Well, the DEMs actually did run a winning candidate, at least in the terms of the popular vote; Clinton beat Trump by nearly 3 million votes, winning the popular vote by a good majority, and 54% of the voters voted for a candidate other than Trump; Trump was never the US voters' choice. Clinton, flaws and all, was actually 'electable', mainly because, for the majority of the actual voters, she was the lesser of two evils. Trump won office not by direct election, but, rather, by the arcane 'handicapping' system that is the Electoral College. Where Clinton and the DEMs failed was in not working the "game" of the Electoral College as effectively as the GOP...
Trump was never the popular People's Choice and has seen his popularity slide to dismal depths near or below the dismal level when he took office; that is an absolute fact. If the trend continues, and it shows no immediate prospect of change, if Trump manages to cling to office til 2020, the DEMs stand a better than good chance of regaining the Oval Office, dependent of who they run. I don't think they will forget the lesson about the gaming of the Electoral College, much as the GOP learned a valuable lesson when, in 2012, Obama raked in far more Electoral votes than the GOP anticipated (actually more than Trump managed to pull in 2016)...
The 2018 mid-terms are a toss-up: the GOP has been doing the right thing by pretty much trying to carry on with business without being sucked into the Trump sideshow. As long as they continue to strive to conduct their business as if Trump is not the albatross he is, the GOP can, at least, curry favor with the voters who are seeking remedies to more personal, pressing issues they face. The Senate should be secure since none of the GOP members has really done anything to cause real concern and the Senate is seen as the 'grown-ups' of Congress; the House is another issue; given that a sizable number of the GOP House members have more or less signed on to some of the highly questionable Trump causes and that a few have even gone out of their way to seemingly abet Trump, there is a perception the GOP leadership of the House has lost control of even their own members; the faith the voters have in the House has never, regardless of whoever were the majority party, in the past couple of decades or so, been very high and it is falling; unless they right ship and try to regain a semblance of order and unity, 2018 could be a very interesting election...
<O>
__________________
__________________________________________________ __
|