Money played a role, apparently big, big money, and so did history, misconceptions, radicalization of the innocent and feminist anger for a guy named Trump. The story is that the Republicans lost the House and that the nation lost, too.
It lost glorious opportunities for still more prize-worthy legislation and majoritarian protection from anti-democratic Democratic malevolence. A Republican House, on the legislative side, did what a Democratic House would never do, for instance: It helped give us a tax-reform package saying here’s a job, there’s a job, everywhere is a job, job, job. The Democrats said wait, the tax cuts are just for the rich and, anyway, where are wage hikes?
Well, they are now surrounding us, and that’s what happens when you get out of the way of American businesses, not just by reducing overly high taxes, but also scotching disruptive, mindless regulations that give worthy regulations a bad name. And, on top of instigating economic growth that helps the poor more than any welfare program, the cuts did reduce taxes more for the middle class than the rich.
Democrats won’t admit that. It makes them feel unneeded.
And so they misled you, and it’s a worry that they will play budget tricks and won’t line up behind any reasonable remedy to anything. Instead, some say, they’ll be preoccupied with impeachment, investigations and any means they can think of to yank the chair out from under a seated president. Concerning policy options, some Democrats have also found it pays to be socialistic because all kinds of young voters are socialistic and, if history has never allowed socialism to succeed, maybe it can be persuaded to change its mind.
Despite all of that, the Democrats did grab gobs of cash from evil Wall Street and vastly outspent Republicans on smothering TV ads, perhaps hoping they would minimalize mindfulness to a state of support.
Divisiveness, thou art enshrined, and, given President Donald Trump’s cockamamie, vituperative tweets and speeches, it’s not just the fault of intellectual meandering about the end of America. It’s not just campuses gone wacko. It is not just wide-eyed mobs letting their narrow minds rule. It is not only decapitation jokes or some urban dwellers believing most rural, blue-collar types are racist barbarians at the gates. No, Trump has contributed to the point of engendering hate expressing itself in terms his own stumbling tongue cannot equal.
Of course, the president’s party consistently loses loads of House seats in midterm elections, and none of this is to say that Democratic voters were without legitimate concerns, even if a bit off sometimes. Many Democratic votes, we know, came from suburban women whose fears are said to include the possibility of a refashioned Supreme Court repealing the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.
That’s actually as far-fetched as thinking it will repeal women’s rights to vote. And meanwhile lots of Americans understood how dishonest and close to subversive the Democrats were in their attempts to stop Senate approval of Brett Kavanaugh as a justice.
That’s likely one reason Republicans increased their majority in a Senate that will still be able to deliver on judges and justices. That’s hugely important if you dislike liberal justices amending the Constitution through so-called interpretations. I, for one, was pleased to see former presidential candidate Mitt Romney elected to the Senate from Utah; I look forward to his leadership and remember President Barack Obama mocking him for viewing Russia as an enemy.
Interesting, isn’t it, that the disreputable Russian-collusion probe was hardly brought up by the Democrats in this outing and that Trump still connects sufficiently with the American people to have likely made a difference in some races? These are disorienting times we live in, but the pollsters were pretty much right, as opposed to flubs in 2016. If they get good enough, will TV news shows devoting nine-tenths of their time to predictions come to consider elections unnecessary?
Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service.
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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