(Newswire.net — November 5, 2014) — Until now, Barack Obama has always had a Democratic Senate to block proposals passed by the House, however, now that buffer disappears as the democrats lost supremacy in the Senate, for the first time since 2006.
The GOP victory comes after republican candidates become victorious in Arkansas, Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia, North Carolina and Iowa. Currently, the makeup up of the Senate stands as such: Republicans with 52 seats and Democrats with 45.
The results, however, are not surprising as most polling analysts had the chances of a GOP takeover at around 75 percent before Tuesday’s voting commenced. Republicans faced tighter races in Kentucky, Kansas, and Georgia, but ultimately their candidates prevailed.
For President Obama and the Democrats, the results are a significant setback. Democrats had two more years until elections to rule, however, President Obama would not be able to pass lingering free trade deals, immigration reform, and tax reform. Same goes to the conservatives, but Obama has the advantage of veto.
Experts agreed that this could be very difficult for the government to efficiently rule, but there are two possible scenarios in next two years. While pessimists see nothing but the clash between conservatives and the democrats that will result catastrophically to US, the optimists believe that the two sides will (have to) find common ground and pass some sensible measures.
Pessimists sigh that the parties are too polarized to agree on anything. Republicans believe that Mr. Obama is a menace whom patriots must resist, and Democrats just don’t trust conservatives, or believe that there is point in trying to cut deals with them. Therefore, the Democrats will pressure Obama to ignore Congress, which is not quite in the spirit of democracy, conservatives say. Further more, the Democrats urged Mr. Obama to execute the executive orders and federal regulations to pursue progressive goals, such as curbing greenhouse-gas emissions, shielding illegal migrants from deportation and even closing the Guantánamo Bay prison. Under this scenario, no significant laws will be passed until after the presidential election in 2016.
Optimists, however, imply that Republicans control both arms of Congress and the Democrats control the head. They say that they will have no choice but to act as the one body, it would be impossible and irresponsible to act otherwise. Further more, optimists say, if Mr Obama wants a legacy, he will have to work with conservatives, whether Democrats like that or not.
“Just because we have a two-party system doesn’t mean we have to be in perpetual conflict,” McConnell said. “We do have an obligation to work together on issues where we can agree,” he added. “I don’t expect the president to wake up tomorrow morning and view the world any differently. He knows I won’t either,” McConnell concluded.