The day after.

And here we are, with the Democrats holding the House of Representatives with a majority of about 30 or so seats, and the Republicans holding the senate majority with 54 or so. The Republicans still hold the White House, of course, and the SCOTUS leans to the right. The Republicans are also now down several governors. Seven at my last count.

And you'll hear plenty of Republican voters clamoring about how "it could be worse" and "we still hold most of the power" and "every president loses some seats in the first round of mid-terms" and other such nonsense.

They're correct, but it's still nonsense. Why? Because it didn't have to happen like that this time. It shouldn't have. It really didn't even have to be close. The Republicans lost "bigly", because they lost more than just the House and some governors.

When Trump won his election, he won because he was saying the things people all had on their minds all the time. He was talking basic common sense and he was using their terminology and tone. Why should anyone be allowed here illegally when it's ILLEGAL? Why should we blame guns, inanimate objects that they are, for murders when it's PEOPLE that are committing them? Tax breaks put more money in people's pockets, which then gets spent, which drives the economy! Government messes up everything it touches, so we should get government out of our healthcare! Entitlements are a heavy burden on our economy, so we should get those people working instead!

All of these things are what he said in order to get elected, and once he was, he actually got started right away on some of them. All he needed was some support from his party.

The party that controlled both the House and the Senate. Oh, and even the SCOTUS was going to be leaning to the right since he had a vacancy to fill. With their support, there was nothing stopping the train.

But unfortunately. He didn't get that support. The Republican Party, the spineless fools, just didn't have the heart or the guts to go on the offensive. His tweets were too provocative, his speeches were too raucous, his jabs (which were usually, actually just counter-punches) were too "unpresidential". The party wanted to slow-walk the agenda (they were never on board with it) and look for compromises with the decimated, demoralized Democrats. Because of this soft approach, they failed to repeal 0bamacare, forcing Trump to scratch away at it with Executive Orders. They kvetched over tax reform and made Trump pull teeth to get it done. They totally ignored the opportunity to discuss gun rights and pass a single bill on it. They repeatedly failed to provide any significant funding or action  for real border security, which was the lynchpin of the movement that put Trump in office and Hillary into what many hope is permanent retirement.

The Republican Party held ALL of the power that We the People could have given them, and then some, for two years straight. They've had the White House for two years. They had the Senate. They had the House. They've had the SCOTUS firmly since Gorsuch was confirmed. Nothing was standing in their way.

Unless you count themselves.

Paul Ryan was one of the worst. He snidely commented negatively on almost everything Trump tried to do and worked in the backrooms to undermine his efforts to get something, anything done. He earned his nickname, Quisling. Mitch McConnell wasn't any better, and resorted to his typical uselessness.

The Republicans could have GAINED seats in the House and Senate and CRUSHED the Democrats for a decade if they had gone on the offensive and stopped the flow at the border, strengthened gun rights nationally, totally wiped 0bamacare from the books, reduced taxes (they sort of did this), reformed the entitlement system... They'd have been kings.

But instead they stayed on the defensive. Even as the crippled minority party in every aspect, the Democrats aggressively controlled the pace and narrative, and had the Republicans on their heels. If not for the utterly psychotic antics of the Democrats at the Kavanaugh hearings (I believe that behavior pulled a lot of disgruntled conservatives back into the fray out of pure spite), the Republicans may very well be looking at losses double that of which they have now. Possibly even a lost Senate, and even more lost governors.

The Democrats in the House now have the ability to subpoena and investigate everyone and everything, for anything, until 2020 and maybe beyond. They have the ability to punish those they deem deserving. We thought Kavanaugh was treated badly...

Looking at the current situation, it's easy to say that now we won't have any positive legislation passing to Trump's desk. No pro-gun bills. No border security. No healthcare fixes.

But then again, the Republicans didn't send anything like that to him anyway. Not once in two years.

And that's why they lost the House.