The 2018 midterm election was quite the nail-biter, to put it mildly. If you tuned in to CNN at any point on Tuesday night, you were likely accosted with an onslaught of men in suits touching very large screens and Wolf Blitzer seemingly on the verge of a stroke.
Now I know you're still hurting. You're likely screaming at your screen right now saying: "BUT ANDREW GILLUM LOST!" or "GODDAMNIT I DON'T WANT ANYMORE RICK SCOTT!!" and believe me, I feel you. But I implore you to look at the bright side.
While it brought about its fair share of disappointments from a hard loss in the Senate to results in Florida and Georgia decimating Democratic morale and the defeat of the underdog for Beto O'Rourke in Texas, we would be remiss to ignore the incredible silver lining that remains.
WE WON THE HOUSE!
That means we can actually effectively check Trump for the first time in 2 years. Hell, we might even finally get to see this guy's tax returns. See what Bob Mueller cooks up and we might even get the impeachment process going, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
What's that? Something even better happened? Oh yeah, women kicked major ass in this election. As a matter of fact, this election serves as a landmark one for the progress of women in American politics. More than 100 women (yes, one-zero-zero) were elected to the United States House of Representatives. Two of those women will serve as the first-ever Native American congresswomen in U.S. history. Now that's something to be happy about.
So how did we do it, ladies? Well, I imagine it had a hell of a lot to do with our extreme lack of tolerance for bullshit this time around. The 2016 Women's March, the #MeToo movement and rising tension between political ideologies were key indicators that women would ensure things would be different come 2018. Not only did more women run for public office across the nation than ever before, but record voter turnout indicates women came out to vote in full force this election.
Diversity blossomed in this election and that's something we have to celebrate. Colorado elected Jared Polis, the country's first openly gay Governor and more Women of Color were appointed to office than ever before.
As much as I know you want to feel defeated because Ted Cruz (aka the Zodiac Killer) is getting six more years to cower in fear to the man that suggested his father was in on the Kennedy assassination and who called his wife a dog, we have to instead use the upsets to continue to fuel the fire that got us this far.
So don't get too comfortable, our work isn't done yet! The 2020 election is right around the corner and we need more women to run and vote to not only get that Orange Creep out of office but build a government that better reflects the beautiful diversity of our great nation! It's never too early or too late to get involved. So let's go and keep that blue wave riding into 2020 and beyond!
