This was to be the beginning of a new Democratic era.
The first African-American president was to be followed by the first women president, who just won the popular vote by more than 2 million votes nationally.
Democrats have won the popular vote in every president election since 1992, with the exception of 2004 when George W. Bush squeaked by for re-election.
With these victories, the Democrats' dominance of the federal courts, now eight continuous years in the making, was to be become concrete with another eight under "President Hillary Clinton."
With the expected control of the Executive Branch, Judiciary, and favorable demographic changes, the Democrats were preparing for state elections in 2018 and 2020 that would have set the stage for reapportionment, giving the Democrats an opening to gain control of the House of Representatives in 2022. States like Florida, and even Texas, have been trending blue.
But the surprise victory of Donald Trump has changed all of that.
Three weeks after the election, Democrats are just waking up from their nightmare to face its horror.
Trump, a lifelong Democrat who ran and won as a free-thinking Republican, has already moved to assemble his administration.
Conservatives are elated, his picks are decisively right-leaning. For example, he selected the staunchly conservative member of the Senate as his Attorney General, Alabama's Jeff Sessions.
Trump will have not only full executive power, he will soon pick the crucial "fifth vote" for the Supreme Court majority.
Expect a solid "Scalia"-style vote, since Trump himself has said the late Justice Antonin Scalia will be his model.
Meanwhile, the Senate remains in GOP hands. And because the Democrat majority foolishly did away with the cloture rule for nominees, Trump and the GOP majority will have a free hand to appoint a Court pick in Scalia's image.
As each domino has fallen – the House, the Senate, the White House, and soon the Court – the Democrats seem paralyzed or in denial.
Case in point, House Democrats are on the verge of re-electing Nancy Pelosi as their leader. (Funny enough, the National Republican Congressional Committee has even endorsed her re-election!)
Perhaps it does not matter what happens with Pelosi.
Due to gerrymandering, the House will remain in Republican hands until at least 2022, barring any economic crisis or black swan event.
At the state level, the Democrats have been behind the eight ball, especially after Obamacare caused a pro-GOP tsunami in 2010.
This year the Democrats hoped to reap a windfall from the Trump candidacy. Instead, as Fox News reported, their results were dismal.
Democratic control of state legislatures reflected "their lowest level since the Civil War." The GOP now controls 33 governorships, up from 31 last year.
And Republicans control both houses in 32 state legislatures. The Democrats control both houses in only five states, and only one is significant, California.
Without federal power, the Democrats are also in jeopardy of losing unions as a key cornerstone of their power.
Grover Norquist, the leading anti-tax activist, touts the fact Wisconsin's vote for Trump – and surprise re-election of solid conservative Senator Ron Johnson – had everything to do with Scott Walker's 2011 initiative to end collective bargaining for public unions.
As Norquist explains, since Walker's action, 130,000 union members have opted to stop paying dues.
Each had paid about a $1,000 a year, or combined, about $130 million in union fees.
In all, Norquist estimates the unions have been deprived of over $500 million in Wisconsin, a key reason the state went "red" this presidential year – the first time since 1984.
This past March, after Scalia's death, a split 4-4 Court vote on a critical case involving the California teacher's union failed to end collective bargaining.
Had Scalia voted, the ruling would have dealt an incredible blow to unions and the Democrats.
Many conservatives are anxious for the Supreme Court to rule on another collective bargaining case again, one that will likely be fast-tracked by the Trump administration. A perfect storm of events have given President-elect Trump a unique opportunity to shape the political landscape like Franklin Roosevelt did.
Republicans have not held the House, Senate and Presidency at the same time since 2007, under President George W. Bush.
Christopher Ruddy is CEO and editor of Newsmax Media Inc. Read more Christopher Ruddy Insider articles — Click Here Now.
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