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It was not a blue wave like left-wingers would have anyone believe. You can blame the forty-five Republicans in the House who could not support President Trump and who have decided to retire at the end of their terms. That's what caused the big flip in the House in the first place, as many of their seats flipped the wrong way. Had a lot of them stayed, you might have seen a different result. Conservatives will come back in 2020 and retake the House. Bank on it.
If you think that more conservative, Trumpy, Republicans are likely to win back most of those suburban districts, you’ve lost your mind.
Those Republican congressmen retired rather than try to win re-election with Donald Trump as an anchor. Donald Trump is poison in suburbia, particularly in formerly red areas in blue states. The bulk of those districts have been moving away from the GOP for years. All of the districts that the Dems have won were either carried by Hillary in 2016 or were carried by Trump by less than 5%. What we had in 2018 was the next step in a political realignment. Democrats had already lost almost all of the rural, old economy districts that they held in previous elections. This year, many of the upscale, highly educated suburb seats, in areas where new economy industries dominate, finally flipped to the Democrats. The bulk of those seats on both sides of the divide are not likely to change as long as the chasm between the 2 Americas continues to deepen. Blue America continues to grow; Red America to shrink, and as long as the GOP continues to be a white grievance party, that’s unlikely to change. The “autopsy report” after the 2012 election clearly laid out the long term problems for the GOP, and the need to broaden the Party, but the base of the party went in opposite direction, which clearly spells short term gain but long term disaster for the Grand Old Party.
Last edited by Bureaucat; 11-15-2018 at 04:30 PM..
Suburbs going blue, and working class areas going red. She shows how this is what happened in Ohio, and
Quote:
One of the main reasons that Ohio is the epicenter for presidential elections is that the state is such a great stand-in for the U.S. as a whole, explains Paul Sracic, political science professor at Youngstown State University.
“So it makes sense that if we were going to see the first signs of a real realignment in American politics, that Ohio would be front and center. Mahoning County is a great example. Prior to the realignment that took place under FDR, Mahoning County voted Republican,” he said.
Votes are still being counted in several House races. But the AP has now called another race in New Jersey, projecting Democrat Andy Kim the winner in the suburban Philadelphia 3rd Congressional District over incumbent Republican Tom MacArthur.
That means, more than a week after Election Day, Democrats have increased their House gains to a net of 34 seats — and, when all the vote is counted, they may get to 39.
Make no mistake: That is a very big wave.
How big? It's the most House seats gained by Democrats since the wave election following Watergate. President Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974, leading to Democrats' pickup of 49 seats that fall.
Waaaah! Make them quit saying it wasn't a Blue Wave! It WAS a blue wave; why it was the biggest Blue Wave I have ever seen, wasn't it, Mommy?!
Call it whatever you like. GOP holds the White House and Senate and makes the decisions.
Neither House makes all the decisions, bub. And neither House is able to decide the law alone.
The fact remains that if the Republicans had not squandered their rare majority in both houses, diddling away their time doing nothing, the blue wave would never have happened.
It wasn't a tsunami, but it was most definitely a strong rejection of the GOP.
And the House of Representatives is the place where all the congressional action is. Any bill must pass the House to become a law, no matter which branch of government it originates. The White House is the weakest of the three in this ability, intentionally so. Our founders created the checks and balances to prevent any branch from absolute control of the government.
The House also has all the powers of subpoena and investigation the Senate possesses. Do not believe the House of Representatives is a weak sister in our government. It is not. At all.
Waaah? That's the sound the Republicans are making now. The petulant child in the Oval Office is crying the loudest of all.
I think picking up the house, many Governor's seats, and local seats despite being gerrymandered to benefit Republican's is a great big blue middle finger waved in Trump's face.
Suburbs going blue, and working class areas going red. She shows how this is what happened in Ohio, and
I don't think Ohio is such a strong national bellwether these days, although it is experiencing similar internal suburban blue vs. rural/small town red shifts as other states. The state voted decisively for Trump in 2016 while he lost the national popular vote. None of the 35+ Democratic House seat pickups this year were in the state either.
Trump is probably going to carry the state again in 2020 even if other "Rust Belt" states like Michigan and Pennsylvania flip back to the Democratic side. Those states have a larger share of residents in major metro areas, and higher shares of college graduates and immigrants compared to Ohio - all factors that correlate to lower Republican support these days.
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