The election in November could change the course of history.

[kentuck]

Not just American history, but world history. It is that important and significant, in my opinion.

If Republicans maintain power in both House and Senate, then the agenda of Donald Trump will continue to disrupt and destroy our institutions and any trust left in our government. It will be a decision that will be terribly difficult to reverse.

The world will not be spared from the disastrous policies of Donald Trump. He had little problem bankrupting five or six companies that he owned. Before he is done, he may bankrupt America?

The only thing that might prevent such dire predictions is a Democratic House or Senate. He is on a path of blind destruction if no one is willing to stop him.

[imanamerican63]

1. I agree with your theory!

[TeapotInATempest]

2. Yes, it's going to be difficult enough to reverse the damage as it is.

I genuinely can't imagine (or refuse to imagine) what will happen if 45s and the Banana Republicans' agenda is allowed to continue after the midterms.

[Hoyt]

3. November should be ours for taking if we vote, hope we don't screw it up.

[Demsrule86]

7. That is just not true. There is a gerrymander in place. We won by Virginia but 10 points and didn't

get the legislature...it is a heavy life. I hope we can manage it.

[watoos]

23. Yes, we also won the popular vote in Pa.

and Repubs won seats by 3 to 1 margins. The courts caught up to their gerrymandering and forced them to un-gerrymander. The Republican from my district tried to impeach the 5 Supreme court justices who made the ruling to submit a new map. I blog on a local red neck site and I attacked them mercilessly for their abuse of rule of law. A new map has been submitted, we shall see what it looks like. If the revisions were done properly the Dems should pick up 3 seats just from redistricting.

Keep on fighting and voting people, there is no depth in the mud that Republicans won't go to stay in power.

Oh and I also joined the ACLU, it's something you all should consider.

[Demsrule86]

29. We have to vote so we can counter the gerrymander...but the idea that this is an easy lift and we

lose only if 'screw up' is simply false. I think we have a shot.

[hedda_foil]

4. That's why we have to turn out in massive force to overwhelm the Russiapublican hacks.

Pun intended.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

15. THIS!

I will forever be convinced that Obama won only because of the unanticipated, overwhelming groundswell that defeated the cheats that were then in place.

[RandomAccess]

16. AND do what we can to get paper ballots.

I was thrilled yesterday to see during a discussion of probable Russian interference people calling for PAPER BALLOTS by IC commentators.

[hedda_foil]

17. Always! Paper Ballots forever.

And could you post a link please, to the IC commenters' post/thread/article you mention?

[RandomAccess]

31. I'd love to. Unfortunately, I heard it on MSNBC, and don't have a link.

I'm not even sure which show it was on. Sorry.

[hedda_foil]

32. It's okay. I believe you. Just thought I'd ask.

[RandomAccess]

33. Well I HOPE you believe me

(I was a little taken aback by that comment.)

I thought I'd come back to this thread because I finally just saw one of the people who was talking about it. I can NEVER remember his name: Clint Watts. I'm sure you've seen him. I always want to call him Benjamin Wittes, and he's just NOT. Doesn't add very much to the story, but I wanted to tell you anyway. The other person was equally knowledgeable.

[hedda_foil]

37. Thank you for the update.

[Corgigal]

22. Exactly

We have to beat the spread. We need to hire our own Christopher Steele to see if we can get those numbers.

[alterfurz]

5. 2018: It's not just an election...

[TeapotInATempest]

9. Ooh, I like that.

Can I please borrow it?

[alterfurz]

12. absolutely!

[IronLionZion]

6. Our side has to inspire a high turnout and earn it

anti-Trump sentiment can only get us so far. A lot of liberals out there are still claiming that our side doesn't have a platform or any original policies to run on. Which of course we do, but we need to make sure the voters know about it.

https://www.democrats.org/party-platform

[Demsrule86]

10. I am so tired of this meme...like we didn't get the House because we were not 'inspiring'

States are gerrymandered. We would have had the house back several times without the gerrymander...and it is a heavy lift in 18 make no mistake about it. Maybe it can be done...hope so.

[IronLionZion]

13. Which is why state legislatures are important

people move, demographics have changed to make many districts more competitive. Our party needs to win at the local level so we can draw the district lines more fairly and have a bench of qualified candidates who know their local issues and voters to run for higher office.

We can win but it requires a multi-faceted effort to turn out voters.

[Beartracks]

26. Multi-faceted... and multi-year.

Dems will need to implement a sustained, long-term effort. That's what Repubs did to get where they're at now (even if they did lose control to their fringe elements).

It's gonna be a long slog. We can't rest on our laurels - ever.

=========

[Demsrule86]

30. Very true...here in Ohio...every legislature seat is being contested...now we should get more than

we will because of the gerrymander but I remain hopeful.

[ehrnst]

20. Politics itself is 90% uninspiring administrative and statecraft duties

just like doing the work to get a candidate into office is uninspiring.

I will leave "inspirational" for the ngo directors.

[RandomAccess]

34. I call bullshit on the other part of that --

Voters are DYING to have someone come along and rein Trump in. Yes, they care about other things, but the huge, overwhelming turnout and the surge in electoral activity at all levels is DIRECTLY due to anti-Trump sentiment, and frankly, any claim to the contrary is, IMO, pure bunk.

[IronLionZion]

36. Plenty of voters don't read blogs or have political discussions

and don't pay much attention to politicians or think they're all the same. All politics is local. There are many local issues that people care about much more than any president's policy on any national issue. And local elections are less partisan. The party is often unlisted or unknown in many local elections.

It's a tremendous opportunity for us to build up our constituency and elect the people who draw the congressional district lines after the 2020 census. This is what the other party has done in the past.

The American electorate is much more than DU.

[Funtatlaguy]

8. We must fight so many things

Russian interference
Big money of Koch’s, Mercer’s, Adelson, etc.
Repub dirty tricks
Dem tendencies not to vote in midterms

All that being said, Trump is our trump card.
Hopefully, the hatred of that man by people on our side will be enuf motivation.

[Demsrule86]

11. Dems vote in midterms when the party in power is GOP actually which is why we took the house in

2006. Progressives (don't know if I would call them Dems) tend to turn on Democratic presidents because they can't get it all in two years.

[BlueDog22]

14. I agree

Yes, and that is why it is important for all of us to take action through donating, spreading the Democratic message and volunteering.

[jalan48]

18. I agree. If Trump and Co stay in power we will have moved into Hail to the Caesar time.

[bucolic_frolic]

19. Let's hope between then and now

that stable genius doesn't become military genius

He is reversing everything that FDR did. FDR tried to prevent war, got drawn into it, and won it.

I don't need to fill in the dots to complete the thought.

[pbmus]

21. Totally agree...we have to stop the carnage of republican misgovernance...

[grantcart]

24. A close relative of mine who is a devout Catholic, generally conservative and always votes

Republican told me recently "If the Democrats don't win in a landslide this November the country, as we know it, is finished".

That was before the disastrous budget with huge deficits, something that we have agreed on in the past.

His wife watches and believes everything on Fox news, which also has scared him. The Democrats will go united and the Republicans will be divided. A big blue wave is coming. We will take the House and keep the Senate close (we have to defend 23 and 2 Independent seats) In 2 years we will defend 12 and the Republicans 21 and in 2 years after that Republicans will have to defend 22 to our 12. If we can keep it close in the Senate this time then in 2 years we can take the Senate

[DownriverDem]

28. You're forgetting

that the repubs in DC and the White House are not going to do a thing to stop the russians from influencing/hacking our election in November. They are my biggest worry.

[DownriverDem]

25. 100% True

I saw this morning where a memo was leaked from the WH showing how they will run for the midterms. They are going to use racial hate and cultural issues to whip up the repub base. There are more of us than them. Focus people. We are not going to gain a thing attacking the Dems. We need to get more Dems elected. Those who disagree are not on our side.

[Saviolo]

27. Fight outrage fatigue and GOTV.

It can't be said enough. The way to win is to GOTV.

GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV GOTV

[spanone]

35. This is exactly why republicans & trump are doing nothing to dissuade the russians....

from having their way in these coming elections....it's so obvious.