The Democrats' New Power Tools

- Joshua Green

The Nov. 6 elections ended two years of unfettered Republican control of Washington and brought the curtain down on what will likely be—despite its exhausting, near-constant chaos— the smoothest period of Donald Trump’s presidency. Really. Things will get even rockier from here.

The Democrats coming to Washington are younger, more diverse, more female, and more liberal than before. They’ll control the U.S. House of Representatives and the subpoena power it grants them—and they’ll be mindful that voters sent them to Congress to act as a check on Trump.

The Republicans who survived the midterm purge are older, whiter, and Trumpier than before. They were sent to Washington not to check Trump, but to supercharge his agenda. The new Republican senators who defeated red-state Democrats in places such as North Dakota and Missouri won’t forget that the president’s closing message of angry nativism propelled them to victory. Even in the House, the far-right, pro-Trump Freedom Caucus expanded its power within the GOP caucus, because practically every Republican with bipartisan inclinations—and there weren’t many—was defeated. Come January, it will be as hard to spot a moderate Republican on Capitol Hill as a yeti.

Predicting the political future can be futile, especially in the age of Trump, when the national agenda can hinge on the morning’s Fox & Friends panel. But one certainty apparent even to the president’s most ardent supporters is that Trump alone will no longer set that agenda, as he’s been accustomed to doing since he jumped into the presidential race in the summer of 2015. The Democratic House will make sure of that.