Anyone else fearing a red wave? (Or at most, a blue ripple?)

Politics & Elections
21

A big fear for me this cycle was a Progressive wave pulling Democrats further left as a normal midterm reversal or bigger wave saw them elected and gaining the incumbent advantage in later cycles. That fear mostly evaporated as center-left candidates did well in the Democratic primaries. My party has been jogging away from my touch right of center politics for a while…and started sprinting with Trump. It’s nice to see that Democrats managed to at least put the brakes on the window pulling left and offer me acceptable alternatives. I truly feared having to violate my general rule for voting for the first time. I don’t vote for Tea Party or Progressive candidates. This year won’t require me breaking that rule for the first time. I don’t expect to see the parties closely resemble the politics of my two favorite President, the elder Bush and Clinton, anytime soon. The primaries were a nice little surprise though.

Maybe it’s just my touch right of center politics but I’m not seeing a big practical difference between a one seat and a forty seat House majority, anyway. A normal mid-term shift or giant wave are pretty close to the same in effect IMO. Passing legislation will still take bipartisan support in the Senate. Passing legislation that Trump doesn’t support will still take significant GOP support in the House to overcome his veto.

22

Yes. The unease you should feel is the Democrats pushing away voters. Democrats on the Dope have demonstrated sexism, racism, and so on. They’ve spent their time complaining about Trump & the Republicans but no time about why voters should actually vote for them.

23

The left can’t be as out of touch as you say, seeing that none of the above is even slightly on the platform.

The right is WAY out of touch with what the left really is for, but they love it that way. Don’t Confuse Me With the Facts is their motto.

To speak to the OP, hell yes. With a third of the country lining up to for their brown shirts, you bet I’m afraid.

24

Those depraved voters! How dare they? What do they think this is, some sort of representative democracy?

25

Trick question! Republicans don’t think, they believe.

26

I’m holding onto a bit of hope that the March for Our Lives kids will save us.

27

Red wave? No.

Blue ripple vs wave? Well there have been some discussion in some threads here over what counts as a “wave.”

Broad consensus is the Senate stays R and that the House goes D … and as an increasingly partisan Democrat I’ll be content if that happens even if that’s a ripple of just the +23 that gets the House majority. It is not impossible for the GOP to keep the House.

A Blue wave that takes the Senate is highly unlikely. If that is needed to be other than “a ripple” then a ripple it likely will be.

Most though I think will call it a wave if they win the national popular vote by 8 or more and/or flip at least 30 seats. And I am not completely confident of that.

“Wave” status at that 30 seat margin will also be informed by how close Ds come in races that have no business being competitive, even with losses.
This is a “nationalized” election. And it as much as the Right would want it to be about what they want to paint Ds as having as a platform that is not what it is about. It is about whether or not Trump has brought the changes that this country and this world needs and should have a full endorsement with no checks or balances. Or should there be some limits on his power? It is perhaps some about if what we are seeing currently is what “great” means, is what we as a nation want to aspire to be and to become more of.
As for those progressive causes …

NO, being against the demonization of all immigrants, against lies about them, against the lack of our country’s usual compassion for those with need for asylum, against the cruel separation of families, is NOT open borders.

NO, being for modest controls that make mass murders a bit less easily accomplished as a bit less likely to have big of a toll, is not “confiscation.”

NO, being in support that those of us and of our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and friends, who you’d lumps as genderqueer" should not be discriminated against for who they are, is not “empowerment” - it is supporting the basic rights of those we love to not have to live as a discriminated underclass.

“Woke”? I know very very few who would embrace being that. Berating people for being assholes who impose their hate on others and who then whine when anyone calls out their disgusting crap? I know a few more who embrace that.

28

Who?

Oh, you mean, the kids who had a fleeting burst of publicity, advocating one of the most politically unpopular positions (gun bans) - oh yeah, they will definitely save us. All the Rust Belt voters in the critical states that the Democrats need to win in the Electoral College, they are definitely going to be brought back into the fold by energetic campaigning for stricter gun control.

No, there’s only one way the Democrats claw their way back to the top: by rallying around a charismatic candidate who runs on a simple message: economy, economy, economy, and patriotism, patriotism, patriotism. Yes, patriotism, JFK-style, man-on-the-moon style, “America is going to be the trailblazer of the world again, a leader, not a follower” type patriotism. Not nationalism. True patriotism. The idea that America is going to develop the best scientific innovations and have the best economy and produce the best products and achieve and exceed our dreams of progress - and that each and every citizen can contribute to it and should want to contribute to it out of love of country. This is not complicated shit here, it’s actually extremely simple, and that’s the kind of message that is needed.

The Democrats need another JFK. Or they need dozens of them all over the country running with that kind of message. They can get this done. It’s been done before. It might not be possible in 2020 because Trump’s cult of personality might be too strong, but Trumpism is not going to survive his second term. Once he’s out, it’s back to the Democrats versus Republicans rather than Trump vs. anti-Trump, and it’s going to be easier for the Democrats to make it again, if they can get their shit together.

29

I mean the kids who have sponsored and/or supported more than 70 events across the US already, with another 10 scheduled up to the election. Most events have been focused on getting high school and college kids to register to vote. The kids who have a strong online and Twitter presence, working to publicize the amount of money that candidates have received from the NRA and encouraging their peers to vote for candidates that support gun control.

Those kids are impressive as hell. I look forward to voting for some of then in about 10 years.

But gee, Lamoral, you seem to have missed what this thread is about – the possible blue wave in the 2018 midterm election. What does taking the Electoral College have to do with that?

30

I do fear a red wave, because I believe the Pubbies will do ANYTHING to get their people elected. Like disqualifying voters in Georgia. Moving the polling place to outer-fucking-boonieland in Kansas.

This is disturbing:

Texans say voting machineschanging straight-ticket choices

Okay, fine. But why don’t the machines change Cruz votes on straight-ticket-Republican ballots to votes for Beto, hmmm?

31

The best I can call that drivel is that it’s much the same as the gross misrepresentation we see from Fox News.

32

They *sorta *do. A Dem straight ticket votes does change to Cruz, but a GOP straight ticket just doesnt vote for Cruz.

And here’s the point, they knew about this, and did NOTHING!
:mad:

33

More from that article:

What a bunch of disingenuous bullshit. When a problem like this is occurring for a significant number of users, it’s not user error, it’s design error. If people have to be trained to use an interface, it’s a bad interface.

34

I guess my point, though unclear, was that the 2018 midterm election isn’t going to “save us,” but that it is in fact possible to save us (our country) by winning the presidential election even if it seems that all hope is lost after the midterm…

35

No. Could be confirmation bias, but it seems to me that a lot of people are pretty upset about how things are going and want a change. I think this past week was a wake up call with bombs and shootings and I think this will rally the Dems to go out and vote.

I honestly haven’t been paying attention to actual races, so just my own impression based on people I know and what they are saying. Could be like the apocryphal story about the lady saying she can’t understand how Nixon was elected, since all her friends voted against him. I was certainly unpleasantly surprised when the orange haired idiot was elected, as I thought that Clinton should have wiped the floor with him. All MY friends voted for her, after all, so wtf…?

36

Yup its a representative democracy. Lets hope the constitution holds up under the wave of voter suppression, gerrymandering and authoritarianism that the GOP are pushing for.

37

If someone really wanted to hack voting machines, surely they would do it in a way that the voter couldn’t readily see? Change Beto votes to Cruz, but not in such a way that the voter can see “CRUZ”. It would logically still read “Beto” so as to lull the voters into security.

38

Sure. It’s not a hack. It is likely a bug, but once the GOP bosses saw it as a bug that favored them, they have no desire to fix it. This bug will likely cost Beto the election.

39

I always felt that Trump would win despite what the polls said leading up to the election. I don’t really trust the polls there are too many variables to account for and I feel like a lot of people probably lie to pollsters. I have no facts to back up what I’m saying it’s just my gut feeling.

I think Dems may get one or two unexpected wins but I also don’t think there is going to be some huge blue wave and that maybe even the Republicans will do better than expected, I think 2016 proved the polls worthless.

40

Imagine that sometime told you that if you stuck your hand into an opening in the top of a box that there was a one in seven chance that your hand would be attacked by a venomous scorpion - not venomous like you’ll die, but you’ll be severely ill for two years and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in doctors fees - and a six in seven chance that you’ll find a stack of money, totaling $300,000 that you can keep and spend as you desire.

How confident do you feel about sticking your hand in the box?

Trump had a one in three chance of winning. There’d be no way I’d put my hand on that box. With one in seven, I’d much rather desist, but if forced I’d only be relatively apprehensive.