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The Election's Over -- Now What?
Townhall.com ^ | November 8, 2018 | Scott Rusmussen

Posted on 11/08/2018 4:08:38 PM PST by Kaslin

It was almost unsettling to wake up the morning after the election and realize it turned out pretty much as we expected. There were, of course, some individual surprises, but nothing on the seismic shock scale of 2016.

For months, it had been expected that Democrats would win a modest House majority, and they did. The popular vote margin for the Democrats was just about right where the ScottRasmussen.com Generic Congressional Ballot projected it to be (and also about the same as the RealClearPolitics average of all election polls).

In the Senate, it had long been recognized that the Republicans were likely to gain a few seats, and they did. In the campaign's final days, there were five or six very close races where either candidate could win. But while Democrats could have won any of those individual races, the GOP was favored to win most of them. That's just what happened.

So now that we got the election we expected, where do we go from here?

The conventional wisdom suggests gridlock is coming. In that view, there's no way a Nancy Pelosi-led House will forge significant bipartisan deals with a Mitch McConnell-led Senate and President Donald Trump.

The likelihood of gridlock is very high, but I'm not sure how much it matters. Over the past two years, the Republican-led House also struggled to reach agreement with the Senate and the president. Other than the tax cut and repeal of the Obamacare mandate, little was accomplished in the legislative arena.

But the lack of legislation does not mean a lack of impact. The Trump Administration did take some modest steps to reduce the regulatory burden. That accomplishment seems especially significant because it followed decades of enormous regulatory growth.

The deregulatory effort is almost certain to continue. Among other things, there will be an ongoing effort to give Americans a greater degree of control over the health insurance they purchase. Lower-cost insurance that doesn't cover every imaginable procedure may be frowned upon by bureaucrats in Washington, but they are welcomed by millions who have to buy their own insurance.

Additionally, with an increased Senate majority, the president will find it easier to confirm judges who are skeptical of an all-powerful federal government. That's especially true because the Republican Senate victories in 2018 make them early favorites to retain control of the Senate in 2020. If there is another Supreme Court nomination in the coming years, the confirmation will be a lot smoother with a bigger Republican majority.

For their part, the Democrats are likely to launch many investigations of the president. But they will feel an ongoing tension between a progressive base demanding impeachment and more moderate Democrats fearful of offending centrist voters. That tension will carry over to issues like health care, where progressives dream of banning private insurance companies and forcing all Americans into a government-run health care system. The moderates recognize that such a plan is not popular with the rest of the country.

So, over the next two years, we're likely to experience gridlock. But that doesn't mean a lack of action. Instead, we'll see deregulation and judicial appointments from Republicans. And Democrats will try to resolve their party's inner tension before the 2020 presidential election


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 2018midterms; midterm2018
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1 posted on 11/08/2018 4:08:38 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

What’s unsettling will be watching the House not fund the wall, the military, etc.


2 posted on 11/08/2018 4:09:56 PM PST by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know. how people are infected with Ebola.")
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To: Kaslin

Not over in AZ,FL,GA. Dems are cheating as we speak.


3 posted on 11/08/2018 4:10:49 PM PST by madison10
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To: Kaslin

Buy more ammo...


4 posted on 11/08/2018 4:11:12 PM PST by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket)
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To: Kaslin

Now what? Ballot Fixing is now in full production.
That’s what.


5 posted on 11/08/2018 4:12:47 PM PST by tennmountainman ("Trust Sessions" Yeah Right)
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To: Kaslin

Well Scott, some criminal Dems are still counting chads trying to steal seats in the Senate. So your title is premature.

But note, they’re not counting any more House seats.


6 posted on 11/08/2018 4:14:43 PM PST by Hostage (Article V (Proud Member of the Deranged Q Fringe))
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To: madison10

Now it is game time...the RATs vs the slow Elephants.


7 posted on 11/08/2018 4:15:53 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Kaslin

Nothing short of military tribunals, treason trials and mass hangings on the national mall can save us now.


8 posted on 11/08/2018 4:17:13 PM PST by Electric Graffiti (Jeff Sessions needs to be sent to gitmo and then tried for treason)
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To: bgill

POTUS already has overflowing funding for the military through to Sept 2020 (end of fiscal year 2019).

And he can use those funds for the Wall using a national security pretext. He has said so himself. He waited first for the Midterms to be over.


9 posted on 11/08/2018 4:18:22 PM PST by Hostage (Article V (Proud Member of the Deranged Q Fringe))
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To: Kaslin

I recommend a massive investigation of voter fraud. Start putting every little middle school bastard and illegal alien who voted in jail.


10 posted on 11/08/2018 4:19:14 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (#NotARussianBot)
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To: Kaslin

In 2020 pollsters will be wrong about Trump but correct in 2022 for post redistricting of House?


11 posted on 11/08/2018 4:25:53 PM PST by SMGFan ( .)
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To: Kaslin

Now what? The fun begins. And if you aren’t sure about that I would refer you to Trump’s recent interactions with the press and the canning of Sessions. He’s past the “getting used to it” phase and the “why is my own party hurting my agenda” phase. He is beginning (in earnest) the “kick a$$ and take names” phase. And the name taking is optional.


12 posted on 11/08/2018 4:26:20 PM PST by jdsteel (Americans are Dreamers too!!!)
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To: Kaslin

The election is not over.. The Democrats are still counting.. and cheating.. and stealing votes as we speak! Florida and Arizona!


13 posted on 11/08/2018 4:27:26 PM PST by DivineMomentsOfTruth ("There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." -GW)
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To: Kaslin

After they finish stealing Florida and Arizona, it will officially be a blue wave.


14 posted on 11/08/2018 4:35:24 PM PST by Sans-Culotte (Time to get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US!)
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To: Kaslin

Did Rasmussen foresee the monumental cheating done by the Left post election?


15 posted on 11/08/2018 4:36:15 PM PST by originalbuckeye ('In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act'- George Orwell)
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To: DivineMomentsOfTruth
Violating the law by refusing to disclose how many ballots remain to be counted (in Broward)...And nobody does anything about it, except sit and watch.

I don't understand.

16 posted on 11/08/2018 4:40:59 PM PST by Wyrd bið ful aræd ( Flag burners can go screw -- I'm mighty PROUD of that ragged old flag)
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To: DivineMomentsOfTruth

The final tally will show Dems winning the FL governor and senate, GA governor and AZ senator. It’s only a matter of time.


17 posted on 11/08/2018 4:43:54 PM PST by damper99 (pu)
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To: Wyrd bið ful aræd

I don’t get it either.. It’s the same shady players cheating AGAIN.. and the Republicans do nothing about it?! FURIOUS!


18 posted on 11/08/2018 4:48:15 PM PST by DivineMomentsOfTruth ("There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." -GW)
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To: Kaslin; All
"The conventional wisdom suggests gridlock is coming."

Patriots are reminded that the Founding States had drafted the federal Constitution to deliberately limit cripple the federal government’s powers, particularly with respect to 10th Amendment-protected state sovereignty.

In other words, the founders drafted the Constitution to deliberately gridlock Congress, particularly where domestic policy is concerned. So the gridlocked Congress of the post-2018 midterm elections is arguably a step in the right direction to restoring state sovereignty.

In fact, the following terms don’t necessarily have the same meaning imo.

Patriots still need to support Pres. Trump in making his reduced taxes as permanent as possible by working with the states to repeal the 16th and ill-conceived 17th Amendments.

19 posted on 11/08/2018 4:49:53 PM PST by Amendment10
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To: damper99

They won’t get away with it this time.


20 posted on 11/08/2018 4:50:14 PM PST by DivineMomentsOfTruth ("There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." -GW)
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