I woke up Wednesday morning to…disappointment.  Expected disappointment, but disappointment none-the-less.  Republicans took the majority in both the House and Senate by a landslide, winning 10 of 13 hotly contested Senate seats and picking up 10 additional seats in the House.
 
I’m not going to do a thorough analysis of why this happened– the Internet provides plenty.
 
I will say that we need not lose all hope just yet.  Two reasons for this:
 

1.) The Republican majority will probably set up a very nice 2016 presidential election for Democrats.  It’s the nature of American electoral politics to react and swing full force in the opposite direction when the current direction isn’t producing immediate results.  And while Republicans have been bandying about several names for their presidential hopefuls, there really hasn’t been one great rising star.  Democrats, on the other hand, have hitched their wagon to Hilary, and it’s looking like that will be fruitful.

2.) After the last five years of tea party shenanigans and embittered legislative politics, new Republican leadership is toeing a careful line.  No more threats of government shutdown (at least not yet), no more hijacking of the national political agenda.  I won’t count my ducks just yet, but there have been sides that we’ll be seeing the gentler side of the GOP– one that is willing to cooperate and find common ground with Democratic legislators and, well, govern (Republicans are keeping an eye on the 2016 election, too, after all).

 
So, it’s bad, but maybe not doomsday?  We’ll find out soon enough.