Power Trip

The Midterm Stakes: A Brief Primer

Abortion, guns, healthcare, impeachment — what to know now

Deep Dive MH370
GEN
Published in
6 min readOct 26, 2018

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Credit: Bill Oxford/iStock/Getty Images Plus

RRemember Sliding Doors, the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow movie in which the heroine’s fate heads in different directions depending on whether she does or doesn’t make it onto a subway train? The United States is looking at a similarly split fate. If Republicans hold the House of Representatives, they will claim a mandate for the party to expand Trump’s refashioning of American politics along nationalist, authoritarian lines. If Democrats pry the chamber from their hands, it would signal a rebuke to the excesses of the Trump era and provide them the tools to slow the unraveling of democratic norms.

But what exactly are we signing up for in either case? The parties have been specific enough in stating their intentions that we can lay out a broad road map for where the country will head.

Impeachment

If Democrats take the House, they’ll win the ability to control committees and launch investigations.

If Democrats take the House, they’ll win the ability to control committees and launch investigations. Expect to see a lot, not just into the marquee Russian collusion and obstruction of…

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Deep Dive MH370
GEN
Writer for

Jeff Wise is science journalist who lives near New York City. He is the author of “The Taking of MH370” and "Extreme Fear: The Science of Your Mind in Danger."