My first thought on seeing the mid-term results was, “Shit! We lost some Senators. That’s not going to help.” I had been hoping that we could put up a solid front against Sir Orange, and maybe persuade him to tone things down a bit during the next two years.

My next thought was, “Well, we avoided an all-out fight. Now it’s only three to one : Trump and the Senate and the Supreme Court against the House of Representatives. Three to one we can probably handle.”

My third thought was, “I wonder how well Nancy Pelosi understands her position?” Now that she has her old job back will she become a Democratic McConnell or will she make a first move to get in touch with any “moderate” Republicans who might be out there, worrying about sticking their necks out any further on the Trump chopping block, in case 2020 turns into a rout?

I think the third thought was the best. This is, after all, a government, not a brawl, in spite of Donald’s attitude. There is a whole country at stake, and nearly half of it is unhappy and fearful. That they are unhappy may be laid to Trump’s account — he tells them ceaselessly that they live in a land imperiled from every side, including inside — but that they are fearful is not altogether Trump’s fault. They have in some cases good grounds to be. They have lost their 25-dollar-an-hour lifetime jobs, they are watching their pensions disappear and turn into buyback shareholder benefits and CEO bonuses, they are living right at the precipice of bankruptcy if they get seriously sick. They have a sense of being scorned by the better-educated half of the population — “dissed” in the jargon of rap. If they are to be reassured that America really can be made great again, they need to see evidence that Washington cares about them more than it cares about its perks.

The reaction to the Brussels elite and wannabe elite shown by England’s willingness to go recklessly through the looking glass without a road map or any reliable GPS guidance is evidence enough that being dissed can provide voters with a motive for almost any kind of ill-considered reaction. Democrats in the House, flush with victory would do well to stop and reflect on how dissed they have been feeling under the McConnell-Ryan-Trump heel during these past two years. It is not a pleasant feeling, and it isn’t conducive to careful and considered lawmaking.

Nancy and her supporters need to address those concerns and avoid starting a street fight. They need to try to bridge the remuneration gap, firm up the FDR pillars of the nanny state — Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — turn the screws on Big Pharma and try to get health care under control, and firmly don the mantle of the hero looking out for the little guy. If that cuts the flow of campaign money, let it be known that little contributions can do the job if there are enough of them. GoFundMe can raise millions in just a few minutes if the bait is right. So let’s hand out the patronage jobs to women — lots of women — lots and lots of women — and get rid of the image of the cigar-smoking politicos in the back room. Put everything up front where the sunlight comes in through the window.

It has worked before. Go back and look at the records of the bitter battles over the original provisions of the Constitution. The need for a functioning country made it possible to accept the compromises needed on even such gut issues as slavery. We’ll have to learn to do it again. We must learn to do it again. The alternative is yellow hair and bullshit all the way down.