Oh boy!
I am READY to kick some asses with MY VOTE 
on November 6, 2018!
How about YOU?
if the Democrats can’t make significant gains under the current circumstances, it either means that they are too incompetent, the country is too far gone, the Russians have truly taken over, or all of the above.
The scenario in which the Democrats fail to retake the House is too chilling to contemplate. Trump will have free reign. Literally.
This happened in the first place because we democrats sit on our butts in non presidential election years.
In 2016 Dems sat on their butts in these states in a presidential election year.
One thing I hear from Republicans a lot is that Democrats don’t have any ideas. We’re just angry and hateful at Trump. So I hope that paving the road and fixing the school roof is enough, but frankly I think it’s going to take something a little bolder, perhaps even revolutionary.
Maybe the reporting staff could help us out with a few more explorations of policy ideas. Everyone and their uncle is doing horse-race speculation.
but here in the south we just mosey along down voter suppression highway…
ATLANTA — Civil rights advocates are objecting to a proposal to close about 75 percent of polling locations in a predominantly black south Georgia county.
The Randolph County elections board is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss a proposal that would eliminate seven of nine polling locations in the county, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. Included in the proposed closures is Cuthbert Middle School where nearly 97 percent of voters are black.
Ahem https://www.democrats.org/party-platform
Literally took me 5s to find a 45 page document on Democratic policy ideas and it doesn’t even include Sanders-type ideas like Medicare-for-all or Free College Tuition.
[quote=“fgs, post:6, topic:76090, full:true”] We’re just angry and hateful at Trump.
[/quote]
Its well deserved anger and hate, especially after his child kidnapping policy. And if this midterm follows past elections, simply opposing Trump will allow Democrats to make serious gains.
In my opinion, keep it simple. “If you want to stop Trump, vote Democrat” is all that is needed to win the House and, possibly, the Senate.
The Democrats are going to make big gains in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. I also see some nice wins coming in West Virginia and Kentucky. Missouri is also a place that I think is more purple than people might realize. Jason Kander came within 3 points of winning a Senate seat against a GOP incumbent in a year when Trump beat HRC by 19 statewide.
If Dems make the same kinds of gains in suburban KC and STL as they have been making in other suburban regions across the country plus get a few points better in rural areas, they’d win statewide races. In fact, Claire McCaskill could win MO by carrying 7 counties with the right margins. When she won in 2012, she carried over 40 counties. This goes to show that even as the GOP has gotten max margins out of a lot of rural counties, their potential vote in the bigger counties has slipped. They’re working on thin margins and a marginal increase for Dems in the rural areas plus solid increases in suburban areas flips everything.
She instead warned of the “green wave” of cash from the conservative billionaires who’ve long fueled Wisconsin’s GOP operation.
The Green Wave I’m afraid of is that of the third party candidates who are actively supported by outside forces that have corrupted them and their stands on the issues. Never forget the Jill Steins of this election cycle who would successfully siphon votes from the blue wave. They’ve done it before, they’ll do it again. With Jill’s photograph at the dinner table with the Russian oligarchs a couple of years ago, it’s clear to me that the Green party has lost all credibility. I’m not entirely sure the Libertarians, with the promise of big money (also to the Greens), aren’t also corrupted.
The Dems have to do more than well in November. This has to be a clear clarion call that the US will not be subverted by Russia.
Vote! Take America back from the liars, corporatists, grifters, theocrats, and incompetents.
My local Indivisible chapter this morning posted how proud they were that our town in Wisconsin had a 22% turnout on Tuesday in a primary for Governor, Senator, Representative and State offices.
Right there.
That’s the problem.
My son just moved to K.C. and plans to vote Democratic. He said people are energized by the vote this month to stop union busting.
“We have grown a lot. We have done really well here in Wisconsin."
I was shaken to realize, after reading this, that Paul Ryan was referring to his party, not the state of Wisconsin itself.
ETA: Should have realized, since that was stated in 1st paragraph!
Remember when we didn’t have the assembly, or the Senate, or the Supreme Court, or a U.S. Senate seat, or the governor’s mansion, or the attorney general? We’ve won all those things since 2010 by gerrymandering the hell out of the state,” said Ryan, one of the chief beneficiaries of nation-wide gerrymandering and voter suppression.
One thing I think is overlooked in this article, despite the repeated mentions of Obama, is the fact that Democrats across the nation ran as far and as fast as they could from him. Independent voters saw that and figured, “if they don’t want his agenda, why should I care?” The Tea Party - which also lacked policy ideas other than “Watch out for the pickpocket nr” won and has held on by their enthusiasm and gerrymandering.
I’ve had this argument locally with my Indivisible leadership:
In this culture, a 45 page policy document is going to make eyes roll back in heads. People don’t read tomes anymore. The policies need to be in short, snappy, clear statements. The GOP is able to do this handily. The Dems just don’t. They want to be wonks in an anti-wonk culture.
When I served at the St. Croix county fair at the Dems booth last year, we were directly across from the GOP booth. Everything there was served up in statements of 10 words or less, clear, concise, no doubt about the position. Our booth trumpeted how we were focused on a local issue that pissed off the farmers in the area, big time, to the point where one attendee said we should really take that down so as not to further piss off the locals (had to do with water runoff from local dairy farms - very controversial). But that was the focus of our booth and, yeah, we got some very negative comments about it. At the same time, when others came by, they asked me to please dispose of the GOP literature that had been foisted on them (immediately in the trash can).
The Dems have a problem with messaging. They haven’t moved their messaging concept into the 21st century to accommodate the short attention spans of the average voter.
And that’s leading me to think (and I hope I’m wrong) that the problem in 2016 was at the top of the ticket. We’re taking so much back so far and the future looks bright for the Dems in the midterms. Makes one ask what changed in two years.
In my opinion, we cannot bring up Trump in the campaigns. We bring up the policies the GOP are working with, but keep Trump’s name out of our mouths. The voters know. That much they know.
Just keep up the fight. Saw some primary turnout numbers on MoJo this morning. Dem primary voting is up from primaries 4 years ago by nearly 90% vs up by a bit under 30% for Repubs. Also saw somewhere,do not recall where, that in Paul Ryan’s district in WI, which is a very red CD, that Dems turned out in higher numbers than Repubs. If these trends continue until Nov and there is absolutely no reason to think they will not there will be a significant blue wave.
I guess the thing I’m happy about, at least in Wisconsin, is that we have some great candidates on the Dem side - people who don’t have the long-term, here we go again, reputation (e.g., Russ Feingold in WI, who has apparently been running for something for two decades). We’re seeing newer faces, which is always good.
I was hoping Kander would be in Congress, now I’m hoping he’ll stand as a bulwark against the Republican ideas flowing out of Kansas. I’m tired of the monkey see, monkey do here in the MO legislature.