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Blue wave? More like a blue ripple

After Nov. 6, The Miami Student solicited guest columns about the midterm election from members of Miami's College Democrats and College Republicans. Below is a column from the College Republicans' Taylor Armstrong. Neither work reflects the opinion of The Miami Student editorial board.

The results of the 2018 Midterm Elections last night will be analyzed several different ways throughout the coming weeks, months and years. But one thing is for sure -- the impending "blue wave" that was expected to sweep the nation never was and never did happen. Although the Democrats managed to regain control in the House of Representatives, their performance on the state level and in the Senate was negative or not significant whatsoever.

The results of Tuesday's election were more disappointing to Democrats than to Republicans considering how much the mainstream media, Democratic leaders and candidates were boasting about a national sweep of the election. Let's not forget how several weeks ago, it was universally predicted by a majority of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) that the House and the Senate would fall to their control along with a few governor mansions and statehouses.

So the question becomes: Why were the results different to what the Democrats expected?

The Senate was a disaster for the Democrats and the reason can be found in one person: Brett Kavanaugh. Justice Kavanaugh's Senate hearing captivated the nation for nearly two weeks, and contrary to what the Democrats in the Senate thought might happen, their shameless attacks were put on the spotlight in front of the American people.

To make things worse, it energized a sluggish GOP base that needed to show up in order for Republicans to have a chance. To name a few, the defeats of Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota and Bill Nelson in Florida were symbols of rebuke against a party who was more interested targeting someone's character for the pursuit of power and political gain. Republicans gained seats in the Senate -- unprecedented for a ruling political party in a midterm election year. Americans were not satisfied with Senate Democrats and their egregious tactics. Last night made that very clear.

In Ohio, Democrats were trying to take a strong stance on the top of the ticket with Richard Cordray. The Ohio Democratic Party has been weak in Ohio politics since the end of Strickland's grueling administration. Since then, Ohio Democrats have been desperate to recruit candidates to challenge GOP incumbents. They had to rely on a failed Governor in Ted Strickland to battle against Senator Rob Portman in 2016 and now they had to rely on Richard Cordray to beat the powerhouse team of Mike DeWine and Jon Husted.

The DeWine-Husted campaign was smart to remind Ohioans the calamity Cordray, Strickland and other Democrats at the time had brought upon the state. I agree the Great Recession in 2008 did not help, but Ohio was ranked one of the worst states for economic growth in 2007 - one year prior to the recession. Ohio is now doing much better than what we were eight years ago and it can be attributed to Republican leadership. Mike DeWine won big because Ohioans knew the strife that occurred under Cordray and Strickland and know the positive track we are currently on. Ohioans were not about to go back.

Last night's election results revealed something very important about the state of the American electorate: We're torn. The American people gave the House of Representatives to the Democrats and the Senate to the Republicans -- a very odd result. This could signify that people simply do not know who to trust anymore.

Aside all the rhetoric and fear-mongering, let's hope that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in the House can work with President Trump and the GOP. Investigations, impeachment and obstruction will do nothing but infuriate the American people and hand the 2020 election to President Trump and the Republican Party.

A party that has absolutely no policy platform (other than fixing a health care system that they broke further with the Affordable Care Act) now controls the "People's House." So let's just see what they try to get done for the American people the next two years.

Taylor J. Armstrong

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