Anything can happen in politics...maybe we can take back the House of Representatives..

[Stuart G]

Sure it will be very hard, unlikely, downright difficult. But maybe it can happen. Stranger things have happened. In December 2007, a young African American Senator from Illinois, announced he was running for the office of President of the United States. I remember thinking that this guy really doesn't have a chance, not even a tiny chance..Nope!! That is what I thought. I was wrong. So, even though they have gerrymandered the country to their favor, and all that, maybe we can still take back the House of Representatives..
It could happen.

[Thinkingabout]

1. This would be a great day in the US, a start on returning to sanity.

Actually Democrats have the numbers on our side, we have to GOTV, get our people to the ballot boxes and run strong sensible candidates. The current bunch in Congress does not serve our citizens well, it is time to stand and fight. One by one, GOTV.

[monmouth3]

2. I agree. We hear right-wing bluster in the media but people are a lot smarter than they

are given credit for. This is early for Dems to get into the election mind-set but I know so many people who are disgusted with pubs. The shutdown was the last straw for many. GOTV is our main concern and if we accomplish that as if it were a Presidential election, we can certainly get back the House and keep the Senate. I'm convinced....

[Stuart G]

3. I do believe there is a chance..a total idiot congressman from Nebraska, Republican, yesterday..

made an "ignition joke" about the GM car deaths. Maybe, just maybe that seat will go.
The idiot/asshole doesn't deserve a seat...Weiner lost his seat for less. .Weiner did not make fun of dead people.

[global1]

4. Positive Attitude......

Lately I've been disappointed with DU and the lack of spirit and positive attitude going into the November 2014 elections. I've been reading things here like - it's a midterm election and Dems don't come out - or - the Repubs gerrymandered and there's no way we could win the House or - the Senate will be lost because we have 22 incumbents to protect and they only have 15.

Then comes Nate Silver's predictions and the doom sets in more. We've lost before we've even started is what it's beginning to look like. We've given up already.

I just can't believe this. Come on people - look what the Repubs have done to this country. Look what they stand for. Look how they have stonewalled everything this President has wanted to accomplish.

They shut down the Government and cost us billions of dollars in the process. They want to repeal ACA - and in fact in lieu of doing anything else in the House - they voted 50 some times to repeal it. They are against raising the minimum wage. They don't want to do anything with respect to immigration reform. They are doing everything they can in the States to suppress the vote. They have engaged in a war against women. They shun equal rights for the gay community. They won't help the unemployed. They have waged war against hungry children, the poor and the disabled. They would rather wage a war than rebuild are decaying infrastructure. They have crashed our economy. They won't help students burdened with massive student loans. They are wanting to lower EPA standards, hurt our environment and deny global climate change. They are against alternate forms of renewable fuel. They are for the rich 1%, the Banksters and Wall Street that are greedy and want to fleece every penny they can out of the American People. They are wanting to destroy Social Security and Medicare.

We could go on and on and on with how they've destroyed our country and you mean to tell me we can't beat them?

With them pissing off so many voting blocs of Americans you mean to tell me we can't win the House and maintain and strengthen our majority in the Senate?

What are we going to do as Dems to take this election in November. I know it a cliche to say that this is going to be the 'most important election of our lifetimes' - but this time I really, really believe it.

We need to shout out to our family, friends and associates just how important this election is and how important it is to vote in this election. We need to do everything in our power to get the turnout as high as possible. We can do this people. We can do this DU.

Let's see if we can get this thread going here on DU to come up with as many ways as possible to make this upcoming election historic by way of turnout. Please post your ideas here. And please disregard the moles and naysayers here that want to dampen our spirits.

[Stuart G]

5. I remember the voting on the Affordable Care Act..

One key vote in the House of Representatives was 217 - 215 for the act. Just 2.. That was the one that did it. It did indeed get into law, and is going to save thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives. What a positive thing for this country...

[Trust Buster]

6. Gerrymandering in the States by Republican legislatures after the 2010 census.....

........has rendered this scenario very unlikely.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Please elucidate citing which States and districts you feel this applies to, thanks.

nt

[Trust Buster]

17. Pick any state with a Republican controlled legislature.

Florida and Texas are fine examples. The Republican strategy implemented in my State of Ohio mirrors those used elsewhere. The larger cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati, which tend to be bastions of Democratic support, are placed in singular huge voting districts. Then they surround them with numerous smaller rural districts that skew Republican. Google voting districts in any Republican controlled state and you'll clearly see this scheme in graphic terms.

Folks, there's a reason why the Right wing in this country is clamoring for a Constitutional Amendment to allow state legislators to vote for a Senator and NOT a direct vote of the people. You can gerrymander a House race but you can't gerrymander a Senate race by definition under the current election rules.

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. Yes ...

there are gerrymandered districts that give a distinct gop advantage among 2010/2012 voters; but what I think you are getting at is something many have overlooked ... each of these districts, historically, had higher non-participation rates than the legislated advantage. IOWs, the key to a 2014 win is to tap into the 40+% of eligible voters that did not vote in 2012.

My suggestion would be a three pronged approach:

First, and most prominently, a Get Out The Democratic Vote effort messaged around, "We see what the gop wants to do ... cut the safety net, cut SS, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, cut food-stamps, eliminate every program that benefits you, the working class, all to protect the very wealthy. Are you in the very wealthy category?" (The academic research indicates that people are far more moved to act to protect against a loss, than to achieve a gain.)

Secondly, after telling these disconnected voters what they will lose by allowing the gop to stay in office, make a concerted effort to point out every positive effort that the Democratic Party has fight FOR the working class (and how the gop has fight against it), e.g., food stamps, U/C extensions, increase the minimum wage, jobs bills that focus on re-building the infrastructure, etc. Maybe, even, get into the social issues that promote fairness and non-discrimination.

(Those of us that are manning the GOTDV efforts cannot control, nor should we particularly concern ourselves with what the candidates will actually campaign on ... it would help if they would campaign on the Progressive Caucus' agenda; but that's not our job, our job is to get folks out to vote and the gop's efforts give us more than enough ammunition to move folks to act.)

Finally, and most immediately, STOP WITH THE D=R and the constant criticism of Democrats rhetoric (whether one believes it, or not), even here in a Democratic forum, as we see our criticisms of Democrats, spun out to the electorate as, "See even Democrats hate Democrats."

If we want a shot in heck of taking the House and retaining, is not expanding the Senate, we should be about putting Democrats in seats ... by getting the disconnected to the polls.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

11. I second Bluenorthwest's request. nt

[treestar]

7. I agree

This hopelessness thing is stupid. Republicans never do that. The M$M is to be ignored, they are trying to help the Republicans as usual.

[JoePhilly]

9. Gotta try.

We need to push the GOP into as small a space as possible.

[CTyankee]

10. The MSM isn't helping. They're trying to get us to give up all hope.

But we at least have to TRY. If for nothing more to show that we are losing by less of a margin than they thought, if we do lose. We need to get out the vote of our coalition that won the presidential elections by reminding them that Obama NEEDS them to vote to help him succeed in office. Perhaps if it were phrased that way, more votes will come our way....let's go for it!

[randr]

12. If the DNC were to strike up a campaign

that showed how we could take the House and keep the Senate with a decent turnout, they may just may be able to pull it off.
All we need is for women and younger voters to turn out in the same numbers as in 2008. I would assume there are more young voters now and the thought of a large turn out would put the Republicans on the defensive.
The fact that the Republicans are placing so much interest in cutting voting numbers is proof that they are aware of this situation.

[Historic NY]

13. Were up against unlimited spending now that the SCOTUS..

has struck down campaign caps...

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/1014770566

[Laelth]

14. Here's to hope. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[flamingdem]

15. Dems have to reach out to new voters

College kids don't always bother with midterms for example.

[Stuart G]

20. Yes, College Kids need to know how important this election is.

Unless they have studied history or politics, they really don't know, unless their parents schooled them. So many people don't know..

[flamingdem]

16. On a positive note: guess what I got with my ACA letter last week?

Covered California sent me a voter registration form and they are an official registrar

[1StrongBlackMan]

19. I was wondering if ...

there were any rules that precluded navigators from doing voter registrations.

[IronLionZion]

21. Those A-holes thrive on discouraging or suppressing our side from turning out to vote

while turning out their own. They know they can't do it fairly. They like to spread defeatist thoughts in our side, and anger their side.

Gerrymandering can only do so much. In their bid to reduce Dem districts, they have ended up spreading more Dem voters into Red districts. If our turnout is big enough, we can flip some to our side. Turnout is how we can win it.

So far they have been running only on repeal obamacare and failing disastrously. Soon they will switch to jobs and try to frame anything as bad. The economy could create 500,000 new jobs each month and they will claim its not enough or its McDonalds jobs or they can do better. ACA loosening up "job lock" could encourage churn in the labor force to encourage older workers who have been delaying retirement or start independent ventures or freelance part-time whatever, opening up jobs for new workers.

They will try to spin this as bad somehow. Like people are losing good jobs to pursue poetry or some liberal stuff. Funded by billions of Koch dollars of course.

We're in a tough spot with immigration reform, but ACA and jobs should be framed better in our favor. This type of successful PR is how we are going to win 2014.