Handicapping the midterm elections? Let me rewrite that for you. - Daniel Froomkin

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https://presswatchers.org/2021/11/handicapping-the-midterm-elections-let-me-rewrite-that-for-you/?fbclid=IwAR0uldNbNx5DKx8YfmpF6OGgkt3xvtoD1OXrajXZj1eXRJMm4hQPJUAdClo

By Dan Froomkin - November 17, 2021 1:14 pm EST

Political journalists in our top newsrooms are pursuing two dramatically different story lines — and refusing to do the critically important work of connecting them.

They file the occasional story illustrating how the modern Republican Party has become anti-democracy, race-baiting, violence-inciting, shameless, and untethered to reality. They report that its leaders defend the violent Jan. 6 coup attempt and are preparing to invalidate or dispute electoral defeats in the future. They observe the party’s appeals to white supremacy and grievance. They describe Donald Trump as a conspiracy theorist who would be unlikely to respect any limits if returned to office. They sometimes point out that the Republican agenda, such as it is, consists only of legislative hostage-taking, lies, denial, obstruction, and division.

The inescapable conclusion is that if this Republican Party wins back control of even one house of Congress, they will grind governing to a halt — and that, if they win the presidency again, democracy as we know it may well no longer exist.

Meanwhile, these same political journalists are also handicapping the 2022 and 2024 elections as if things were normal — as if it were still just a choice between two equally legitimate political parties, rather than a referendum on whether the government should be allowed to function, whether the people should be allowed to pick their leaders in the future, and whether white Christian nationalism formally replaces pluralism as the country’s organizing principle.

Indeed, they are calmly — even confidently — predicting Republican victories, certainly in 2022, based on polling and historical trends. They take as a given that there will be, as usual, an energetic backlash against the ruling party. They note all the causes for dissatisfaction with Democrats. And they consider it inconceivable that the public might somehow hold Republicans accountable for their transgressions and the threat they pose to traditional American values.

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[JoeOtterbein]

1. K n R !

Thanks for posting!

[PoliticAverse]

2. Handcapping the midterms? How about waiting until after redistricting/gerrymandering is complete? nt

[pfitz59]

3. The GQP shitbirds are already fucking with the economy

Not all the problems we're seeing are natural