Democrats got a 2018 midterm win that took the sting out of 2016, but they didn’t win so overwhelmingly that they could bring the government to a grinding halt.
And while we might disagree with Nancy Pelosi, we can be grateful she’s at no risk of being replaced by someone truly crazy. Pelosi will oversee the kind of due diligence our republic demands but immediately backed off from the absurd talk of impeachment.
A split Congress will probably also mean more restrained budgets, so a win for everyone there.
Democrats can also take pride in the governors’ mansions they captured, but Republicans can breathe a sigh of relief over the ones they didn’t. The major parties evenly split Texas, Florida, California and New York with two apiece, maintaining a balance of power among our four biggest states.
While Republicans lost the House, we deepened our bench in the Senate, meaning it will be even easier for President Trump to keep the flow of conservative judges coming. Some are whining that small, conservative states don’t deserve equal suffrage in the Senate, but they can be kindly reminded that Sen. Bernie Sanders represents our second tiniest state.
A win for everyone was the failure of celebrity endorsements: Taylor Swift humiliated herself in her own Tennessee (proving that, yes, there’s nothing in her brain), Will Ferrell and Oprah Winfrey failed to move the dial in Georgia, and all the support for Bob O’Rourke wasn’t enough to help beat the least popular man in Washington.
The public is learning to tune out millionaires who fly everywhere in private jets with armed guards — but who also like to lecture them about income inequality, the environment and gun control.
Everybody could go home Tuesday feeling good about the day’s proceedings and the country’s future — particularly Trump himself.
If we compare this mid-term to 2010, Americans have shown they’re more comfortable with Trump as president than they were with Barack Obama. 2018 was a purple puddle; 2010 was a wipeout.
Despite some of his more eccentric eccentricities, Trump has proven critics on both the Right and Left wrong with his unconventional but irrefutably successful approach to policy.
Trump has defied traditional conservative doctrines to get us better trade deals, leveraging the fact that we’re one-quarter of the world economy to help American workers neglected under Obama’s sluggish recovery. And he’s using that victory to put much-needed pressure on China, which has been ripping off the rest of the world with cheap currency and cheaper labor.
And while everyone agrees on the need for milder rhetoric, Trump is doing the right thing on demanding tougher immigration, a cause previously championed by Bill Clinton, Diane Feinstein, Harry Reid, and Obama himself — but who have all shifted gears for grotesquely political motives.
America’s attitude on immigration is basically still in the Wild West. Our laws are laxer than those of any other country in the world and need to be updated and enforced for the 21st century. Building a wall between us and a country against whom we haven’t had a war in 170 years might be overkill, but ending our easily exploited practice of birthright privilege certainly is.
Those on the bottom end of the American economy cannot compete with an unending chain of “eager masses,” as The Economist described them, while the Democrats call for both open borders and a European-style social safety net are delusional.
Moreover, Latin American countries will never catch up if their upwardly mobile citizens keep fleeing, as the inarguable lesson of Puerto Rico proves.
A weaker leader couldn’t fix this. The only person who has the chutzpah for the job is someone who seems to eat being called a Nazi for breakfast.
But as much as America needs Trump to draw the line on immigration, Europe needs Trump as an exemplar even more. For America, the challenge of unending immigration is primarily economic, but for Europe, the impact is far graver.
Terrified of being labeled of racist, European governments refuse to confront the reality of no-go zones, grooming gangs, and terrorism. A galling sign of Europe’s cowardice, the EU recently decided that blasphemy against Islam (re: historical truth) is no longer protected by free speech.
Weak European leaders have put their own sanctimoniousness above their people’s safety and civil rights.
Europe needs leaders who will follow Trump’s example, and many are. CNN bemoans that they can’t do anything to stop how he’s changing the world, but Trump is also the only thing keeping the network on life support.
So, after the mid-terms, here’s hoping that everyone can all relax, achieve greater political comity, and get a well-deserved breather from Armageddon-level elections.
Until, of course, the next one.
Jared Whitley is a political veteran with 15 years of experience. He has served as press liaison for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and associate director in the White House under George W. Bush.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
