2018: A Democrat Nightmare

Not only were Hillary Clinton and the mainstream media solidly defeated on November 8, but so were the Democratic Party's aspirations for capturing the Senate. From the start of this election cycle to its finish, the media mantra was that flipping the Senate to Democrat control was a near sure thing. This is because of the 34 seats up for election in 2016, 24 were held by Republicans. Well, things didn't turn out that way, and the GOP still holds the U.S. Senate with 52 seats.

Looking ahead to 2018, the shoe will be on the other foot. For then, of the 33 Senate seats up for grabs, only 8 are Republican and 25 are Democrat, which includes two liberal independents who caucus with the Democrats, one being crazy Bernie. Here is a full listing of those 33 seats. To make matters worse for the Democrats, many of the seats they have to defend in 2018 are in Trump country – Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, West Virginia, Florida, Ohio, and so on. And if Mitch McConnell, love him or hate him, is half the master Senate tactician he is said to be, he should be able to engineer votes to make vulnerable Democrats even more vulnerable. In fact, the pressure on these red-state Democrats might be so great that one or more of them might flip to become Republican, with Joe Manchin III (West Virginia) being a prime candidate for such a conversion. So what have we? The forecast is good for Republicans. Barring a major catastrophe, it is hard to imagine the Republicans not significantly adding to their Senate majority in the next election cycle. And because the GOP has such a firm hold on the governorships, the offices of attorney general, and state legislatures, the odds of the Democrats taking the House are nil. And if one wants to look out farther, note that the next census is scheduled for 2020. The resulting reapportionment and redistricting from that should add to the political power of the red states at the expense of the blue Democratic ones. Donald Trump has advertised himself as a agent of change. With a Republican Congress to support him and a soon-to-be law abiding Supreme Court to back him, great strides can be made in restoring the American republic back to her founding principles and thereby Make America Great Again. Color me optimistic.