TRUMP PRE-MIDTERM = TRUMP POST-MIDTERM ...ONLY WORSE

The midterm elections gave the Democrats a majority in the House, while the Republicans increased their hold over the Senate. The votes only confirmed the split which exists between town and country and the sociological changes in the suburbs, which highlight an increasing Democrat political urban profile. Trump is already his former pugilistic self, acknowledging that he will have to deal with a Democrat House Speaker but threatening her from the start. His first post-midterms move is to send Jeff Sessions packing so that he has a free hand in dealing with the Mueller Russia probe. It is going to be an unpleasant bumpy ride. 

Trump feels vindicated in his chosen message and will continue on the path of the culture wars, against press and city.  None of the Democrat star candidates for a Senate seat made it. The Democrats had better beware of Trump's traps. Their new House majority coming without a Senate bonus does not give them the blank check they hoped for. Theirs will be a difficult high wire act. Nancy Pelosi risks becoming some Maria Stuart, waiting for the ax which might very well come out of her own ranks.

It is becoming tiresome to have to return again to America's fall from grace but the fact remains that the downward spiral looks unstoppable as long as this pathological persona stays at the helm. Shakespeare would be at a loss of iambic pentameters to describe this ersatz composite of Lear, Richard III and Macbeth. Trump, not unlike former or current strong leaders, lives exclusively in a truth of his own making. He might even believe in it. After all, the grotesque poses of his former "Ivana" days were then already considered over the top. The Trump posing then in Playboy attire on a courtesan bed is not different from the Trump/Liberace you get today. The difference is that the pillow might now hide a gun.

Soon the president will depart for Paris (WWI remembrance, he knows nothing about) and Buenos Aires (where he can be the "ugly American" he is). He likes the pomp but not at the price of doing his homework. Besides, he does not particularly like the Europeans who snub his lack of manners and Godfather style.  Furthermore, there are serious issues (Iran, Cuba, climate, aid, NATO, environment, Russia, trade, human rights, immigration...) where the allies politically and philosophically diverge.

The Senate majority leader must be a happy man.  McConnell got a larger majority and was able to cash in on a swath of conservative judges who will enact hard-core priorities.  The Republicans are smart. They let the Democrats wage zombie wars while they push their own agenda, unhindered.

These "historical" elections were anything but. They confirmed that the United States is more divided than ever. Two years from now Trump might be re-elected in a real "historical repeat.  Biographies about America's former presidents and leaders multiply lately. The present is so scary that readers prefer to escape to the past rather than try to correct the present.  History is good for remembrance but an overdose can lead to denial regarding the present.