Ramin Mazaheri
Press TV, Chicago
Control of the United States congress still hangs in the balance after Americans casted their ballots in Tuesday midterm elections. The final results won’t be out until after December 6th. With that many fear the US might be facing potentially dangerous unrest, similar to what followed the 2020 general vote.
Another nationwide election in the United States, and it will be another drawn-out, bitterly-fought and highly-divisive process to determine the final outcome for Congress.
Starting with the certainties: the last-minute predictions of a Republican “red wave” did not materialize. They did, however, take control of at least the House of Representatives, but likely with a much smaller majority than many expected.
That means America will have a divided federal government, that President Joe Biden’s policy-making will be hobbled for his final two years, and that the Democratic Party did suffer a significant national-level defeat.
In a repeat of 2020 the Senate will likely come down to a runoff vote in the state of Georgia, to be held on December 6. That means Americans will have to endure nearly a month of uncertainty.
Near-universal worries about politically-related violence didn’t happen on election day but it increasingly seems to be more accurate to call it “election month”.
Adding to the growing tension is that controversial ex-President Donald Trump is expected to announce on November 15 that he’s running for president again. America may soon be arguing over the 2024 election before the 2022 election has been completely decided.
To the chagrin of Democrats and many Republicans, at least 74% of over 250 Trump-backed candidates were victorious, and so-called “2020 election deniers” won repeatedly at top state and federal levels.
It appears that the factional split within the Republican party is more cemented than ever, but the unexpected closeness of the Congressional vote reveals that the overall split between America’s left and right is more narrow, contested and sharper than ever.