Democratic voters think that the only way they can get rid of Donald Trump is for Democrats to impeach him. And that can only happen if Democrats retake Congress. Never mind the fact that Nancy Pelosi has said that there is no way that Democrats are going to impeach Donald Trump. Democrats desperately want the big win this fall in the midterm elections that would allow them to take that both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Toward that end, they are carefully studying “special elections” in districts that voted for Donald Trump to see if they can get Democrats elected in areas where they lost in 2016. They’ve been looking with optimism at districts in Virginia, Alabama, and now Pennsylvania where Democrats were able to squeak out victories against incumbent Republicans. However, most of those races have a little in common with the vast majority of the races that we will see this November. The split between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton continues to divide the Democratic Party and until the mainstream corporate types who run the party open up the party to the activist progressives on the far left, odds are that many Progressives will sit out the election this fall.
Democrats Know Know Know They’re Gonna Win
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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His Hairness suggested that Lamb won in Pennsylvania because “he sounds like a Republican.”
Link: (copy&paste into address bar): tinyurl.com/y8baue77
The previous “Dem” senate race victor, Doug Jones, is already voting with the (rather substantial) Republican wing of the Democratic Party.
His missed vote record is is much worse than the lifetime records of senators currently serving but, perhaps, this is fortunate.
Link: tinyurl.com/yanazqam
But Ted, why shouldn’t it work for what now calls itself the Democratic Party in the USA ? Anthony Charles Lynton Blair transmogrified (the top of) the Labour Party in the UK into a Tory copy, and it worked for three terms (I don’t recall any outcry about two-term limits then, but that fall into despotism is related only to China) there ; why shouldn’t the Democratic Party «win» by putting forth candidates who «sound like a Republican» ? The only losers in such a situation are ordinary people and who, in the US political system, give a flying fuck about them ?…
Henri
1. Unless I’m much confused, the Democrats CANNOT retake Congress. The midterms will open up all 435 seats in the House, and right now, the predictions put a Democratic majority there at about 55% likely. Hardly a cakewalk. The Senate elections will, in a best-case scenario, give the Democrats a 51-seat majority. Even if the Dems gets a majority in the House AND the Senate, they can’t win an impeachment because you need at least 2/3rds of the Senate to vote for impeachment, and that simply will not happen. Ever.
2. Running on impeachment as a party platform? Even for someone as hated as Donald Trump, the issue isn’t enough to rally the voters. It might rally the other side which realizes that Trump is already (by the time of the seating of the 2018 election winners) halfway through his term and the stain of a successful impeachment would mean a guaranteed lose in 2020.
3. The Democrats have no one in the dugout. Almost every nationally known candidate has substantial defects; they’re all toxic. And much of the toxicity is tied to their levels of wealth.
4. The harsh reality. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who has a chance of winning. I say harsh because Sanders knows he could win. Sanders’ supporters know he could win. Quite a few of the Democrats know he could win. Who doesn’t know he can win? The leadership of the Democratic Party. Why don’t they know? Because “knowing” would mean that all that time spent kowtowing to the Clintons and their centrism (centrism–telling someone who isn’t rich that they have to wait for certain basic rights and guarantees that a vast majority agree everyone is entitled to and which the very rich/leadership already usually have the best of: see living wage, gay marriage, marijuana legalization, prison reform, etc.) was not only wasted, but also reveals those “leaders” as the naked opportunists that they are. Electing Sanders (or working toward that goal) would mean the end to the gravy train of entitlements and hyperspecial privileges. Sanders is up for re-election in 2018. The likelihood of him losing is about zero. I hope that immediately after winning that election in Vermont, he announces he is running in 2020 for president. Otherwise, I look forward to seeing the bloviators on CNN being shocked, absolutely shocked that Donald Trump has won again in 2020.