US Republicans face post-election soul search

Significance

The Republicans lost control of the US House of Representatives to the Democrats for 2019-21 in the midterms, while Democrats also made gains at state-level. Yet there is disagreement over why the party endured losses; arguably, one over-riding factor is that US conservatism faces fundamental (but not new) shifts.

Impacts

• Trump’s “Make America Great Again” exhortation will be a broad enough church in 2020 to attract conservatives’ votes.
• Trump’s appeal in 2020 will be damaged if, as seems likely, the economy’s lustre of 2017-18 fades.
• The Democratic Party could be destabilised by newly elected progressives and competing versions of ‘liberal’.