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Don't Worry About the Senate, Democrats
If Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell looks happy, there's a good reason. The Republicans are taking over the Senate, thus putting them in charge of both chambers of Congress. The media has turned this into a huge effin' deal, reporting almost constantly about the Senate takeover and the imminent elimination of all liberal values and ideologies. Except not really. Don't worry, liberals, the conservative Congress isn't coming to steal your granola. Here are a few reasons why Democrats shouldn't be worried about Republicans taking the Senate.
You'll probably get it back soon!
Republicans only need to pick up six seats to win the majority for 2014, but in order to hold onto it in 2016 they'll need to get ahead by a larger margin unless they want to hand back the reins to Dems in two years.
Fox News now has to stop blaming everything on Democrats.
Fox "Fair and Balanced" News now has to look to its favorite party for failures in American democracy and irresponsible legislation. Although they still have the president.
Barack still has a veto.
Yes, the gridlock will be dissolved, but you're forgetting that whole executive branch thing. So, it will shift the burden of responsibility from the Senate to the president to thwart bad GOP bills.
No matter whose party it is, no one is having a good time.
Over the last decade, party control has made little measurable difference due to sharp ideological divides.
The Republicans still have to deal with this dude.
Texas' Sen. Ted Cruz, instead of being happy about his party gaining control of the Senate, has already begun to make McConnell's life more difficult by refusing to pledge his support to his new leader. Instead, he's been mouthing off about what he thinks should be the Republican priorities.
You have an excuse to get drunk on a Tuesday!
This gives the Republicans a chance to fail.
Big wins in election years haven't always translated to a surefire thing for the next presidential election. After all, there was no President Romney. While this certainly gives the GOP a chance to shift some opinions, there is also a chance that they will drive the growing independent voter populations away from their cause.
This could be a boost for Hillary 2016.
A candidate whose party is in the minority could gain a lot of traction simply by saying, "Hey! I could do better." So a Republican-controlled Congress could actually help a presidential bid for Hillary Clinton. Or, you know, whoever else the Dems want to put up.
Joe Biden is still President of the U.S. Senate, not her.
And they can't take that away.
