So the Republicans retained their majority in the House of Representatives and the Democrats kept control of the Senate - a recipe for continued gridlock in Congress as the country is threatened with tumbling off a "fiscal cliff". Yesterday, jittery world markets reacted accordingly and stocks plunged.
Mr Obama's victory is less clear-cut than it may seem from his
overwhelming electoral-college victory over former Massachusetts
governor Mitt Romney. The American public remain bitterly divided at
the national level, and the situation in Congress, which has
legislative power and controls the country's purse strings, was
yesterday composed of broadly the same combative elements as it was
before the election.
Every two years, voters have the power to "throw the bums out"
from the House of Representatives (only one-third of the Senate is
renewed in congressional elections). This year, despite two years of
unprecedented political dysfunction and despite congressional
approval ratings falling to their lowest levels in history, they
weren't.
With votes across the country still being counted, the fight
reignited as House Republicans fought off challenges from Democrats,
who declared "the end of the Tea Party" - the influential ultra-
conservative Republican movement - before the results had even
started coming in. Speaker John Boehner said he saw no reason to
change course and that the President had "no mandate for raising tax
rates" on the American people.
In the Senate, the Democrats had been likely to improve on their
53-47 edge, but without reaching the "magic" 60-seat majority which
can stave off damaging filibusters and push through meaningful
changes.
In an editorial yesterday, The Wall Street Journal noted that the
Republicans held the House comfortably, "so their agenda was hardly
repudiated". It went on: "The two sides will have to reach some
compromise on the tax cliff, the spending sequester and the debt
limit, but Speaker John Boehner can negotiate knowing he has as much
of a mandate as the President."
So Mr Obama's hands will continue to be tied in governing the
country. Having pledged to pass the so-called Dream Act on
immigration reform to help the country's surging Hispanic community,
he was forced to bypass Congress and issued an executive order to
halt the deportation of illegal immigrants to shore up the Latino
vote. In the dying days of the campaign, he again pledged support
for the Dream Act, but activists in the Hispanic community know that
without congressional support, that dream will die. So America, and
Mr Obama - despite his campaign motto "Forward" - are stuck with the
status quo.
