Going with the NBC forecast of a Republican 10-seat majority in the House, when the new Congress is seated on January 3, 2023, the cold hard facts on the ground will include the following:

1. The new Congress will be gridlocked. Neither the Ds nor the Rs will be able to enact legislation, the Ds because they lack a majority in the House, and the Rs because they lack the supermajority required to override a presidential veto.

2. Although the Democrats cannot enact any legislation without Republican support, their most important engine of law creation, the administrative agencies, can continue to crank out new administrative regulations.

3. The Republican House could impeach President Biden, but since Republicans lack even a mere majority in the Senate, they thus lack the supermajority in the Senate necessary to convict and remove him.

4. President Biden can continue to issue Executive Orders.

5. The Republican chairs of the legislative committees can conduct investigations and issue findings, but they cannot take any legislative action.

Image: U.S. Capitol by Martin Falbisoner (edited). CC BY-SA 3.0.

6. The administrative agencies – notably the DOJ, FBI, CDC, EPA, and DHS, – will be untouched.

7. The DOJ plan to block a Trump run for President in 2024 can proceed unabated. How’s that? Well, the US Constitution provides in Article II Section 4 that the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” The DOJ plan is to convict DJT of something that arguably falls within the category of “bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” and then petition the Federal District Court in DC to enjoin a Trump candidacy.

Is that plan feasible? Well, a standing lawyer joke is that a DC grand jury will indict a ham sandwich (Alan Dershowitz says a “peanut butter and jelly sandwich”), and it is commonly believed that a DC petit jury will convict DJT of any charge.

So, this plan may well be feasible.

Salvation in this rather depressing scenario lies in federalism. The governors are now all-important, as the only source of positive political energy will be the states.