Election 2018 was being promoted as the "Blue Wave". There was giddy anticipation, and possibly some premature jubilation over how the Dems were going to take over the House, the Senate, the Presidency, the Supreme Court, and various dog catcher posts. Okay - some hyperbole there, but expectations were unrealistically high.

What happened in reality, is that Dems will be taking control of the House in January, and several governerships flipped from red to blue. In the Age of tRump, that is a pretty damn big deal. Naturally, there will be naysayers for whom this just wasn't enough. They may be ignored. Let's take a look at some of the results...

The (current) final tally (some areas will require further counting, or recounts, or run-offs):

House: 222 D, 199 R, 4 U
Senate: 45 D, 51 R, 4 U

Although 1 House seats flipped from blue to red (a new PA district that was expected to go red), there were 26 Republicans washed away in the blue wave.

In the Senate, 3 seats flipped from blue to red: Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Joe Donnelly (D-IN)

Here are a few individual items:

• Sharice Davids (D-KS) becomes the country's first Native American lesbian congresswoman.


• Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin seem to have recovered from their momentary lapse in judgement in 2016. For instance, Scott Walker was finally ousted as Governor of Wisconsin.


• Jason Lewis (R-MN) who complained he could no longer call women "sluts" was beaten by a woman - Angie Craig


• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is the youngest woman to take office in the House, as well as being the daughter of Puerto Rican parents.


• Florida restores voting rights for felons. That will be huge in 2020.

On the Republican side of the aisle...

• Nevada elects a dead brothel owner.


• Two GOP congressmen facing indictment are elected (Chris Collins (R-NY), Duncan Hunter (R-CA))

There were also numerous ballot initiatives, some of them good (the aforementioned FL felon voter law and Michigan approving recreational use of pot) and some were bad (AL protecting the "rights" of the "unborn"). That includes 3 states approving the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA.

There is plenty to be happy about. Yes, the Senate is a disappointment, but only 1/3 of the seats are up for re-election every year, so 2/3 of those seats were "safe". Like people who complained that the ACA wasn't "good enough", it should be remembered that the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. These election results are way more than a single step, even if we didn't reach the desired final destination yet.