How important is the next election to the Repubs and the Bush White House?

[kentuck]

Does it have any more significance than any previous mid-term elections? How far will the Repubs go to maintain control? Are they really fearful that their lies and crimes will be exposed if the Democrats win? And don't the Repubs running for Congress risk defeat if they are too closely tied to Bush and the White House? Does that not present a dilemma for the Republican Party?

How important is this election to the George W Bush? Very! He and his Administration cannot stand the light of day. They are like cockroaches that thrive on the pickings of the night. Once the light is turned on, with a Democratic victory, they will scamper back into the darkness.

What tricks will they pull to make sure they win? You can bet on the same old reliable issues - abortion, prayer in school, flag burning, gay marriage, strong on the war on terrorism, and more taxcuts to continue the "great" economy. Democrats know this will be their strategy. Let's hope they have developed a strategy to counter each of these? The trick is not to respond defensively to each of these, but to go on the offensive with our own responses. If they want to talk about abortion, flag burning, or gay marriage, we talk about the lies that took us to war, we talk about the incompetency of Katrina and the loss of 27 million records of our veterans, and the price of gasoline. Whatever they want to talk about, we talk about something else. We need to keep them on the defensive.

[Conker]

1. Exactly.The Repubs won't want to lose significant control of Congress.

[waiting for hope]

2. Here's a bit of insight....

Party Affiliation
36% Democrats, 33% Republicans
May 3, 2006

During the month of April, just 32.7% of Americans identified themselves as Republicans. That's down from 34.0% in March and the weakest performance for the GOP since our monthly reports began 28 months ago in January 2004.

However, the GOP loss did not translate into gains for Democrats. Instead, the number of Americans unaffiliated with either major party increased to 30.9%, the highest total we've measured.

The number of Democrats remained steady at 36.4%. A month ago, 36.7% of Americans considered themselves Democrats.

These results come from Rasmussen Reports tracking surveys of 15,000 voters per month.

Democrats now have a net advantage of 3.7 percentage points over the GOP. That's up from 2.7 percentage points a month ago, but unchanged from a year ago. Monthly data from January 2004 to March 2006 can be reviewed here.

Snip...
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/May%20Dailies/Partisan%20Trends.htm

[Deja Q]

3. Repubs claim disaster will strike if Dems win.

Whatever that means, I wish they could be a little bit more articulate. :D

[Skittles]

4. they will lie, steal, cheat, kill to maintain control

it is SOP for repukes

[annabanana]

5. It is essential to them..

If the Democrats (and the rest of the 70% of Americans who think this administration is a criminal syndicate) get any real power anywhere, the jig is up.

At least they think so. They think so because of their powers of projection. They fully expect Democrats to do the same think they'd so in the same position. I wish I was as sure of the Democrats resolve.

[yurbud]

6. For GOP in general, important--for Bush admin, life or death

The GOP in general will be hurt if they lose, but the Bushies will be impeached or heading to jail.

[Warpy]

7. The problem can be summed up in a poll that came out

two weeks ago, that said the average voter was OK with his Congressman, but YOUR son of a bitch had to go.

I don't think they're too worried at this point. They know people hate Stupid but will reliably vote for incumbents in enough numbers to keep the Congress fairly stable.

Unless we can do something to convince Joe Sixpack that HIS son of a bitch is a problem, too, there really isn't much hope.

[Lexingtonian]

8. Every midterm election since the Eighties

has meant a power shift between factions in Congress. None of those factions that has lost power ever regains it. The People is slow, but it uses up all the politicians and groups in due course.

We've burned out the moderates and small c conservatives on both sides, plus a bunch of others (Left, reactionary, Green, etc) over that time- the political center is expended.

Republicans are down to their last intact faction, the hardline Right, which is in power, and there are no new ones in the making. With the demise of the hardline Right in the public mind, the Nixon GOP coalition of moderates, conservatives, and Right is done for.

Democrats are down to their last intact faction, the liberals. But new Left-center ones are forming.

All the Right's issues are dying away among moderate voters. The center is losing a lot of conservative bias, which makes for this wierd atmosphere of dissolution and confusion at the moment. All kinds of whining about "what Democrats stand for"...yeah, the trick is you have to stand for yourself, figure out what you really want- and then you discover that you actually understand and agree with what Democrats stand for. Explaining the Democratic platform to people who refuse to think and stand for themselves never works. (Libertarians being a case in point, btw.)