Whatever happens next Tuesday, the next two years will be marked be an even more intense political struggle than the last two. The only question is whether we will suffer through complete paralysis during that time, and that question will be answered by the outcome on election day. As Paul Krugman wrote yesterday:
The resurgent Republicans have learned nothing from the economic crisis, except that doing everything they can to undermine Mr. Obama is a winning political strategy. Tax cuts and deregulation are still the alpha and omega of their economic vision.
And if they take one or both houses of Congress, complete policy paralysis — which will mean, among other things, a cutoff of desperately needed aid to the unemployed and a freeze on further help for state and local governments — is a given. The only question is whether we’ll have political chaos as well, with Republicans’ shutting down the government at some point over the next two years. And the odds are that we will.
The only thing I'd add is that while there is certainly a political motivation to Republican obstruction, they are also motivated by a genuine (though misguided) belief that government is the reason the economy is in bad shape. True, they don't really have an explanation for the fact that job losses peaked the month before President Obama took office and that we are now finally experiencing private sector job growth, but Republicans really do believe the solution to improving the economy is doing nothing. So paralysis is their policy preference.
That's why you have guys like Mike Pence, the number three House Republican, pledging that GOPers will refuse to compromise with the Obama administration or Democrats in Congress on anything. ""Look, there will be no compromise," he says. Instead of focusing on producing policy to bolster America's economic recovery, they see their mission as stopping Democrats. "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president," says Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
If Republicans do manage to win the House next Tuesday, they'll be in even less of a compromising mood than they are today. They won't suddenly feel the obligation to share the burden of being a governing party. Instead, they will pursue paralysis with reckless abandon, and if you think the last two years have been slow moving, you haven't seen anything yet. Outside of using executive authority to implement current law (including new laws passed over the last two years), the main challenge for Democrats is going to be providing an alternative vision to Republican do-nothingism, and President Obama is going to have to lead the way. Given the media environment and the state of campaign finance law, it won't be an easy challenge, but short of victory next Tuesday, there really isn't any other option.