What is most significant for our country’s future is how we understand the liberty and equality that forms us and how much we can preserve the natural sources of happiness in family and friendship. On these depend our individual virtues and our appreciation of the worth of free speech and a free economy. A single midterm election will not affect this very much, although we tend to over-interpret immediate results. It will be good for the country that Republicans will continue to be able to confirm judges, and good as well if they can recapture in 2020 voters lost in 2018. It would be useful too if the less-extreme Democrats moderated the others, although the allure of confronting the administration and maneuverings among prospective Presidents make this unlikely. The country needs two sensible parties, and the extremism of so many Democrats is our most obvious political concern.