Republicans Take the House
The long-anticipated 2010 midterm elections are upon us, and the Republicans have officially taken control of the House of Representatives. Recent CNN reports show the Republicans with 226 House seats and the Democrats with 154. The Democrats, however, have (as was widely predicted) maintained control of the Senate, with CNN reporting their Senate seat total as 51 (versus a 46-seat total for the Republicans).
While tonight’s election returns were cause for much celebration among Cornell’s conservative groups, at least some of the campus liberal community remains skeptical about their true significance.
For instance, Junior Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell Progressive Sarah Greenberg commented that the election results do not indicate the major political upheaval some make them out to. She asserted that the Democrat’s losses were a result of poor campaign strategy rather than mass dissatisfaction with liberal political agendas.
Cornell Democrats Executive Board member Sam Moss, too, contends that the real effects of tonight’s elections on Washington policy-making are dubious. He predicted that, since the country still faces the same “fundamental problems” it did two years ago, tonight’s results will not entail much change in the policies coming from Congress. He also (correctly) noted that without a Senate majority or a Republican in the White House the Republicans’ recent electoral gains will only guarantee limited gains in power.
Ultimately, only time will tell the true impacts of tonight’s midterms, but, at least for now, with numerous Republican victories in both Congressional and gubernatorial races, the country seems to have taken a definitive step to the right.
