One of my smartest friends puts it very elegantly why voting this November is VITAL for us

[DFW]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-the-catastrophes-that-a-gop-controlled-congress-would-bring/2014/10/21/69358b00-589c-11e4-8264-deed989ae9a2_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opin&wpmm=1

Katrina is one the smartest people I know, and I know some extremely smart people. She condenses the realities we would face if the Republicans take the Senate. Like Katrina says, there IS a difference between Republican dominance of the Senate and Democratic dominance of the Senate. It's huge, not trivial. Read her piece.

The nut cases are fired up and the Kochs are spending more on ads for their puppets than they would have needed to buy a decent sized Caribbean Island.

We can only get out there and say, "not with MY country, you don't."

[JustAnotherGen]

1. She nails it!

Perhaps the most worrying consequence of a Republican-controlled Senate will be the extension of an already damaging austerity agenda. Working Americans, who have suffered through years of a stagnant economy, will see their livelihoods threatened by the shifting power dynamic in Washington. Think, for example, about how different the next debt-ceiling fight will look. Republicans have repeatedly used the debt ceiling to hold the economy hostage, but each time they have relented for the same basic reason: the conclusion that it would be Republicans, not the president, who would be blamed for the consequences. After all, if Congress couldn’t get a bill to Obama’s desk, how could he be blamed for not signing it? But if Republicans take the Senate, the calculus will change. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and McConnell (if he survives the challenge by Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes) will be able to send hundreds of bills to the president’s desk for his signature or veto. What happens when they send him a bill to prevent a default on our debt at the 11th hour, attached to a bill that ravages Social Security? The Republican Party will gain the power to force the president to choose between impossible options.

It is with this sort of leverage that empowered Republicans will be able to attack key progressive priorities while advancing a right-wing agenda that includes the Keystone XL pipeline, a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, an assault on the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, the decimation of an already weak Dodd-Frank Act and more tears in an already weakened social safety net. This time, it might be Obama who shuts down the government.

And this is why I've knocked on doors this year . . .

[Fla Dem]

3. I would hope in this particular scenario, the President would call their bluff.

"What happens when they send him a bill to prevent a default on our debt at the 11th hour, attached to a bill that ravages Social Security?"

Obama would gain more and the Republicans would lose more if they tried this. Very risky business going into a Presidential election. Seniors everywhere would be outraged, as well as those Americans still working and looking toward retirement in 10-15 years. It will be all on the RW if only Obama and company can frame the issue.

Here's what I would say.

"Let them close down the government and just see what happens. I will not be blackmailed by a Republican congress that wants to slash the budget on the backs of our older citizens, while they give wealthy corporations and the 1% tax breaks. Let them close down government and see what happens."

But agree overall that republican control of the house and senate is dangerous. I'm more concerned about Supreme Court appointments.

[LiberalElite]

18. "if only Obama and company can frame the issue."

THAT's a Big Fg "IF".

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

16. Her problem is beating up the president. That doesn't win her votes. It doesn't get

black voters to the ballot. They are tired of listening to some white liberals beating up on this president, all the while licking the assess of conservative Bill and Hillary Clinton.

[Peacetrain]

2. Exactly...this whole meme of there is no difference is just bogus

It is..

[sarge43]

5. Any time someone says there's no difference

I have two words -- Katrina, Sandy.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

17. Exactly!! Katrina can miss me with her dribble. Let me pull out that excellent

Melissa Harris-Perry article because I think it rings so true right about now.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. K&R

[Andy823]

6. K&R nt

[mountain grammy]

7. Senator Cory Gardner! Now there's some scary words. VOTE BLUE!

[ffr]

8. Mid-terms could be an easy sweep for Democrats

If just a few more percentage of voters showed up, we'd sweep every republican out of office. It's that simple.

Stay at home because the media said there would be low turn out? No chance. The poll workers here are saying turnout is steady and there are lines.

Fuck Republis!

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

X DEM

[1StrongBlackMan]

9. But apparently, for many here ...

the reality of what Katrina presents is not enough to vote against; we must have something to vote for, or it's not worth voting.

Which is funny, in a sad way, since everyone of us, in our daily lives, are able to process choices on two basis: the choice that gains something and the choice that protects against loss ... we, simply, do not choose to not choose to take protective measures because the is/are little/no positive choices.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

10. 2010 should be a lesson

and why this election is so important.

K&R for Katrina spelling it out.

[stage left]

11. K&R

It really fries me when anyone says both parties are the same,ie, both are crooked and up to no good. It's usually the response of a Republican who's been backed in to a corner and can't think of anything else to say in defense of their benighted party or someone who has no knowledge of anything that's been going on with either party in the last thirty years.

[progree]

12. What a relief to see something in Trending Now that doesn't piss on the Obama administration or the

economy, which most of the electorate link to the Democrats.

I was really depressed Sunday to see 4 of the 10 posts on the home page's Trending Now + Greatest Threads be about how Obama tortures and wiretaps and how the economy and Obamacare sucks. People have a right to post this stuff 2 weeks before an election of course, and these are legitimate and serious issues for progressives to discuss,

but IF they are truly progressive, I hope they will at least pause to consider how this kind of stuff impacts the number of people who turn out and vote Democratic. And maybe consider a little self-restraint for just 2 more weeks. Please.

I am always amazed that we can't post any RW propaganda to debunk in the Propaganda Debunking forum (DERP, that's what its there for, FFS), or can't post a poll that isn't all peaches and cream (ya know, that might motivate people to try harder to GOTV, contribute more, show up to vote themselves),

but nobody says anything about the endless stream of Obama administration - bashing posts, except REC, K&R, REC, K&R.

[blkmusclmachine]

13. ,

,

[DFW]

14. If the Senate falls into Republican hands

It will be a nasty two years. Women, uninsured, people in both public and private sectors whose jobs depend on the stimulus after-effects, and the need to shore-up crumbling bridges, highways and other infrastructure the Republicans will ignore because they don't profit from them. Renewables? What's that? Nothing Republican financiers want to know about. They have their homes in the UAE anyway, what do they care about renewables? Supreme Court opening? Only if it's someone like Clarence Thomas or Sam Alito, otherwise, or else one that will carry a such a high price as to make a Pyrrhic victory.

Just yelling "corporatist!" won't keep evil (make no mistake, these are NOT compassionate conservatives) Republicans out of the Senate. Voting for the Democrats will. OK, they're not all Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. They never will be, either. No one is holding a gun to your head. But count on some Republican doing it (or some steroid-addled skinhead cop who knows he can get away with it) if they are allowed to run the place.

[TeamPooka]

15. K&R!