Are election results worth celebrating?

Re ‘A new day in America’, Nov. 7 The results of the U.S. midterms hardly deserve this headline. The highly anticipated blue wave amounted to little more than a ripple when one considers the extraordinary efforts the Democratic Party had to put in to achieve a result previously anticipated. If that is the best they can hope for with that amount of effort, they are in trouble.

Although the Republicans will have to deal with a House that will be out to get them, they can take comfort in the fact, to the dismay of the Democrats, that they increased their majority in the Senate and won most of the high-profile senate and governor matchups. If the Democrats hope to extend this “new day,” they have a lot of work to do. Greg Sheehan, Mississauga Is it time to celebrate? Absolutely! Nobody is saying that winning the House during the midterms is an historical first because we all know it’s not. But it is still a victory and a reason to celebrate for the Democrats and for the majority of the country — just like 2010 was a reason to celebrate for the Republicans, and they certainly did. They also tied then-president Barack Obama’s hands thereafter, ushering in the current state of politics, where bi-partisanship is a rare beast.

There will now be a significant check on President Donald Trump; control of the judiciary committee for example. Also, the new makeup of the House — younger, more women, more diverse — is reason for the Dems and the country to celebrate. It’s been a while since Democrats have had anything to celebrate, so let them enjoy the moment. They deserve it after the angst they have suffered through over the past two years.

Another objective fact I find interesting is that the Dems won the governorships in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan — the three battleground states that put Trump over the top in 2016. This may end up being a precursor for 2020. And remember that the Dems already had a 3 million popular vote edge in 2016. Now it is far greater.

This is going to be an interesting time. I, for one, celebrate the fact Trump can no longer do anything he wants to do. He will now come to realize he is not above the rule of law. And that fact alone gives me ample reason to celebrate. Ernie Coetzee, Mississauga