An ancient political adage holds that winning elections is about addition, not subtraction that parties succeed by building the broadest coalitions they can. Donald Trump, who became president by defying the rules, tried to win Tuesdays congressional elections a different way: through division. It didnt work.
Trumpism finally met some limits, and the country is better for it. Not healed, not repaired but better.
Democrats didnt quite get the blue wave they hoped for. They lost at least two seats in the Senate, which will remain solidly under Republican control. But they achieved their primary target: They regained control of the House of Representatives, ending the GOPs four-year hold on both houses of Congress. Now they can block whatever remains of Trumps legislative agenda. More important, they can open serious investigations into the presidents conduct. That will make the next two years a very different experience than the White House has enjoyed with a compliant Republican Congress.
But the voters larger message was also important: Even without the wave, this was a rebuke of a heedless, headstrong president. In exit polls, 55 percent of voters said they disapprove of the way Trump is doing his job. Two-thirds said the president was a factor in their vote.
Trump has himself to blame on that count, although hes not known for that kind of introspection. He made this election a referendum on himself.
In a certain way, I am on the ballot, he said last week.
A vote for David is a vote for me, he said in Iowa, where David Young was running for the House. Young lost.
What happened?
Trump still doesnt seem to understand that he won the presidential election with a minority of the popular vote, and that the House of Representatives isnt decided by the quirks of the electoral college.
He didnt care that even as he cemented the support of his fervent nationalist-conservative base, independent voters soft Trump voters in 2016 were drifting away.
Instead of broadening his appeal, he made it narrower. Instead of building a broader coalition adding he resorted to relentless, deliberate division.
Instead of focusing his campaign on a surging economy, he whipped up fear over a distant caravan of refugees, questioned the intelligence of African American politicians, and tossed out absurd charges that Democrats wanted to import Venezuelan socialism to the United States.
The result was a backlash among independents, suburban women and college-educated Republicans. Many of those voters supported him in 2016 mostly because they disliked Hillary Clinton. Clinton wasnt on the ballot this time.
As Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report noted, Trumps popularity falls when he makes himself the center of attention; his ratings rise when he gets out of the way. Thats a lesson the president cant seem to learn. He couldnt resist making himself the focus of the midterm campaign, even though some GOP strategists warned against it.
It seems unlikely that the president will take a lesson from what ought to be a chastening experience. Has he ever been chastened by anything?
