system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Republicans gaining control of the Senate won't affect the country much.

First of all, the president has the veto power.  There needs to be a two thirds vote to override the veto which a 52-55 republican senate bloc cannot do.  Even if republicans have both houses, they still wont be able to have any partisan laws enacted

Second, gridlock has already been at an all time low.  It cant get much worse.  In order to pass a bill both the senate and house have to agree on it.  As its been the republican house for the past 2 years has already denied obama-championed legislation.  Sure, a bicameral republican alliance will make it tougher but it was never feasible for obama to get any of his agenda done in the first place.
gpt
Now instead of a gridlocked house, it's going to be Obama vs the house. Obama came into the presidency saying he was going to cooperate with republicans. Either Obama will make more concessions than before, which will affect the country, or he will make none and there'll be so much scope for making him and his party look bad. For example they could introduce a bill that seems good but is actually terrible in the fine print (for example, some kind of highly corrupt business appeasing emissions trading scheme). This happened in Australia, where the Green party rejected a very dodgy emissions trading scheme with a hard, unchangeable 5% target back in 2009, and they're still reeling from the bad PR that rejection generated.

When that kind of bill comes along, Obama will either have to pass it, or personally stop the bill. Imagine how it would look if Obama was the only person stopping a good looking bill from passing.

This sort of thing could pave the way for a Republican president getting elected in 2016, and that's going to make a huge difference.