Once again, President Trump has been proven correct: just two years into his first term, America has been doing so much winning that a lot of voters must really be tired of winning.
Well, by voting to give the House back to Democrats (current prediction is 219-193) to “send a message to Trump,” they have also sent the message, “Whoa!” to the galloping economy. As I pointed out, the last time Democrats took over and Nancy Pelosi assumed the Speaker’s gavel, in the space of just two years, the falling deficit more than doubled and GDP growth was cut in half – which Democrats then blamed on Bush and used to elect Obama, who gave us the Obama miracle of eight unprecedented years of growth below 3%. (Was two years ago really such ancient history that voters have already forgotten it?) Let’s hope we don’t have a repeat of that, and if we do, that Republicans do a better job of combatting the media spin. I thought that living through Obama followed by Trump would be a stark enough contrast for most people, but apparently, some voters needed a second dose of castor oil.
Rep. Pelosi’s talk about concentrating on bipartisan issues such as job creation was a welcome sign, even though, of course, she couched it in terms of government spending on things like infrastructure, which you might recognize as an encore of the “shovel-ready jobs” the Dems recently spent about a trillion dollars on, only to find, as Obama admitted, that there was no such thing, largely because of all the regulations Democrats have put on shovels. We don’t really need big government make-work projects when the government gets out of the way and lets the private sector create real jobs.
Trump is by nature a deal-maker with friends or enemies, and he already tried reaching out to the Democrats to work on infrastructure improvements that are actually needed, but they were too busy holding a two-year temper tantrum and “resisting.” Maybe they really have seen the light and will work with him now to accomplish something. And maybe my garden gnomes will come to life and pull my weeds for me.
No matter what Pelosi says, the Dem ascendance will also include a Madame Tussaud-style waxwork gallery of ancient leftists, taking over important committees and vowing to impeach the President (thanks to the Senate, that would be a colossal waste of time and money) and hamstring the White House and the private sector with a tsunami of partisan investigations and subpoenas. Here’s a list of some of the likely new “heads” of those committees, in case the Halloween haunted houses weren’t scary enough for you:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/us/house-democrats-committee-leaders.html
Someone should point out to them that if they’re going to try to raise the age to buy a gun to 21, then why do they want to give a deadly weapon like a Congressional Committee gavel to so many childish people?
Incidentally, Stephen Colbert is already calling on the Democrats to open more investigations of Trump. Not that they needed any encouragement. If I were them, I’d think twice about taking advice from a comedian whose job is making fun of stupid things the government does. His motives are likely either ill-informed partisan spite or a desperate need for some fresh material.
It’s at times like these when it’s important to look for the positives, even though to Republicans, it might feel like sifting through a pile of horse manure, looking for a pony. So here’s some of the good news:
There was no “blue wave.” Historically speaking, this was better than the typical first midterm election for a new President. In Obama’s first midyear election, the Republicans gained 63 House seats and 6 Senate seats, and that was after two years of enbarrassing media fawning over Obama. After two years of the media relentlessly smearing Trump as the new Hitler, and with an election map stacked their way, Democrats gained only 24 seats (at this writing; some of these races may take days to settle, depending on how many Democratic ballot boxes can be found in car trunks) and the Republicans will increase their Senate majority by a few seats.
That means the Senate can continue confirming Trump judicial picks and other high-level appointments, without the need to kowtow to one or two liberal Republicans who habitually side with the Democrats. It also means that impeachment, which requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate, will remain a leftist fever dream no matter what the House does – unless, after spending even more millions of our tax dollars, Adam Schiff finally discovers that “Mike Pence” is really Boris Badenov in a Pence mask.
And while the DC swamp critters who tried to rig the 2016 election and cover up their skulduggery will likely now escape the harsh justice they deserve and Trump’s agenda will be effectively dead in the House (forget about any more tax cuts, a border wall, immigration reform, etc.), neither will any of the delusional “progressive” nonsense espoused by our new “youngest female Representative ever,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, such as “Medicare for All” or abolishing ICE, become law. And there will be no repeal of the tax cut or other items that the GOP House managed to pass since 2016.
House Democrats could also make good on their threat to reopen the evidence-free sexual charges against Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but they might want to think twice (or even once) before doing that, considering that Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was the only Democratic Senator from a red state who voted to confirm Kavanaugh and also the only one who didn’t get thrown out by the voters.
So progress on Making America Great Again will be stifled, but it won’t be reversed. I hope that by 2020, voters will have seen that the House, after devolving into a “Mad House” of partisan bile, offers a perfect lesson in why you should never reward horrible, nasty, threatening, partisan behavior with more power, and they will correct their midterm mistake.
For that to happen, though, Republicans need to get a lot better and more aggressive at combatting the 24/7 diet of phony propaganda about how Republicans are evil, sexist, racist, homophobic monsters, which is sadly working all too well on suburban women and young voters (that will be much harder without the threat of the House forcing social media giants to stop censoring conservative users.)
And note to the limousine socialists of Hollywood and Silicon Valley: If Trump really were “literally Hitler,” he wouldn’t have reacted to this election with a self-congratulatory tweet. He would have simply dissolved the legislature.
For a wealth of recaps and continual updates of the election results, check out www.westernjournal.com and www.foxnews.com.
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