Republicans' Senate win shows divided America

Washington

IT was the most expensive midterm election campaign in American history. But despite the US$4 billion - yes, that's 4 billion! - that Republicans, Democrats and a few Independents poured into the 2014 races, and the high political stakes that were involved - the battle for control of the Senate; 36 governors' contests; close to 50 competitive races for the House of Representatives - a large number of Americans were not following the campaign and many of them failed to show up for the vote on Tuesday.

But those Americans who did bother to cast their ballots helped produce a shift in the balance of power in Congress in the direction of the Republicans - the Grand Old Party (GOP) regained control of the Senate and strengthened its hold over the House - that would make it more likely that a legislative and policy gridlock would dominate Washington in the last two years of a lame-duck President Barack Obama. Americans also demonstrated in their voting patterns that the country remains deeply divided between the Red (Republican) and Blue (Democratic) states and districts.