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3 EW SHOW DAILY 2018 ASCRS•ASOA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. shore. Stop fighting, and go with the pull you cannot fight, Ms. Walter said, adding that she thinks this is where the country is right now. "I do think that we need to be willing to go with what's uncomfortable right now and see where this takes us," she said. She thinks that when looking back 50 years from now, this will have been the "tipping point into the 21st century." EW the president, what's actually hap- pening in Washington and around the country, and how people feel. Ms. Walter discussed how Congress and President Trump are doing after being in office for more than a year. She noted the Repub- lican Congress has not done well and Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) recent announcement of his decision to not run for reelection. It's fair to say that this party was moving in the di- rection of Donald Trump long before he got here, she said. Many of those who have come into Congress are people who have never been in the party of the ma- jority before, and they are good at being contrarian but not as good at being in the "party of yes," Ms. Wal- ter continued. Congress is controlled by Republicans, but they haven't been able to pass much meaningful legislation, she said, adding that they've passed a tax cut bill but not much more. The judiciary has been a bright spot for Republicans, Ms. Walter said, and they are making sure they get as many circuit court and lower court judges through the nomi- nating process and appointed as pos- sible. "They have an opportunity to put a stamp not just on the Supreme Court but on the lower courts as well," she said. The people getting appointed are young and have a lot of life ahead of them to be impact- ing policy long after Donald Trump. Ms. Walter said that the econ- omy is doing pretty well. In a good economy, the president usually gets credit, and in a bad economy, the president gets the blame. However, the president has between a 39% and 42% approval rating, and she questioned if he should be doing better. Ms. Walter noted that views of President Trump are largely based on his personality. She also noted that after his election, he continued to cater to the group of people who have liked and supported him all along, which helps to explain why he's never dropped below about a 35% approval rating but won't get above about a 44% approval rating. The most important test for him will be the midterms, Ms. Walter said. Historically, the party that holds the White House, in most midterm elections since the end of the Civil War, has lost seats in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. "The odds are good that when you're holding the White House, you're going to lose seats, but the question is how badly," she said. Ms. Walter added that the president's overall approval rating has a strong correlation with how the party does in an election. If the president has about a 50% approval rating, the party loses around 40 seats in the House and 5 in the Sen- ate, she said. Throughout the course of this presidency, the intensifying of dislike for the president outweighs any feelings of love for him by about two to one. "Basically, every person who says they dislike Donald Trump dislikes him with the intensity of a thousand burning suns," she said. Ms. Walter said the map for the 2018 midterm election will be interesting. If you look at what Democrats have to do to win seats in Congress, it's different in the House than in the Senate. In the House, Democrats are at a disadvantage because Republicans drew a lot of the districts. Gerrymandering helps somewhat, but Democrats as voters tend to cluster themselves into urban and inner suburban areas and college towns, which is not going to help them win votes in districts where there aren't a lot of Demo- crats, she said. "What we're seeing is that groups of people and voters who didn't turn out in the last election or have not been motivated to turn out in midterms traditionally are super motivated now," Ms. Walter said. The battle for Congress is going to take place in suburban districts that Republicans have held for awhile. At the end of the day, the drive and messaging is going to get swal- lowed up by the president. "He's the ultimate driver of the election," Ms. Walter said. Ms. Walter concluded her talk by discussing the bigger picture and where to go from here. "My argu- ment is that I don't think there is a 'going back to normal,'" she said. "I think the disruption we've seen in politics mirrors the disruption we've seen in culture, society, and business for the past 20–30 years. "I believe this country can bounce back," she said. "We are very much a country that is able to move with these changes." She used the analogy of being on the beach in a riptide. It's best not to fight the riptide and try to swim to shore; you should go with it, then come into Government continued from page 1 Advancing CATARACT SURGERY LenSx ® LASER ® CENTURION ® VISION SYSTEM IMPORTANT PRODUCT INFORMATION CAUTION: Federal (USA) law restricts this device to sale by, or on the order of, a physician. As part of a properly maintained surgical environment, it is recommended that a backup IOL Injector be made available in the event the AutoSert ® IOL Injector Handpiece does not perform as expected. 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AES/COMPLICATIONS: Inadvertent actuation of Prime or Tune while a handpiece is in the eye can create a hazardous condition that may result in patient injury. During any ultrasonic procedure, metal particles may result from inadvertent touching of the ultrasonic tip with a second instrument. Another potential source of metal particles resulting from any ultrasonic handpiece may be the result of ultrasonic energy causing micro abrasion of the ultrasonic tip. ATTENTION: Refer to the Directions for Use and Operator's Manual for a complete listing of indications, warnings, cautions and notes. © 2016 Novartis 12/16 US-CNT-16-E-5196 US-CNT-16-E-5196_PI_EWDN.indd 1 4/6/18 2:03 PM Join the conversation #ASCRSASOA2018

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