9 Things The Big Republican Win Means

freshh. · 11-05-2014, 01:06 PM

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4. A victory that means surprisingly little.

The flip of the Senate will be remembered for one thing: It will be the first time in history that a major party took control of both chambers of Congress and absolutely nothing changed.

Despite Democrats’ teeth-gnashing over judicial nominees, the reality is that Republican control will mean exactly the same thing for Obama’s choices as it has for every other two-term president in the home stretch: Noncontroversial picks will get slow-walked, but passed, in the first year; and then the whole process will grind to a halt in the tumult of election-year politics.

Sure, there may some more hearings aimed at attacking the administration, but the reality is Senate Republicans are only marginally closer to the very conservative House Republicans than Senate Democrats have been. And with Obama still sitting in the Oval Office and Democratic leader Harry Reid back in the role of procedural monkey wrencher, nothing of consequence will make its way to the president’s desk.

—John Stanton, BuzzFeed News Washington, D.C., bureau chief

6. Pressure to act soon on immigration.

President Obama delayed promised relief for undocumented immigrants until after the election, for fear that the move would hurt crucial senators. And the move seems to have paid off, politically: Pollster Latino Decisions reports that Latino voters came out for Democrats by roughly the same margins as 2012.

Now Latino and immigrant rights groups — including DREAMers — plan to raise the pressure on Obama and demand that he keep his promise to act before the year is over. Advocates want Obama to go big, including millions of people and following the outlines of bipartisan Senate legislation. But advocates also fear that the administration may only protect 1–3 million people.

The big question: How broad a coalition assembles to press for White House action.

—Adrian Carrasquillo, BuzzFeed News reporter, Latino coverage editor

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9 Things The Big Republican Win Means