Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntingwhale
If the Democrats win, how exactly does this give them more power when a Republican like Trump is still in power? What can they actually do?
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The federal US system has 3 parts to their government. Congress consists of the House (435 seats, up for reelection every 2 years, portioned ostensibly by population) and the Senate (100 seats, up for reelection every 6 years, not on a fixed schedule so only some are up every 2 years, 2 Senators per state). And of course the President who's elected every 4 years.
The mid-terms (which is today) are the non-presidential elections.
Congress makes laws, the President signs them into law and implements the law (hence the "Executive").
Currently Republicans hold all 3, meaning they control what laws get written and passed.
If Democrats win the house, they'll have power to write laws again. Of course getting them passed by the Senate and signed by the President are another thing, so a likely outcome of this path is more dysfunction with not much getting accomplished.
They'd also have control of all the committees in the house, which does have some power, including oversight and investigative, which probably means more investigations into Trump and the White House's actions.
If Dems somehow won the Senate as well that's even more similar powers.. Trump can still veto any laws written by Congress (unless they have enough votes to override his veto), but Dems winning the Senate is pretty unlikely.