Gil Mertz | Silver Linings for Trump

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Letters to the Editor
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Democrats won the House and should be congratulated. Conservatives will not hold riots, marches, or investigations in response. We can appreciate the benefits of divided government such as the Reagan and Clinton administrations. But there were many silver linings for Trump in this defeat.

Trump far outperformed Obama’s first mid-term election where he lost over 60 seats in the House, despite being coddled by the media and having Nancy Pelosi fully engaged. Trump had over 40 House Republicans stepping down, his speaker completely disengaged, a band of billionaires against him, and two years of savage media coverage. Trump should have lost 100 seats but it was about half of what Obama did.

Obama lost six Senate seats in 2010 while Trump added Senate seats where he will get all his major appointments approved and could lead to a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

Trump ran the table on the most prized governor seats in Ohio, Florida and Georgia that he needed for a 2020 run. Trump and Obama fought hard for these prizes. Obama went 0-3. In fact, all the Democratic rising stars lost.

Trump can now get a real attorney general to replace Jeff Sessions to help clean up the corruption in Washington and reign in the endless calls for investigations by the Democrats.

If Democrats choose to work with Trump he can demonstrate his ability to reach across the aisle. Trump wins. If Democrats choose to investigate rather than legislate, Trump wins.

Democrats have lost the argument that they have no power to stop Trump. They now must take responsibility for their decisions and Trump will work that to his advantage just as Clinton and Obama did when they were re-elected.

So much for the vaunted Blue Wave.

Gil Mertz

Thousand Oaks

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