The Republican Party is in a hot mess right now, and this could lead to the Democrats making great strides in the upcoming 2018 mid-term elections.  The Congressional Republicans are fractured, their leadership is questionable, and with Donald Trump flailing about on Twitter, it certainly looks like the Democrats have a quite a large opening in which to jump through in their return to power.

At least that’s what you would surmise if you read the headlines in the news outlets.  But, there may just be a little kink in the chain, so to speak.

The Democrats’ worst nightmare is that Trump could actually have a successful tenure in office.  Unthinkable to many, for sure, but there are some signs, despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth in the press that that might become a reality.

Let’s begin with the stock market and the nation’s economy.  The Dow is setting records almost daily, as well as the NASDAQ, which is up a record 18 percent so far this year.  Some will claim this is the result of policies that Trump’s predecessor, President Obama, put into place, but I doubt that will fly with the general public.

And, partly because of that and the perception that President Trump plans to relax the over-burdensome amount of federal regulations placed on businesses, firms are starting to re-invest in the US.  Should some version of tax reform to help corporate and small business owners get passed within the next year by the Republican-led Congress, even more dollars may begin to flow back into manufacturing and private concerns.  There is even interest by foreign corporations in investing in US plants.

These factors will also propel the jobs market in the US, that has already seen unemployment drop from 4.8% in October of 2016, to 4.4% in June of 2017.  That may not seem like a big deal, but the civilian labor force participation rate has hit the 160 million mark already this year, something that didn’t happen in the eight years under President Obama.

Lower unemployment and more good-paying jobs have led to an increase in wages of the lowest-income American workers of 3.4% over the numbers from 2016, according to a release from the Department of Labor last month.  Again, not a tremendous amount, but still the first such jump in the last seven years.

Illegal immigration has slowed, ISIS seems to be on the run, and America has regained some of the respect lost by previous administrations on the world’s stages.  The exception being that of the North Korean problem, which is reaching crisis stage after being virtually ignored for quite some time.  Even there, Trump has managed to get Russia and China to agree with new sanctions against the regime.  How that will play out is yet to be seen.

There are any number of issue that could float to the surface and undermine the administration’s gains thus far, but there are some opportunities as well.  Should the Republicans in Congress come together and present a workable solution to the healthcare crisis, even more brownie points can pile up in favor of the conservatives.

And even if they can’t agree in time for the 2018 elections, Republicans can still ask for a little more time to reform the bad plan they inherited from the Democrats.  The Affordable Care Act’s moniker of Obamacare is a reminder that it was the Dems who pushed this onto the public, and they may just give the GOP a little leeway in making a correction.

If these trends continue, and the Democrats, who by the way should drop the “Resistance” slogan, can’t come up with a better message than “The Russians Are Coming,” we may see another trend continue as well.  That would be the losses of seats by the Democratic Party in the House and Senate, as well as in the state houses and governorships, that has been going on for the last several election cycles.