After the Blue Wave, 2019 Predictions

[ineffablebob]

@Granath

I guess this begs the question what did you EXPECT to happen in 2019 based off the 2018 elections prior to election night?

Great question. Here you go:

2017: Whither Democrats?

Here’s my prediction, which no one asked for and even fewer care about: We’re gonna see a small pickup in seats for Democrats in the midterms. The raw numbers will be fairly large, but gerrymandering will keep the swing from being big in terms of seats. Nonetheless, this will be trumpeted as a huge turning point in federal politics. Then for 2 years we’ll have absolutely nothing happen at the federal level because divided government. By 2020, much of this anti-Trump passion will have been snuffe…

Let’s see, small pickup in seats. Yep. Enough to flip the House, fortunately, but nothing like a landslide. And losing ground in the Senate. (Yes, I know there’s a reason for that.)

Next, good raw numbers but not a big swing in seats.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/07/politics/voting-2018-popular-vote/index.html

Why wasn’t the blue wave bigger?

Yep.

Now the next bit, about a huge trumpeting of this election as a turning point, that not so much. People, many in this very thread, seem to have their heads on straight in terms of understanding the limited value of what was accomplished. I suspect this might have been different if Florida/Georgia governors and the Beto/Cruz races had gone the other way.

And then 2 years of nothing due to divided government…well, that’s already been said in this thread repeatedly.

Hopefully I was wrong about the next bit, too…that in 2020 the passion will have died out due to fatigue from the divided-government stalemate and posturing. We’ll see.