The 2018 midterm election is finally winding down weeks after the event.  As if we needed more reasons to be divided, the incompetence in some areas counting ballots fanned the flames of discord even hotter.  In a country depending on its elections to give government legitimacy, Broward and Palm Beach Counties in Florida replay of 2000 mess is just unacceptable.  Other places across the country such as Maricopa county in Arizona failed to tally in a timely fashion.  We have to do better preserve confidence and avoid the ugliness and lawyers that come from drawn counts and recounts.

Now that we finally have most of the results it’s a good time to ask  what did we get for the $5.2 billion spent? We surely haven’t come together.  We aren’t any closer to solving major problems. If anything with divided government and the 2020 election looming on the horizon we are even worse off.  The few areas where there is any possible agreement between the parties infrastructure and drug prices lean towards an even greater deficits and prices controls.  Even on these will the Democrats in the house be willing to give Trump any victories?  Will Trump give up the chance to run against a “Do nothing resistance congress” for some small agreements?  More likely the gravitational pull in both parties is to greater distance between the two.

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