Self praise is no praise… and those midterms… November 7, 2018
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
It has worked so far – and Trump is a man of tactics, almost immediate tactics, and not strategy so perhaps he’s well suited to the Democrat’s regaining a majority in the House. Or perhaps not. Perhaps the grind of Congressional investigations and so on will slowly slowly work on him and the administration.
As to the rest… Retaining the Senate was pretty much from the outset a given, losing the House almost from the outset a given. There was a blue wave of sorts, but the Trump base is resilient in a way. Though perhaps brittle, some odd signs here and there that it can be chipped away at given the right circumstances.
There’s already calls for Beto O’Rourke to be Presidential candidate in 2010. Early days yet one would have to say. Then again point to any Democrats who are even passingly charismatic. It’s a short list. It will be educative to see how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and those of a similar political orientation will fare in the next few years, won’t it? And related to that how many DSA members are in Congress now? Rashida Tlaib is likely to win too so that’s two?
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Democrats have won control of the House of Representatives in the US midterm elections, but the party’s hoped-for “blue wave” failed to materialise as Republicans looked likely to increase their majority in the Senate.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/us-elections-democrats-win-house-republicans-hold-senate-1.3689254
If I was an Irish Times subscriber, I’d be unhappy with this level of ‘analysis’. The Republicans have shamelessly gerrymandered most US states, so the Democrats needed to win a *lot* of votes over their opponents to regain the sort of majority they’re now looking at.
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+1 and more… I thought that was poor too EWI, it seemed to be a totally media led analysis with no substance. The idea of winning the Senate was always an outlier.
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The Democrats need to be pushing subterranean campaigns to (a) expand the Supreme Court (has been done before, and Trump now has two more years to stuff hard-right ideologues in there) and (b) to reform the Senate. It’s clearly anti-democratic that a few hundred thousand rural voters in some of those states have the same effect on the Senate as millions in the larger ones.
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+2
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Yeah a weird wave as you say. We had Walker losing which is big same with Kris Kobach losing the Kansas Gubernatorial race in Kansas. We obviously has some real heartbreakers in Florida and Missouri. Still there were some strong house wins. We elected our first two Native American women congresspeople (Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids) as well as our first two Muslim women congresspeople (Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib) and I think the house comes back as not only a more gender balanced place but with a more left-wing democratic caucus which can be spearheaded by newly elected progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jahana Hayes and others. Also the house will have the power to investigate the president and Pelosi has already said they will request Trump’s tax returns which they have a legal right to see.
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Yes, it’s difficult to assess being this distance away and your thoughts are very welcome, as are YC’s, CL, and others closer in, but I thought it was a pretty good day overall for the DP (which I’m not hugely fond of and regard as a cross between FG and SIPTU – unfairly no doubt but there we have it – and yet what can one do at the moment, that’s the material we have to work with). Indeed I thought the stuff about the Senate and potential wins really worked to Trump’s advantage and it was plain stupid of some on the liberal or left side to big up the chances when they were so distant.
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A lot of New Democrat congress reps are from the intelligence services and the military. Sadly I think more significant than any additional on the “left”. The DP hasn’t changed it’s spots. Lots of dosh from Wall St and billionaires, apparently more contributions than the Republicans in this election, some wealthy Democrats even funded themselves to the tune of 15 million dollars. Hardly a party dedicated to the working class.
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