During the mid-terms a host of Republicans swore they had supported that protection -- even when they had done all they could to gut it -- and they would continue to do so -- without saying how, since there is no way short of supporting the ACA or a system that's even more "socialistic" than Medicare for All.
Many Republicans will continue to attack Obamacare rhetorically. But the number of red-state government trying to block it and diminish will decrease, if only because the number of states under Republican control is declining.
Democrats in the House will try to improve and expand it. In 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders moved "Medicare for All" from a fringe concept to a legitimate subject for debate. Several contenders for the party's 2020 presidential nomination will take the same position. Congressional Democrats will introduce bills that go in that direction.
At some point, one of those people will explain that increasing public health systems is not increasing costs, it is moving costs. Since Americans spend about $10,000 per capita on mostly private insurance, and spending in comparable advanced countries with national health is about half that, moving the spending should actually reduce the burden.
Republican control of the Senate and the presidency will keep those ideas from being implemented in the next two years, but the rhetoric from an increasing number of "credentialed" people will pave the way for a true national health system to become a reality.
Immigration: The only trump card leftTrump will continue to push for "The Wall," but he won't get it. There's nothing he can offer in return that would make the Democrats accept it. Everyone is so convinced that it's dead, that using private money raised by crowdfunding has been promoted online and floated on Fox News. It wouldn't be legal and wouldn't overcome the host of legal lawsuits that already complicate putting up a wall. And it's a far cry from having Mexico pay for it.
Trump will continue to campaign against immigrants as if the Zombie Apocalypse is coming from Central America. It's what he started with as he descended that famous escalator surrounded by a hired throng. It's what he always goes to whenever other things fail. He'll attack birthright citizenship. But it's in the Constitution.
He will continue to promote the culture of cruelty -- separating families and letting children die -- as a disincentive. What a gift that will be to congressional committees controlled by Democrats and all those wannabe presidential candidates. He may deploy more troops, but there are legal limits to what they can do; elements of the military don't like it, and the far right, which so desperately fears the power of the federal government, may even turn against it.
Is it possible that Trump will launch a Wag the Dog military event in order to be a heroic "war president," as President George W Bush did? The intelligence community and the military -- "the deep state" -- will slow him down, as they were probably prepared to do with Richard Nixon. The legislature may resist him. There's already a movement in the Senate to take war powers away from him.
Where will Trump go with foreign policy generally? Ask Vladimir Putin.
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