US more divided after midterms

After losing all remnants of national power two years ago, the pendulum has swung back for the United States Democrats, and they have won one of the major bodies of political power in the United States.

But the midterm election yesterday, which delivered Democrats a majority in the lower House of Representatives, do not portend some new era of moderation and rationality.

If anything, these results foreshadow more political chaos for a country that we can now see is even more deeply divided than it was two years ago.

The Democrats’ path to victory in the House was through the suburbs around major urban areas, which seem to have gotten a lot bluer in the past two years. But that shift has not been felt across the more rural and rusttinged areas, which often got redder. The Senate is where you see this divide most clearly, as the body favours the states with smaller populations.

If you look at the popular vote for the House however, it is clear a majority of the country would rather a Democrat was in charge. Problem is, the Democrats won the popular vote in 2016 too.

Democrats now have the power to subpoena the president and even being impeachment hearings. This election will only add to the partisan divides of this country. At least there’s only two years til the next one.

They turned out in record numbers, mobilised by what many perceive as two years of division, hostility and plain embarrassment. They outspent their opponents by two to one, according to most political commentators. Three to one in some states.

They waited excitedly on the shore, surfboards tucked under their arms, for an inspirational swell of support. But the blue wave never landed.

United States Democrats had hoped to give their Republican rivals and the president leading them a bloody nose in yesterday’s midterm elections, but it was the former who appeared bloodied, defeated and dejected by the end.

By early evening, the Republicans had retained control of the Senate, but the Democrats had secured a majority in the House of Representatives.

That represents a win of sorts, an opportunity to blunt President Donald Trump’s agenda, but it’s worth noting that, while the House can make the noise, hold the hearings, even proceed towards impeachment, it’s the Senate that will sit in ultimate judgment.

If we had started the day seeking some clarity, the reality is we received quite the opposite. The United States remains divided, those divisions scored even more deeply between those who live in the cities and suburbs and those who reside in the regions and rural areas; between the educated and highly paid and the low-skilled and poor; between whites and minorities.

Most would shake their heads in concern at the growing disharmony; one man was no doubt raising two thumbs in triumph.

That division and the stasis it will cause plays into the hands of Trump, a man who has shown quite the skill for chaos and the art of divide and conquer.

Whether you agree with it or not, whether you like him or not, Trump has achieved a great deal for his base and his wealthy supporters: tax cuts, crucial appointments to the Supreme Court, withdrawal from trade deals and global pacts. Even jobs and a strong economy.

So let the legislative wing of the American Government fight itself to a standstill, while Trump waits it out and shakes his head at the antics of the swamp-dwellers. The Democrats will huff and puff but they will fail to dismantle the narrative. They may in fact embolden it.

If there was some clarity from yesterday’s results it was that, once again, Democrats and the liberals and progressives they represent continue to underestimate the anger and distaste for their worldview beyond the Beltway and the leafy boulevards that lie within.

They have become fixated on a hatred for Trump, one shared by many beyond their borders but not, apparently, fully felt within their own country.

They need to find a different pathway. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown called his victory in Ohio the ‘‘blueprint for our nation in 2020’’. Some thought that might be a pointer to his own plans for a presidential tilt in two years.

But given the huge effort by the Democrats and their inability to turn that into a tsunami for change, that blueprint is looking more like a red carpet for a second term for one Donald J. Trump.

While the House can make the noise, hold the hearings, even proceed towards impeachment, it’s the Senate that will sit in ultimate judgment.