What redistricting also did, though, was allow Republicans to draw very favorable state legislative maps. Those maps will also make it hard for Democrats to regain control of those chambers and, by extension, overhaul the existing GOP-friendly maps at both the state and congressional levels.

Nobody is saying Democrats can't win back the U.S. House in the coming years, but most everyone agrees that it's significantly more difficult today than it was before and that Democrats need a sizable wave to do it. In fact, they would need to win as much as 55 percent of the popular vote, according to the Cook Political Report's David Wasserman, something neither party was able to achieve even in the wave elections of 2006, 2008 and 2010.

So, Democrats have little control, which makes it harder for them to gain control. And until they gain back control -- at least long enough to draw new maps -- it will be difficult for them to get anything resembling consistent majorities.

The numbers tell the story.