The US This Week: Midterm Elections

Today is Election Day. You all know what that means...PiG paper stress! Oh, and the fate of the country in the immediate future will be determined. It's hard to say which of these two has more of an impact on my life - as you can probably tell, the PiG paper isn't my favorite thing in the world. But it's easy to see that the outcome of these elections will probably be earth-shaking, regardless of which candidates are chosen.

I'll discuss the House of Representatives first, because there isn't much to discuss. This past term, the House has been held by the GOP. And that's not likely to change. A few seats may change hands, here and there, but the Republican majority can rest at ease in the house. The Democrats do have a chance to win the house, but there's a better chance that my PiG paper stress will completely dissipate in the next day. In other words, don't get your hopes up about a blue House. In the other branch of Congress, things are much more interesting. The Democrats have held the senate for the past eight years. As of right now, they have fifty-three seats to the Republicans' forty-five (Vermont and Maine each have an independent representative in the Senate). But that figure is likely to change. How drastically remains to be seen. Different sources say different things, but the one thing that's clear is that the Republicans are poised to make gains in the Senate. The GOP is campaigning on a strong-defense, anti-Ebola, secure-border platform. Personally, I think the GOP is going to take the majority in the senate. But I don't think it'll be because people agree with their platform. My theory is that a lot of votes for Republicans won't really be votes for Republicans: they'll be votes against the Democrats. One Democrat in particular, really. It's no coincidence that President Obama has stayed off the campaign trail. His popularity - or lack thereof - poses a huge threat to Democratic candidates in swing states across the nation. The fact is, the promises of hope and change haven't become reality for many Americans. The issue over the border is another problem - Rick Perry was complimented for taking action in Texas. Yes, you read that right - Rick Perry was praised for sending the Texas National Guard to secure the border. ISIS and Ebola are big issues in the campaign as well, even though we all know Ebola is hardly a big issue. And then there's the not-quite-smooth rollout of Obamacare. At the end of the day, Republicans are essentially campaigning on the fact that they disagree with the President on such issues. And that seems to be what plenty of Americans want to hear. We'll see how things turn out later tonight.

Don't fret too much about New York itself, though. One thing Rob Astorino deserves credit for is running a race we all know he won't win. Cuomo's chances of holding onto his seat are as good as the GOP's chances of holding the house. The state legislature, in all honesty, will stay in Democratic hands. Because this is New York, and that's how the state rolls.