Good. That fucking abortion of a tax bill would be the millstone that drags the Republicans to the bottom of the lake in a sane society.
Optimism? Or something?
In Idaho’s primaries yesterday, they ran out of Democratic ballots because there were way more people coming out to vote Democrat than they planned.
Also, Republican voters kicked Raul “No one ever died due to lack of health care” Labrador (or Raul “I’d suck Trump’s dick if I could” Labrador, depending on how I feel on a given day) to the curb in favor of a more establishment candidate.
Idaho’s not going blue any time soon, but it’s a little encouraging.
Aside: Our commercials for Republican primary candidates have been hilarious from a leftie’s perspective. One of the ads attacked the other candidate on three points – One, they wanted to raise taxes. Two, they didn’t vote for Trump. And Three, they voted to increase Planned Parenthood funding. I see that ad, and I’m like, “Well, that guy’s got good judgment.”
Coming from a state that has been mail ballots for years, I didn’t know this is a thing. What do they do? Send people away or go get more?
It was a minor crisis (“bright red Idaho suppresses Democrat votes”), but they wound up being able to print them at the station that ran out almost right away.
I think I know the magic formula for a massive GOP stomping: Ted Lieu and Elizabeth Warren on ticket together. If one of them doesn’t want to be President/VP then put Eric Holder in there.
Ted has been all over issues this year and has been fantastic in his messaging via twitter.
We’ve discussed here why Holder isn’t so hot.
Very proud of my Congressman, but as he is an immigrant originally born in Taiwan, I’m not sure he’s eligible.
Yeah Holder would be a lead weight dragging down any ticket. IMO Warren is too vulnerable to sniping by GOP scum commentators due to being a (gasp) woman. If you don’t read the Boston Herald, you have no idea how persistently MA GOP people harp on that stupid Indian ancestry misstep of hers, as if it’s a millionth as significant as the least of Trump’s offenses. The wavering-idiot independent vote that is needed to win might just vote for a black man, if he’s super-charismatic and intelligent and the opponent is a monster. But girls have cooties and given a woman as a target, these voters will be swayed by any negative argument whatsoever, as HRC’s failure has shown.
I would almost rather see the Republic crumble than spend more of my life watching Democrats desperately chasing the votes of bigots and misogynists.
Ted Lieu is in a reallllly interesting situation right now.
We’ve already talked about the looming disaster/headache for the Democrats in California, who may not be able to get a candidate on the November ballot in some key Orange County races in districts carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016 because of the state’s jungle primary laws.
Right now, the DCCC is trying a strategy of launching attack ads on the weakest Republican in the top of the polling, to try to knock him from the #2 perch and get a Democrat up there through voting by the people.
But failing that, the party is going to have to do what it desperately does NOT want to do: pick a candidate. And if that happens, the guy who’s going to do a lot of that heavy lifting and messaging is likely to be Ted Lieu.
Yep, not only would that be a betrayal of the Democratic party’s values, it’s probably bad strategy. This is not an environment where timidity is going to be rewarded. To quote the must-read Paul Waldman WaPo editorial Mr. Grumpy linked earlier.
[Trying to jolly Trump voters is] a game [the Democrats] cannot win, so they have to stop playing. Know at the outset that no matter what you say or do, Republicans will cry that you’re disrespecting good heartland voters. There is no bit of PR razzle-dazzle that will stop them. Remember that white Republicans are not going to vote for you anyway, and their votes are no more valuable or virtuous than the votes of any other American. Don’t try to come up with photo ops showing you genuflecting before the totems of the white working class, because that won’t work. Advocate for what you believe in, and explain why it actually helps people.
Finally — and this is critical — never stop telling voters how Republicans are screwing them over. The two successful Democratic presidents of recent years were both called liberal elitists, and they countered by relentlessly hammering the GOP over its advocacy for the wealthy. And it worked.
And neither Bill Clinton nor Obama won white men, remember.
I’m afraid that’s the Democrat Way. It’s also the Labour Way in the UK. No vote is a bad vote so far as these people are concerned, and no pol is a bad pol if they register with the party. Depressing.
Coal Baron (read: worker murderer) Blankenship to challenge WV sore loser status; and run as third party candidate. If he gets on the ballot, even with my minimal understanding of West Virginia politics, I would imagine him capable of stealing enough votes from the GOP to guarantee another D term.
I think one thing Dems need to do is find every working family whose taxes went up this year and put them on nationwide tour talking about how the GOP raised their taxes to give the Comcast and the Koch Bros more money.
I’ll do it. My taxes went up by $400/mo.
I’m getting like $20 extra a paycheck or something like that. My kitchen remodel is almost completed and I’m about ready to take a world tour in a custom-built hot air balloon kept aloft by burning all the extra dollars I have.
That seems incredibly wasteful - what will you do when a Democrat takes office again and you’re scraping bits out of old discarded dog food cans to survive?!
Recycle the cans to afford death panel bribes.
Go back on welfare of course! I’ll get my free iPhone X (thanks Obama!), buy steaks with my EBT money, have a few more kids for the increase in benefits and game the system until America elects another Republican and I have to go back to work!
So, wth is going on with the polling right now. Trump’s approval going up, generic ballot narrowed significantly…
Seems like it could be a few things
- Some waffling Republicans coming home
- Voters getting used to Trump
- Stable economic foundation
- The GOP basically not trying to pursue any major, unpopular legislation at the moment (tax reform, ACA repeal)
- Church leaders pushing the vote GOP to get into heaven button, hard.