US midterm elections confirm a country divided

Public opinions ignored

One reason why Election Day's results were inconclusive is that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans sent a midterm message sufficiently compelling to dominate this election and to win over voters who were not already locked into their partisan bunkers, CNN reported.

Both parties need to listen to what the electorates really want – a possibly forlorn hope.

About three-quarters of voters said they were dissatisfied or angry about the way things are going in the US, and a similar share called the economy "not so good" or "poor", according to the preliminary results of the exit polls conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research on Nov 8.

According to CNN, the midterm campaign was notable for how neither Republicans nor Democrats fully embraced the frustrations of voters. Democrats seemed to downplay angst over inflation and ignored concerns over crime and the border. Many Republicans obsessed over vote fraud falsehoods and laying plans to investigate Biden.

The US is almost perfectly divided between Democrats and Republicans and neither party can cobble together an effective majority, according to an analysis by The Guardian.

The 2022 midterms are, on the surface, a win for Democrats, but from a deeper perspective they have simply ratified the status quo of the US as a divided and divisive country, it added.

A Republican takeover of either or both chambers would extend one of the defining trends of modern politics: Neither party has held the White House and Congress for more than four consecutive years since 1968, according to CNN.

Republican gaining Election Day would simply continue a long-standing tendency toward instability in US political system. The election could also ratchet that instability to a combustible new level, CNN reported.

Where will the US go in the next two years, facing political polarization, social rifts, persistent inflation and popular discontent?