On November 4th, President Obama’s nightmare came true. The Republicans gained complete control of Congress. The Republicans had seven senators elected in key battleground states, gaining enough seats in the House for them to have their largest majority since the Second World War. The Republicans now have fifty-two seats in the senate; this essentially means that absolutely nothing will be done in the next two years, and President Obama is now officially a “lame duck” president with nothing to lose.

This midterm election shows the bigger picture in contemporary American politics–that Americans cannot determine the reason behind all of the dysfunction in Congress. The Republicans are undoubtedly the reason behind the horrendous public opinion of Congress. It isn’t the moderate Republicans, per se, like House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio; instead the issue lies with extremist Republicans, like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas or Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Americans refuse to identify them as the key block to having a cooperative and normal Congress.

This election essentially means that the next two years will be filled with nothing but demagogic ranting from Senator Rubio of Florida and chain smoking from Speaker Boehner in order for him to deal with the constant stress of living with the constant threat of a Tea Party coup of his leadership. President Obama’s goals of passing meaningful immigration and tax reforms are long-shots at best.  The only way Obama will be able to do anything is through executive action. The only problem with this is that he will be setting a precedent of passing far reaching legislation without the approval of congress. Although this is legal, it sets a dangerous and unnerving example for future presidents to pass highly important legislation without the approval of the diverse and democratic congress. Looking to the future, one can only hope this election does not set up with a Republican White House in 2016.

Our contemporary political scene has pretty much become a satire. Congress refuses to make laws, therefore literally refusing to do their only job; the next president may be the brother of arguably the third worst president of all time; and over a billion dollars were thrown down the drain in campaign expenditures across America for this past election (which literally changed nothing, congress was not doing their job before anyway). The American people must identify Republicans as the key problem and replace them with either moderate Republicans or Democrats in order to become a respectable country again, or else this country will be stuck in perpetual deadlock.