After the congressional rout

A week ago, I would have assumed that the Democrats would have a few-seat majority in the house, and at best a tie in the senate. I sure was wrong about that.

The backlash against Republicans is appropriate, as they've enabled a felon-grifter in the White House, but I don't understand how the shift was so historic. Over hundreds of counties, not one moved more toward Republicans, relative to Trump's numbers two years ago. The entire nation went left, often by double digits. Are Americans surprised by the train wreck of a presidency? If you were paying attention, you were certain of it. I don't like to be right about bad things, but this was not impossible to see coming. The right enabled this lunacy. So my only surprise is that people didn't see it coming, and that it took this long. I wasn't confident they'd see it even now.

But the real question is, what now? Yes, I fully expect actual oversight of the administration, and it's going to be messy. But what is the legislative agenda? I imagine the new majority will actually do some work and crank stuff out, but much of it risks veto. That might help with presidential ambitions, because, "Look what we tried to get passed for you."

It's not clear who leads the party going forward. If someone does not emerge as a strong candidate in the next year, it's not just the legislative effort that's at risk, it's a drawn-out and messy primary season. It's not clear that they can tie the next GOP candidate to Trump with the same cause-and-effect that they did this year.

Still, Democrats kind of suck at winning. I want to celebrate an approaching return to normalcy, but time will tell. My wants are pretty straight forward... reduce deficit spending, especially on the military (exempting VA benefits), make Medicare for all real, and close the social security tax cap loophole. I don't ask for much. (wink wink or whatever)