Few spectacles are as slow and painful to watch as the U.S federal government when political control is split between the two major parties (although the People’s Choice Awards broadcast comes close).

Dividing votes among political parties, while not part of the official system of checks and balances built into our government, do play their part in reining in galloping egos and boondoggles. But the Founding Fathers themselves took a dim view of political parties and the havoc they can wreak on the practice of public policy. John Adams called a two-party system “the greatest political evil.” George Washington warned that partisanship could bring about “the ruins of public liberty.”

We will watch their admonitions become reality in 2019. Settle in for at least two years of not much of anything.

The Democrats have enough power in Washington to stall certain initiatives — such as the farm bill, if it isn’t approved in the lame duck session. But they can’t do much to prevent Republican senators from using the appropriations process to push for USDA oversight over much of the process of making cell-cultured animal protein products, even though USDA and FDA have begun to sketch out the framework of jointly shared regulatory oversight.

The split control of Congress also means the meat industry’s trade problems are here for the long haul. In fact, companies would be smart to look at their long-term export plans and work up scenarios that include far less of it.

Consider that China has been working on modernizing its hog production system for some time, and has shifted that effort into overdrive. In the first half of this year, a Reuters report noted that China planned to add “several hundred sow farms” this year with capacity of 5,000 to 8,000 head each. The share of pigs produced in China’s backyard pens has dropped to about half, according to some estimates, down from about two-thirds a few years ago.

The appearance of African Swine Fever in Asia certainly raises the prospect of greater pork exports from the U.S. and other countries to the region, if culling the sick pigs leaves the country short of meeting demand. In the long term, however, the appearance of ASF is another factor spurring the Chinese government to make investing in a modern, more productive and bio-secure industry a priority.

Meanwhile, the reconstituted, non-U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement has begun to take effect. Eventually, tariffs on beef imported to the Japanese market, for example, will be dropped for Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico, to 9 percent from as high as 38.5 percent.

The U.S. has announced plans to begin discussing a bilateral trade agreement with Japan, but the TPP has put American meat processors way back in the pack.

For the midterms, districts important to meat producers and processors stuck by Trump and Republican legislators in overwhelming numbers, after several months of tariff pain. How much different will the legislative landscape look after two years of stalemates?

Two years of not much, comin' right up!

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