in so doing, show so clearly your complete inability to see the forest. You wax philosophical about the cynical nature of American politics - as if it was something new - all the while wishing for a deepening of the very thing that is new, certainly in the modern era: embracing, rather than combating, separate political realities in the face of one set of objective facts.
If you look at the Congressional Races in
Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa
Trump would lose 36 Electoral Votes if those Races are
indicative of how each State might vote in 2020.
That still leaves the Democrats 16 Electoral Votes short.
Georgia, Florida or Texas - alone would suffice or
Arizona and Iowa together going Democratic.
The Democrats hold that Trump is the worst President
this country has ever had and no rational person could
ever vote for him. And yet 47.1 % of those who voted in
the House Races voted for Trump.
There was no Blue Wave, but there were ripples and
ripples if coordinated correctly can turn into waves.
Democrats you have five states you can win in 2020
that you did not win in 2016, roll up your sleeves
and get to work.
4
Shocked by the acceptance of racism from so many voters, but emboldened by the 2-1 Blue youth vote that exploded 500%. We in CA saw demagoguery win in the '80s only to turn our state Blue forever. There is cause for hope.
3
It's too bad Mr. McCarthy does have, understand or even realize what honesty, integrity, ethics and morality are. He's today's definition of "A Conservative".
43
This analysis rests entirely on the fact that Republicans gained in the Senate. But the Senate outcome was statistically biased because only a third of seats were up for re-election, and it so happened this third included some of Trump's strong base. It was not a nation-wide reflection of voter sentiment. It should not be surprising that Trump loyalists voted for Republicans in a few core states. The question is: is Trump's base stable?
If the 2020 outcome is going to differ from that of 2016, the turnaround of Trump's core will not be required. What will be required will be the flipping of the small margin of voters who swung the election two years ago. The House races reflect better on this possibility because they did take place nation-wide, and because they are a more granular partitioning of the electorate, allowing insight about that necessary margin of voters.
By my read, there is no reward coming Trump's way.
3
@FGH: Agree. Also, the Dems had close to a third of those 35 (9) to protect, and in states (FL,MO,ND for example) that Trump won. Given gerrymandering, winning the House is harder for Dems, and they managed to do that.
You are right and most of the vulnerable seats were Democratic and in 2020 when hopefully everyone can see better, 22 Republican seats are up for grabs. At least there is a way to keep a Mueller investigation going and if Trump or Pence were removed from office, the House would have to vote on VP.
@Wayne, also there are some vulnerable GOP senate seats coming up in 2020. IE Susan Collins of Maine. Dems need to get to work on that element of 2020 as much as trying to find a presidential candidate.
The argument that if the Trump administration is so incompetent, the economy should be in much worse shape than it is, is specious. The momentum that the economy currently enjoys is the result of the long recovery initiated during the Obama administration and given additional juice by the 2017 tax cut. The tax cut is largely a consequence of the Republican congress rather than Trump. The real effects of Trumpian economic policy, i.e. trade barriers, will take longer to reveal themselves. We should be less optimistic about these.
8
@donald.richards This is Obama economic recovery /period .
3
Well, this Machiavelli put all his cards on the table. I would love to say his principles too, but they were in short supply. In Lombardian terms, winning is the only thing that matters to this guy.
The problem with the arguments presented is that the interests projected were largely those of donors, other than judges for the religious right too. Democracy will always suffer at the hands of people like this author who seem to have forgotten that all of us are citizens. As such, we have the right to vote and to determine the present and future course of this country without GOP dirty tricks such as voter suppression and rolls purging, gerrymandering and frankly egregious lying as a justifiable means to achieve political ends.
I am sure this chest-thumping in defeat will assuage those who provided millions in donations to achieve oligarchy. Perhaps they should actually ask for a refund.
The message that should come out of this is democracy is on it's way back. The author thinks the players and landscape will remain predictable. He fails to get it that the landscape is changing.....
For the better. Round one to the people.
26
It’s nice and all that he is a champion of of HIS voters, but he needs to be president of ALL Americans. And he just can’t seem to be able to muster enough courage to do that. He get no attention from me. Trump who?
5
"If Mr. Trump were the abject failure that Democrats and some embittered former Republicans would like to believe, the Republicans should in fact have performed much worse on Tuesday, even with such a favorable economy. "
ONLY if the conservative media would still have been doing their job, so that GOP voters would have had access to the facts.
Instead, Fox News has become a 24/7 propaganda machine, which created the "alternative facts" bubble that allowed the GOP to win the 2016 elections in the first place, so all that they had to do this time was to continue the constant tweeting of lies and falsehoods, and that's it.
Because frankly, they only passed one major piece of legislation in two years (the only two years that Trump had full control of Congress), and that bill did the exact opposite of what Trump had promised ((1)he promised to cut the deficit even more than what Obama already did, and instead the bill doubles it, (2) he promised to increase taxes for the wealthiest Americans, and the bill strongly cuts them, and (3) he promised to cover even more Americans than Obamacare, at even lower costs, whereas the same bill destroys the healthcare of a whopping 13 million Americans and accelerates cost increases for everybody else).
Which such an abysmal record, ANY voter base that had a minimum of access to the truth would have massively voted their own candidates out.
Instead, they did the opposite. That's bad, VERY bad for MAGA.
3
The only reason R's didn't lose badly is they've gerry rigged the voting in so many states. They would have been swamped if we lived in a real democracy. It's up to Dems to push for voting reform. One person, one vote.
8
@Stephen Holland
I agree -- it's time to get rid of the Electoral College.
@N. Smith, getting rid of the EC is a monumental task that will require dems holding all 3 branches. Same with the essential task of raising the house to something more constitutional than the 435 which was set and suitable for the population of 1918. Nope-- we need to go for things we can get done-- paper ballots, etc.
1
If Democrats need to learn one lesson from the Republicans, it's patience. They began their inexorable March to power during the Reagan era, stepped on the gas via Newt Gingrich in the 90s and finally reached their goal via Tea Party upheaval, state-by-state voter suppression tactics and carefully concocted gerrymandering. They took over state legislatures piece by piece, with admirable if cynical calculation. If the Ds can chart a 20-year plan for electoral inclusion instead of exclusion and a true brand of economic populism rather than the race-baiting and fear-mongering that took Trump to power, they can and will turn that tide and establish America as the world power it can and should be. But it will take great patience, vision and striving through the pain.
27
If being exposed to honest collusion and obstruction investigations, releasing tax returns, resistance to disastrous environmental policies, stopping family separations,being challenged on every lie told are considered a reward, I can’t wait to see what a repudiation looks like.
10
Despite an apparently booming economy, Democrats did ok. That is significant. We may see how well GOP does in 2020 if economy is not so robust.
Of course DJT will just blame the House somehow if the robust economy doesn’t continue.
And the followers will apparently believe him.
2
When the oval office is occupied by someone who knows nothing but campaigning and very little about governing and leading all the people, the country suffers. It is up to an informed electorate to determine if the suffering lasts for 4 or 8 years. If it lasts for 4 we can dig ourselves out of the mess he makes with a real bipartisan effort. If it lasts 8 we run the risk of generational damage that will take literally decades to mend on the domestic and international stages. Let's plan on 4.
14
@Dennis W, that assumes we have an "informed electorate." I'm not so convinced.
1
@Jen
If you're not so convinced -- you need to look at that Electoral map again.
Donald Trump: “Everybody loves me - more than anyone in history. If the news media was not so fake, everybody would admit to loving me. I’m great. Take my word for it. I have solutions and no one else does.”
11
You are delusional. Losing a chamber of congress is not being rewarded.
Trump is popular in rural America. He isn't popular in cities and suburbs.
He is widely hated and loved. He excites his base and his enemies. The vote basically reflected this reality.
8
We'll see. If it's not a series of blue waves, it will certainly be a series of brown waves. Demography is not on the side of those who see in trump a reflection of their own basest tribalism, nor those who are willing to overlook it because they just feel so aggrieved by being asked to contribute to the society they live in. That Kemp had to cheat *so hard* to eke out the slimmest of slim margins; that Cruz was sweating and on the run; that ex-felons are re-enfranchised in Florida--these are wins for the center-to-left, not for the orange thug so desperately promoted here.
10
They aren't voting for him in -spite- of the racism, that's for sure.
5
Most of those reading this see Trump as a fascist. His threat: destroying our democracy and descending us into autocracy, all to cheers of blind delusional Trumpsters.
But we can't seek to de-program these millions. We will have to out-strategize them and their normalization of Trump. How do you discredit someone who has no capacity for shame, and who keeps going lower and lower, with his base happily following?
I know we will find a way. We do need to understand what the writer is saying even if it sickens us.
29
@CinnamonGirl
Trump is not a Fascist.
I doubt Trump or you could state the tenets
of Fascist Political Philosophy.
Trump is a Splendid Salesman -
though a very dishonest one.
Find out why his messages still resonates
with the Electoral Vote Majority of this Country
before it is too late.
3
Liberals that continue to call strangers racists, ignorant, misogynists will continue to wake up the day after elections and be baffled by the results. They hang out in echo chambers and don't discuss ideas because they see it as a threat to their utopian vision which is why college campuses have become largely centers of Group Think. Hopefully, people will start talking again and we can find peace with one another.
8
@jrfromdallas
Conservatives that continue to call strangers libtards and snowflakes will continue to wake up the day after losing the house of representatives and declare it a success. They hang out in fox/breitbart echo chambers and don't discuss ideas because they see it as a threat to their regressive vision which is why MAGA rallies have become largely centers of mob mentality. Hopefully, people will start talking again and we can find peace with one another.
There, I fixed it for you.
6
Well there sure won’t be peace when you write a comment like that. Race baiting democrats? Are you kidding? You actually just described the current GOP.
4
@LF- Good job! Thanks-
2
To say that Trump is widely hated and feared is somewhat off the mark, given his buffoonery and disinterest in actually doing the job of president. He's widely despised.
16
His ultimate reward (or just deserts) will come in 2020 when he is defeated.
#onetermtrump
5
No surprises. Mr. Trump has been so insulting to allies and submissive to dictators, so openly personally corrupt, so obviously a serial adulterer, so incompetent at even appointing ambassadors and other managers, that he could hardly help costing them a few dozen seats.
But nobody who remembers Bush being elected after his war failed and his torture scandals, his kidnappings of allied citizens to black sites, understood that "Who We Are" is *that* country, and that country was never going to hand the Democrats even half the shift over all of that, that they gave to the Republicans to address the really intolerable crime: of Mr. Obama being black. (60 seats).
In most other Democracies, Mr. Trump's kind of behaviour and inability to do the job, his humiliating performance with Putin, his very open racism and embrace of Nazis, would have meant the structural advantages of the Senate especially would have meant nothing; the Republicans would have lost all but the very safest seats. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A ROUT.
That it was not a rout says, I'm sorry, That This IS Who You Are. You're the folks that didn't hate illegal war and torture enough to toss out Mr. Bush, and you don't hate anti-Semitism, demonization of immigrants, and submission to dictators enough to throw out Mr. Trump's enablers.
If the Americans who do hate the fact that This Is Who You Are want change, you have to change a lot more than your current government. Change America.
57
Across the half century of my life, never would I have imagined the sitting US president would be so caustic, narcissistic, divisive, and outright belligerent in behavior. Trump is all of those qualities and more.
Frankly, I'm very disappointed not more Americans have woken up to the fact that DONALD J. TRUMP does not have their best interests at heart. It's only the top 1% that he cares about, and about putting on a good show for the "mob" like crowd that gravitates around him.
Now that the Democrats have the House, it's time to CLEAN HOUSE.
15
Mr McCarthy seems to regret that Mr Barletta had "nothing of the president’s [...] talent for exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses through well-chosen insults". Insults, wether well or poorly chosen, have nothing to do in the political discourse! Such statement is just representative of how republicans are willingly debasing the debate to reach their goals.
11
How many times must we be reminded that America was from its birth a broken conglomerate of unlike and different tempered people. We started out prostrate to the power of the South with the electoral college (the original example of gerrymandering), and then for good measure had the gall to pen the sentence “All men are created equal” followed by the moral corruption of allowing the cruelty of slavery to flourish and giving the slaveholders 3/5 of a vote for each beaten slave they owned.
Fast forward 240 years, and we are virtually in the same place we started. The America of the cities and coasts long for progress in human rights, fairness, and the care of all our citizens, while the Red Menace of the South and the Plains howl to make enemies of anyone they cannot see in a mirror. They have their supreme champion now in DT; a Chatty Kathy Doll endlessly spewing the hatred they hold dear to their hearts.
Time after time we see the red/blue map and hope that doing the same thing over and over will give us a different result. It won’t. The reality we refuse to face is that we have NOTHING in common with each other, and now, it is virtually open, unending warfare. Yes, we have had an occasional “God bless America” moment, but they had the shelf life of mayonnaise in August. Unless we find the way to break up this supposed union, we are headed toward continued disaster and unhappiness. Let the Red be Red and the Blues be Blue, and never the twain shall meet.
10
@Dan Fannon
Dan, nice writing, but you need to get out and about more.
Americans in the Midwest and in the South are not
100% Republicans, there are Democrats out here and
there are even Republicans in the general vicinity of
New York City.
Congress, President and the Courts have failed the
average US Citizen.
Perhaps the new House can understand that
and put America first.
3
The incumbent party typically loses heavily in midterm elections. By that criterion the Democrats underperformed (substantially). Democrats need to do more than simply accuse their opponents as racists, misogynists, and similar no-goodniks. Only open dialogue can get us all to where we want (need) to be.
3
You cannot reason with a stone.
2
@Dan Fannon Exactly.
1
Donald J. Trump is the most American president this country has ever created and the one this country most deserves. His the product of a nation that has infinite possibilities for serving its people by having universal healthcare, quality and affordable education, clean water, and yes, even buses that run on time. Instead of bettering ourselves this country backs horrible dictators and goes to war on innocent people as a way to change a nation's culture. Like many readers of these pages, I came of age while the country was using napalm on civilians in Vietnam and beating up civil rights workers who were simply trying to enforce voting rights. I grew up feeling betrayed by the American people and its government, so I'm glad you people voted for Trump and you won't get the good things, like healthcare, clean water, and good educations. Trump is the president you deserve. You proved it by not voting for very many of those who oppose him. Nice work.
9
The GOP is an aberration for any modern democracy that's supposed to represents the citizen majority instead of elite special interests.
A long road back to a working democracy after the extremist GOP has dominated our 3 branches, and as big money finances our elections.
A long road back to restore a more sane political culture after millions were motivated to vote for an authoritarian demagogue with no respect for truth, sold to the voters via the GOP state media Fox News.
8
Articles like this only reinforce what is wrong with our current political system and with our Constitution. The fact that rural, racist, and reactionary has a stranglehold on the Senate signals the need for a new Constitution.
6
"But Mr. Barletta... had nothing of the president’s star power or talent for exploiting an opponent’s weaknesses through well-chosen insults." Mr McCarthy is correct that Trump is widely disliked by his opponents. He also exposes how much Mr Trump is adored by people who love to hate. Which is a pretty sad state for our country.
6
it's amazing what gerrymandering and voter suppression can do. It will be interesting to see what effect the reinstitution of voting rights for a million ex-felons will have in Florida, though something tells me our new Republican governor will find a way to invalidate the result.
5
It’s incredible that so many millions still think Trump and the Republicans have their best interests at heart. The 1% is all they care about. Still, the biggest scam in history - stoke fear and hatred to distract from being robbing you blind - Trump and the Republican’s playbook.
What will it take for people to wake up?
9
Unfortunately we probably won't get the wall. But at least we can fill evey court opening with conservative judges. All things considered, a net win.
3
@Tree Fugger
Good luck with your insurance, I hope you don't anyone who has a pre-existing condition or that one day you rely on social security. Good luck with that non-existent wall and coal jobs that 45 promised you.
4
Mr. McCarthy, most Americans agree that the level of political discourse in this country has descended into a sort of barbaric blood sport. Apparently, you equate the president's lying, demagoguing, and racism is "battling." It is not. It is a stain on the office of the presidency and on the history of the United States.
Let's highlight just one example. Americans made clear in exit polling that healthcare was their number one concern in this election. House Republicans voted 70 times to repeal the ACA, and Mitch McConnell said he would work on repealing it again after the mid-terms. Sadly, the Republicans never even made an attempt to come up with a better alternative.
Trump to the rescue. In the 2016 election cycle, Trump promised fabulous health care for everybody! Then tried to repeal the ACA with no replacement. Then our shameless President had the audacity to tell his supporters, that democrats wanted to take away their health care, he was the true defender of their health care, and he was the only one who would protect the pre-existing conditions guardrail. Lie.
Sir, that is not battling. That is fraud on a massive scale.
It is remarkable to me that we as Americans cannot agree that lying, especially from the POTUS, is unacceptable and should be condemned. You, however, seem to conclude that this is evidence that Trump is a fighter. And would you encourage your children and grandchildren to follow his example? I hope not for their sake.
9
@Al Miller
You know who this president reminds me of? Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown. As clear as the nose on your face and yet his faithful still for it time and time again as we have witnessed yesterday. Winning the House is a good start but losing seats in the Senate didn't help quite the contrary. I fear that there will be more stagnation. As I watched the cheering fanatics on the right I thought how many of them realize that those they love with pre-existing conditions might just lose the safety net they rely on? How can one group of people not see this? HOW?
Yes, Mr. McCarthy, we know that this is a republic, not a democracy.
Trump lost the Presidency by 3 million votes.
Republicans lost the House by 4 million votes in 2018, and
the Senate races by 12 million votes.
If the House Democrats are smart (and I think they will be), they will depose Nancy Pelosi.
If the House Democrats are smart, they will use every power they have to investigate Donald Trump.
The Republican's problem is not the actions that Donald Trump has taken as President. It's not even his sleazy, cruel, bullying, con man personality.
The Republican's problem is that Donald Trump is almost certainly a criminal and quite possibly a traitor. If the Democrats do not put a laser focus on this, the country is theirs to lose.
McConnell has cautioned the Democrats about investigating Trump, using the investigation of Bill Clinton as a cautionary example. This isn't comparing apples and oranges... this is comparing apples to the Grand Coulee Dam.
Tax dodging, doing business with mobsters, employing illegal aliens, using the Presidency for personal enrichment and above all possibly being a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Putin, Inc... Once Trump is exposed for these and quite possibly other crimes, we can expect the greatest realignment of American politics since LBJ sacrificed the Democratic south for the Civil Rights bill.
Dan Kravitz
4
@Dan Kravitz
Please stop with those 3 miln+ votes ok? She lost the states and votes she needed most due to her hubris. Get over it. Live in the present and forget Her old ideas and what happened two years ago. Work to get the Senate back.
2
@Margo Channing
I agree entirely, especially about the hubris (I say 'arrogant and entitled'). I mentioned it only to make the contrast that Trump has lost ground since then.
I used to respect Susan Collins. Believe me, I will be working against her in 2020.
Dan Kravitz
1
@Dan Kravitz
I too lost respect for Susan Collins, I thought she was the only one left on the Repubs side who still had common sense. Boy was I wrong. I hope he has lost momentum but my greatest fear is that his base has gotten stronger and they are a tough nut to crack.
Last night, Florida voters voted overwhelmingly to restore voting rights to an estimated 1.5 million former felons, including roughly 500,000 African-Americans.
That means that democracy will be visiting Florida in 2020 and beyond, which means no more rigged, Republican Florida victories by a handful of votes for right-wing Reverse Robin Hoods like Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis and George W. Bush.
Brian Kemp won yesterday via systematic Georgia voter suppression.
Ted Cruz won yesterday via voter suppression.
https://www.texasobserver.org/in-the-midterms-texans-face-a-panoply-of-voter-suppression/
Democrats will do a better job overcoming Republican electoral corruption in 2020, but it's hard to be the Republican criminal mafia.
It's a disgrace that Daniel McCarthy, obviously a partisan hack and fake patriot, refuses to acknowledge America's 3rd-world voting system where millions are systematically banned from voting by Republicans as America's fake, phony, fraudulent democracy chugs along with Whites R Us racists propping up the greediest oligarchy outside of Russia.
Daniel McCarthy doesn't have an American bone in his body, happy to shun the will of the people for rigged, right-wing power.
Another deplorable.
2020
311
@Socrates Just a word about Florida's "felons".
Other readers may jump to the conclusion that Florida has restored the franchise to murderers, rapists, armed robbers and so forth. Stop and think, since what follows is probably true in your state too.
If you jump a curb and knock over a stop sign, you're a felon.
If you're a doctor and accidentally exceed the statutory limit on hydrocodone prescriptions, you're a felon.
If you buy stolen goods from a seemingly legitimate store, you're a felon.
See what I mean?
26
@Socrates
Socrates, I hope you're right, but I fear he will win handily in 2020 unless the D's bring forth a candidate worthy of the nomination and job. I don't see anyone on the horizon that fits the bill. Kudos to Florida for doing the proper thing.
6
I suspect it’s this victimized, complaining attitude that pushes the center away from my (democratic) party
5
The retaking of the house so that there was check on the Presidency (especially for the purse strings) was a crucial thing - Democrats achieved that.
In all other areas, the President is going to declare absolute victory, whether it was or not. ( I am watching him doing his press conference live as he is doing just that)
So who are the winners and the losers ? We all are,
For decades now (if not really from day one of this country), politics has been declared a ''blood sport'', There have been so many that have played the part, and the press, (especially the modern media) has fueled that reflection to the furthest degree,
One could ask what is government ?
I believe the correct answer is an assemblage of individuals from the community that are organized to carry out actions for the safety and welfare of the nation. There is no red side or blue side in that assessment, but there are many that treat it so.
A government that works for only a select few cannot last the test of time, and will only be able to cling to power for a minimal amount of time. (in the scheme of things)
So we come back to who won last night ? I think the country is moving towards that definition in the purest sense, and it will take another election cycle or two to achieve it.
Keep working at it, keep organizing and keep the faith.
27
It's easy to splash water on this small victory and take away some of the satisfaction, but there is a significance to the numbers, just as there was in 2018.
Hillary Clinton won the democratic election. It was the jury-rigged and illogical American Election that she lost. Trump didn't win, The System won. And yesterday, make no mistake, the system won again.
To beat the system you have to be outside the system. What yesterday did show is that we have the will and the numbers to do this. It's not going to happen in the voting booth, but it can happen peacefully and definitively. We must find a way to express the will of the people, who want economic justice, women's rights, and the right to live freely in a sustainable environment.
32
@Sera
''To beat the system you have to be outside the system.'' - Sorry, I completely disagree,
There were millions that thought that and stayed home in 2016 and last night. This administration is a direct result of that.
There are 100,000,000 that sit on the sidelines in any given election, so get them to vote, and the country can have any Progressive policy it wants.
Vote and get the representatives that closely fit your ideals. They may not be prefect, so keep the pressure on them. You do that by voting in more people that will help you. You work from within,
I know what you are trying to say, but we have to be careful in clarity.
11
@Sera You need to read the Federalist papers so you udnerstand why the electoral college exists. You will never learn that from reading what ignorant NY Times reporters write.
2
@FunkyIrishman
I'd love to agree with you, but I think that position is idealistic. I think democracy itself is idealistic. If we ever reach a point of true equality and justice, then democracy is wonderful, but as you know, in Greece, where it was invented, only a tiny fraction could vote. In the U.S in 1776, only 4% could vote, and in today's America, a huge percentage of those who vote don't meet its basic criteria: A well informed electorate.
Emma Goldman said it all a hundred years ago: If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
2
Republicans win the Senate because of small rural states.
Six Republicans states with a population of 1 million each get 12 senators for 6 million people.
California gets 2 senators for 40 million people.
Look at the Supreme Court. President Trump who was elected by less than a majority of Americans appointed 2 Supreme Court Justices.
Mitch McConnell got rid of the 60 vote threshold and they were confirmed by 51 senators.
These 51 senators were elected by less than a majority of Americans.
People like McConnell and Ryan and Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins know these things.
Republicans know their policies of tax cuts for the wealthy will not win elections.
So they resort to rule tricks, voter suppression, misinformation, false divide on abortion, and false divide on gun rights.
Sadly, it has worked for 35 years going back to Reagan.
451
@Independent
Indie it was not McConnell who got rid of the 60 vote threshold it was Democrat harry Reid. And after it was passed he said he may curse the day it happened. That day happened.
14
Well. If It’s been that way for 40 years, the Democrats need to realize they have to find a way to win in those states. That’s the pragmatic solution. Is the system fair? Nope. But it’s the system we are stuck with for the foreseeable future.
13
@Joe - it is worth pointing out, at every opportunity, that this unfair system gets more and more undemocratic with each passing year.
18
Trump's 2016 victory and the success of Republican Senate candidates in the midterm were powered by overwhelming gerrymandering backed by Republican dominance in statehouses and legislatures in a commanding majority of states. Despite well established voter suppression efforts by Republicans, the Democrats won about the number of seats that would be expected for the out of power party in an unbiased contest, and they did it while the economy is perceived as strong. The bigger news is that the Democrats also flipped at least seven governorships, which will imede the Republican advantage in 2020.
Trump is now subject to investigations into numerous apparent avenues of corruption. He no longer has the ability to pass legislation that is contrary to popular will. And when it comes time for reelection, if he makes it through the primary process, Trump will no longer have allies in the upper Midwest, Pennsylvania, or even Kansas to help him sell his toxic hate and fear mongering.
Yes, Trump has been rewarded -- quite justly, I might add.
80
@Hugh Wudathunket
I don't think you are correct. I think he will indeed get the nom and he just might win. He won the Senate keeps the majority on that but I think his base has become empowered by their Master they are blind to his daily lies believes his rhetoric of fake news they are not a bunch of people who will go down lightly. They are a force to be reckoned with and the Dems better remember that and stay focused. In fact I don't think Mueller has anything on him, he's like John Gotti. Nothing sticks to him. I do however want to see his tax returns.
3
@Hugh Wudathunket
How does gerrymandering affect a Senate race?? Do you even understand how our voting system works?
The only thing I was looking for in this election was real oversight of DT, which is now in place. The bonus is that maybe there's a better chance of bipartisanship, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.
48
The midterms are not much more than a snapshot.
They capture a shifting demographic landscape that holds great promise for the Democratic Party and shows a Republican Party on a long path to chronic political anemia.
The Dems are entirely identified with the America that is becoming. It is a nation that is increasingly diverse, suburban, growing, educated and repulsed by nativism, racism, isolationism and retrograde politics.
By contrast, the Republican Party is joined at the hip with an aging, rural and nativist and shrinking America.
This America can still deliver short-term electoral wins for the Republican Party. But unless it recasts itself into a modern political party, the Republicans are headed for the margins.
95
@Ricardo Chavira I hope you're right. But I see a lot of young people at Trump rallies, and more terrifying, in the images of people burning swastikas in Georgia and at last year's terror Charlottesville. Also, none of the terrorists from the week preceding the election were elderly. No time for waiting it out - back to work.
13
@M.
Of course, there are exceptions to what I assert. Undoubtedly, not all of rural America votes Republican.
However, if one spends time assessing the large demographic picture and party identification, one is struck by the long-term trends.
They favor Democrats and not Republicans.
12
@Ricardo Chavira They know that, and it's why they are politicizing the courts to their liking. Hopefully the party with integrity will find ways to overcome that, but it's definitely their game plan to cement permanent power for themselves.
1
The Dems got about as much as they could hope for from the mid-terms. What they will do with control of the House remains to be seen. My hope is that Dems will show some restraint in using the investigative powers that they have inherited. During the President's press conference this morning, he started out sounding conciliatory, but ended up in a spat with the press, voicing many typical complaints and refusing to answer many of the questions that were directed to him. Worse, he threatened to have the Senate investigate the House if they attempted to initiate investigations that he disagreed with.
In short, its hard to see that the mid-term outcomes have resolved anything, or will do much to restrain the President. It seems more likely that - ala Obama - President Trump will increasingly resort to Executive Orders to get anything done, followed by the predictable litigation to block his actions.
8
Look at the numbers in today's article about the shift. The overall vote shift toward Dems was HUGE. The wave was real, and large. The breakwater of gerrymandering was the major reason the wave didn't swamp Republicans.
72
I don't necessarily agree nor completely disagree. To say this was not a good thing for Dems is silly. Are there plusses for the GOP too? For sure. But ultimately, Senate seats the Dems lost were pretty much house money to begin with aside from Florida. North Dakota? Texas? Missouri? Wins would have been nice, but let's be serious. Speaking of Florida - razor-thin margins on both Senate and Governor and worth noting for next time - 1.5 million people just got their right to vote reinstated in Florida. I'd be happy today if I am the GOP in Florida, but would still be cautious about the future there. And despite what you say, the Democratic party still collected more total votes nationwide. While that doesn't matter, per se, in electoral college sense, it becomes a matter of tactics for the Democrats. You already know the numbers are out there - its a matter of being strategic with them going forward. Democrats also had large gains in Gubernatorial races as well. We also restocked the Democratic "bench" for the future. Not a category 5 blue wave, but certainly a solid category 3. I'll take it.
118
So much for the blue wave. Have to give the Dems credit, though. They finally got organized and turned out the folks they needed to. Trouble was, in some of the biggest battleground states (FL, TX), they still lost.
5
@c smith Texas isn't really a battleground state yet. They had wins in some real battlegroundd states (PA, MN, WI, MI) and losses in others (FL and OH).
2
As I've said before, and Mr. McCarthy confirms, it took Western Europe more than 2,000 years to become somewhat civilized and it will take this continent and country at least that long. We do have a long way to go.
14
@Jody
Not this continent but just America. Canada is like Western Europe
4
Can't argue with much of this at all.
The Republicans have turned their party into a cult of personality and it seems to be working.
To lose the House is a minor setback, and far less severe, as the author makes clear, than early losses by other presidents.
Bragging about winning the popular vote is nonsensical in a republic where controlling real estate (ie, every rural state plus places like Florida) is equally important for controlling the Senate and winning the electoral college.
The Dems won't get much done on their own, but they've got Adam Schiff with subpoena power and that's good. A slow, steady investigation into this president and his cohorts, with no mention of impeachment, is the way to proceed. Maybe compromises can be obtained on things like infrastructure and immigration, but unlikely.
The sure thing is that Republicans' deal with the devil will now be subject to some outside scrutiny.
167
@DD
Absolutely agree.
7