Dear Shadow Minister,

Whew. Really? Where to start?

Well before the election I called a 30 seat majority since albeit it was a touch above the consensus from sites like FiveThirtyEight I thought they were on a roll. They are on track to put 38 in the bag, many of them women. The “blue wave” predictions was for 40+ seats so they were shy of that, but not by much. Especially given that the 30 lost by Obama in 2014 was described as a wave.

In the Senate there were three times as many Democrat seats being tested compared to Republican, 24 to 8.

Six years ago when the Class 1 seats were voted for, the Democrats had taken 3 off the Republicans, but they did not have an incumbent President touting for them this time. Yet People like Elizabeth Warren increased their margins significantly.

“ the Senate map for 2018 was one of the worst maps in modern memory for Democrats. They had 26 seats up, including 10 in states Trump won. Of those 10, five were states Trump won by double digits; three of those five (Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota) were places where Republicans won on Tuesday.) And in the only state Hillary Clinton won where a Republican incumbent was running -- Nevada -- Democrats won.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/09/politics/2018-democrats-midterms/index.html

While definitely not a Tsunami it certainly wasn't a thin blue wave.

Sorry 'majority' should read 'turnaround'.

It was clear even 12 months before the midterms the senate was a bridge too far for the Democrats
IF the thought it was a Republican victory come because they increased their senate numbers
Then those holding that view no very little about AMERICAN POLITICS

SR,

It is great that you have such great 20/20 hindsight, however, given that at just about every mid term election for a new president has resulted in the loss of the house and a swing against the president in the senate. Trump looks to extend the Republican majority in the senate to 53 with the democrats winning 38 seats in the house which is far stronger a result in comparison to democratic presidents Clinton lost both the senate and the Congress, and Obama (who got a Nobel prize for doing nothing except being black) lost 6 senate seats and 60 congressional seats.

At best the result was underwhelming for the democrats.

Belly

The result is that while Trump will struggle to pass new legislation, he will be able to block anything the democrats pass, and continue to appoint judges, impeachment is off the table, and Trump has a hostile congress that at the next election he can blame for most of his failures.

Dear Shadow Minister,

Back when those seats were lost under Obama the Republicans took 51.7% of the popular vote. Obama of course was dealing with a huge financial crisis after the GFC and having to make unpopular decisions in a country that had been economically hammered by Republican mismanagement.

This time Trump with an apparently booming economy, largely due to the earlier repair managed by Obama and his team, yet the Democrats took a whopping 52.4% of the popular vote.

The more I think about it the more impressive this result seems.

The main effect of the Democrat majority in the Congress is that no new legislation will be passed. That's just a nuisance for Trump. The real power lies in the senate, where non-elected judges and officials are appointed. These people can make changes without reference to Congress; and that's why the Democrats tried so hard to keep a keep a conservative judge out. Nothing to do with his character or sexual allegations - he has tipped the balance in Trump's campaign favour; and that's a big Democrat loss.