In the fall of 2018, judged by any metric, things were going swimmingly in President Donald Trump’s America.
The GDP was up 5.2% from 2017. The unemployment rate declined to a 49-year low of 3.8%. Inflation was only at 2.49% year-to-year. The murder rate fell nearly 6%, the second straight year of decrease after a wild spike under Obama. No new wars had been launched, and the American death count in Afghanistan had fallen to 3% of its peak eight years prior.
So how was it that the Republicans barely held the Senate despite having only nine seats at risk? How too did the Democrats capture 41 seats in the House, their biggest gain in a midterm since the post-Watergate tsunami of 1974?