QUORA: ‘What will the 2018 midterm elections mean for policy making in the US?'

With Democrats regaining the House of Representatives, I decided to take a crack at political prognostication, just for the fun of it.

QUORA *: ‘What will it mean for policy making in the US now the Democrats have taken control of the House and the Republicans have extended their lead in the Senate?’

I posted this answer:

Political prognosticators generally expect policy “gridlock.” But my guess is that more will get done legislatively, for better or for worse, than people expect. Trump is the quintessential pragmatist. He is a deal-maker. Now that the Democrats control half of Congress, he will happily collaborate with the Democrats on legislation. (Already, Andrew Cuomo announced a “productive meeting” with Trump regarding funding for the $multibillion Gateway Tunnel project.) Much as the Democrats will want to make Trump look bad by not giving him any high profile legislative successes, they’ll have to go along partly because Trump will make concessions most GOP presidents wouldn’t give, and partly to avoid being branded “the party of NO.”

Trump would never go along with any of the more radical fascist-like proposals of the socialist wing of the Democratic Party, such as Elizabeth Warren’s Nader-inspired, Mussolini style government takeover of big corporations (Accountable Capitalism Act) or Bernie Sanders’s Mafia-like extortion schemes (“Stop Walmart” Act, “Stop Bezos” Act) or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s pet scheme to force the entire medical profession into police state-like federal regimentation (Medicare-for-All). On the other hand, Republicans will be unhappy with some of Trump’s deals with the Democrats. But Trump will pressure the Republican Senate to go along, and they’ll have little choice because he’s their own president.

Politically, the Democrats’ 2018 midterm election gains changes the game for them. The Democrats will now have to get back to actually governing rather than merely bashing Trump. And behind Trump’s often inane tweeting is a politically shrewd politician. My guess is that within two years Trump will be looked upon more favorably than he is now. If Democrats work with him, he’ll look better. If they don’t, the Democrats will look bad.

With the full understanding that it is hazardous to make predictions, especially about the future, my view is that the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives will end up having increased Trump’s chances for reelection in 2020.

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Then it got interesting. Stay tuned

Related Reading:

My Vote Will Go to . . . (ARRGGHH!) Donald Trump

* [Quora is a social media website founded by two former Facebook employees. According to Wikipedia:

Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by its community of users. The company was founded in June 2009, and the website was made available to the public on June 21, 2010.[3]Quora aggregates questions and answers to topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users' answers.[4]

You can also reply to other users’ answers.]