On the other hand, the Democrats had a great night, and hope to build on that momentum in next year’s Congressional elections.
As noted, the party holding the White House has not fared well in recent mid-term elections, and typically loses Congressional and Senate seats, some times in substantial numbers. The Republicans got wiped out in the Senate races in 1958, which set the stage for a long period of Democratic control; and we all know about how bad the “Watergate” election of 1974 was for the Republicans. The Democrats lost control of the US House in the 1994 elections for the first time since Eisenhower was elected in 1952. (The Republicans lost control of the house in Ike’s first mid-term election and didn’t regain it until Bill Clinton’s first midterm in 1994. The Republicans lost that majority in George W. Bush’s second midterm in 2006; President Obama had a majority until he lost it in the midterm election of 2010, and the Democrats are hoping to continue that pattern by retaking the House in the 2018 midterm. The Republicans didn’t win control of the House in the 1966 midterm when Lyndon Johnson was President, but they did gain 47 seats. So history is not on the side of the Republicans in 2018, and there are many reasons beyond the typical “election cycle” stories.
President Bush was both praised and condemned for refusing to attack President Obama, or even refusing to speak negatively about him. Well, Mr. Bush has been much more outspoken against President Trump than he ever was against President Obama, and many of the so-called establishment Republicans have expressed similar sentiments. President Trump would be wise to take such criticism to heart – not necessarily to change his policies, but perhaps to change the way he reacts to events, and not to be so quick on the trigger with tweets or insults or quite so quarrelsome with people who disagree with him.
Right now, things don’t appear very rosy for Republican prospects in 2018 – but passing a few pieces of legislation could begin to change that. All the House seats are up, as are 33 Senate seats, but 25 of those seats are presently held by Democrats. Of them, 10 Democrat senators are up for reelection in states President Trump carried last year, and several others may be in play as well. Only one of the eight Republicans up for election represents a seat carried by Hillary Clinton. Of course, the special Senate election in Alabama next month, for a seat that the Republicans would normally carry without a serious challenge, is in play, due to a burgeoning scandal, and that’s one the Democrats would love to win and the Republicans would hate to lose.
It’s a long way to election day, and unless the Republicans right their ship and start passing legislation that their voters expect them to pass, election day in November 2018 might be as bleak for the Republican party as was election day in November 2017.