Democrats have retained the US Senate. American voters have opted for stability | Robert Reich

Democrats will retain control of the US Senate, and maybe even the House.

There was no red wave. But there was no blue wave, either.

Americans chose not to make any more waves.

This was not a change election. It was a stability election.

The past few years have been too hair-raising: four wild years of Donald Trump, two horrible years of pandemic, a deep recession followed by steep inflation, climate catastrophes, a violent attack on the US Capitol, a rogue US supreme court untethered from precedent and eager to take away reproductive rights assumed sacrosanct for almost 50 years, a war in Ukraine where the Russian president speaks of using nuclear weapons.

Americans want to keep politics pretty much as is because everything else is so unpredictable.

There will be no upending.

In fact, as the dust now settles, it appears there was only one clear loser last week: Trumpism.

As a result, the next two years leading up to the 2024 election are less likely to pose a terrifying threat to American democracy. (They may still be terrifying, though.)

Nor were two of the most notable Trump-endorsed election-denying Senate candidates elected, Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania and Blake Masters in Arizona.

Trump himself did not help the Republican cause. His conspicuous stream of invective, bigotry and election denialism reminded many voters of what the Republican party threatened if it regained power.

At least some political stability will prevail.

If any of the current supreme court justices dies, Biden will have a clear shot at filling the vacancy with someone more amenable to Democratic (and democratic) values.