Baby Steps Are Not Enough
Yesterday's midterms were a rebuke to Trump. But America’s decades-long shift to the right won't be undone with Democratic Party liberalism.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi participate in a news conference on November 13, 2017 at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty
In purely electoral terms, last night’s midterms were a somewhat confusing jumble that will likely keep cable news spin doctors busy for weeks.
While the Democrats did recapture the House, high-profile races in Texas, Florida, and Georgia narrowly broke Republican and the GOP, as expected, retained control of the Senate. Amid the partisan standoff, some progressive figures succeeded while others fell short. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is officially headed to Congress, as is Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Rashida Tlaib. And, after two terms of pillaging, Wisconsin has finally seen the back of the Koch Brothers’ man in Madison, Governor Scott Walker.
Whether this patchwork qualifies as the wave election some predicted, the pronounced anti-Trump sentiment it ultimately conveys shouldn’t be missed. The Republican Party is on course to lose the national popular vote for both the House and Senate by considerable, though yet-to-be-determined, margins. In addition to Wisconsin, Republicans were also dealt defeats in Pennsylvania and Michigan — three states that were key to Donald Trump’s electoral college victory.
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