Trump’s Wall Cracks After Losing Half of Congress

Democrats regain the House of Representatives and Republicans increase their majority in the Senate.

Tomorrow, when the two parties that monopolize political life in the United States wake up, everyone will have won. The major television networks project that Democrats will regain the House of Representatives and Republicans will increase their majority in the Senate. Without knowing the final result, this outcome describes a blocked Congress – two years of legislative paralysis – in line with the scant conciliatory spirit that prevails in the Capitol. But that result also confirms that the blue wave foreseen by the Democrats only managed to crack Donald Trump’s wall. Two years of fury and chaos have not been enough to clip both of his wings.

The massive overturning of the political landscape will have to wait. The result reflects a country split down the middle, as predicted by the polls, which defined an open path for the Democrats in the lower chamber, but with lots of difficulties in the Senate, where they were defending most of the seats on the ballot, 10 of which were in states Trump easily won in 2016. The revulsion that the president arouses in a significant part of the country – which is ashamed by his Twitter outbursts and alarmed by his xenophobic nationalism – was supposed to drive change, like the one that left Bill Clinton exposed in 1994, or the one that humiliated Barack Obama when the tea party stormed into Washington in 2010.

The Democratic tsunami, however, has turned out to be a slight swell, important but not enough to leave the president without a mandate. The suburbs and major cities have turned their back on him, but the rural areas and Republican strongholds have hardly shifted. Trump has proved that he holds the loyalty of a large part of the country, and that he has transformed the conservative party. With some exceptions, the ones who have fared better are his best disciples. This has been the case in the Tennessee Senate race and in the fight for the Florida governorship, where Trumpist Ron DeSantis has prevented Andrew Gillum from becoming the state’s first black governor.

As expected, both parties have blown their own horns before knowing the final count for both houses. The president tweeted, “Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all!” From the Democratic side, the party’s leader in the lower chamber, the challenged Nancy Pelosi, predicted a new era for the country. “Tomorrow will be a new day in America. [We] have taken back the House for the American people.”

The Democratic dreams to seize the Senate – a key body in hindering the president’s foreign policy and holding back his judicial appointments – vanished as their candidates lost in Indiana, North Dakota, Texas and Tennessee, the states that are called upon to decide the tone of the House. Beto O’Rourke, the great rising star of the Democratic Party, the man who, for the first time since 1988, managed to put Texas within Democratic reach, was very close to victory but ended up losing to Ted Cruz, perhaps the most odious politician in the country.

This outcome anticipates two years that will be even harsher in Washington. Accustomed to governing without obstacles, Trump will lose control of Congress and his life will get substantially harder. The Democrats will be able to promote bills, but above all, they will be able to launch investigative committees to scrutinize his finances, his conflicts of interest and the ties of his business to the Russian plot. Initiating impeachment proceedings will be within their reach as well, a scenario that would paralyze the country’s political life. Pelosi has said that, for the time being, this does not fit into her party’s plans.