Well, sure, if enough people just accept that “this is the way it is and we’re stuck with it forever” instead of looking for change the circumstances, there’ll never be any progress toward making it different. Saying and believing that there can only be the two parties and everyone’s got to just accept that and choose between the two uglinesses on offer is the main thing that will keep it being so.
Realistic, but still a long shot. Best pickup opportunities by Cook PVI are:
Maine (D+4)
North Carolina (R+2)
Alaska (R+6)
Iowa (R+6)
Susan Collins is the incumbent Maine Senator, a Republican who keeps on getting people to think she’s a moderate. So there’s no guarantee of a win there, even in a wave year. We don’t know who the Dem nominee will be yet.
Roy Cooper is the likely Dem nominee in NC. He was a very popular governor. He’s got a good chance.
Mary Peltola (“fish, family, freedom”) won the AK House seat a few years ago, but lost the seat last year. She’s got a decent chance IMHO.
I have no idea about Iowa. (I have a stepbrother who lives there, maybe I should ask him.) Iowa used to be a swing state, but not anymore.
Texas and Florida are also R+6, but the Dems would have to throw a lot more money to swing a lot more people to win populous states like those. Texas Dems have a choice between two possible nominees who I think would each be good candidates in very different ways: Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico. John Cornyn is the incumbent.
After that, you get states like Montana and Nebraska, both R+10.
The Senate is possible, and worth working for, but a lot of people in some red states will have to become a lot more disgusted with Trump than they are now.
But 2026 could be that sort of year.
ETA: Helpful link: Classes of United States senators - Wikipedia
Minor nitpick: the Dems held 60 Senate seats for a few months in late 2009, which enabled them to pass the ACA.
Makes no difference to this discussion, so carry on. 
Sure, we could have starved a bunch of folks to - maybe - win this game of chicken. As a Democrat, I want to be on the side of not causing people to starve.
How did that work out? Three days ago:
I’m sorry, who are you saying starved anyway?
What is with the starving? Who starved?
I just showed prices spiked because Dems caved. You think dems caving was a good thing? Not seeing how that works.
Not sure how selling cars for cheap in Mexico is advancing this goal. I’m assuming that if people could fly to Mexico, buy a cheap Chinese EV, and try to drive it across the border into the U.S., there might be some issues at Customs.
(If I’m wrong about that, guess what I’ll be buying, next time I visit my cousin?)
It kept people from starving. No SNAP after 10/31.
Call me weird, but if we are forced by the GOP to choose between people having health insurance and people having food, we go with food. None of us can go for very long without it.
FWIW I was in Mexico the last week and one of my companions is a Mexican citizen and lives in Mexico City (his whole life).
He owns a motorcycle and said he bought it in the US. It was wrecked in an accident so cheap and he had it shipped to Mexico City. He is an auto mechanic and fixed it himself. He said all of that was MUCH less expensive than buying new in Mexico. Of course, it helped he had the skills to fix it himself. Looking at the motorcycle it looks like new.
Devil’s choice.
Well, the GOP is in league with the devil, they control all parts of the government, and that was the choice we were stuck with.
But fercryinoutloud, give some credit to the Dems for setting it up so that SNAP is already funded through September, so when current funding for most of the government expires at midnight on 1/31, SNAP funding will remain in place. They’ll be able to keep that shutdown going for eight months if they want to.
They were trying to sell them in the USA and are selling them globally. And every cheap China EV sold in Mexico means they didnt buy a US sourced one- no?
Moderating:
This thread is about post-2026 midterm results and the consequences, not refighting what should have been done in the last budget standoff. Several posts have been more or less on-topic, because speculation that the Democrats could fail in different ways is fair game, but the repetition is becoming a hijack.
*This is just a guidance, not a warning. *
Rep Doug LaMalfa, a committed Trumper and MAGA acolyte, died suddenly this morning (some reports are saying heart attack). Mr. LaMalfa’s district, which is about to disappear after Califonia’s Prop 50 passed, was one of, if not THE reddest Congressional district in California. It’s now up to Gov Newsom to decide whether to call a special election to fill the vacancy or leave it open until the June 2026 primaries.
I’m linking to an article from CalMatters (Northern California Rep. Doug LaMalfa Dies at 65) but I’m kind of amused by their statement:
"While President Donald Trump and House Republicans could consistently count on LaMalfa’s support for conservative priorities such as last year’s mega domestic policy bill, he never adopted the firebrand or antagonist persona that many of his colleagues preferred. "
I was on his mailing list and his screeds against Biden, Harris, Newsom and anyone not born again MAGA were plenty adversarial. Either CalMatters wasn’t on his email list, or they are just trying to be polite now that he’s gone.
Trump and MAGA won’t have to “blame” the Ds. They will fall into their usual trap of trying to provide reasoned and logical arguments to rural morons and racist A-holes.
I hear the chatter from conservative friends on Facebook and my wife’s conservative family. They all just live in this weird, isolated, terrifying world where immigrants and woke liberals and communists and China and Russia and maybe even North Korea and Venezuela are existential threats to the American way of life. And the only one with the strength to stand up them is Trump.
It’s hard for me to put my brain in their shoes because of their lack of education and experience. They don’t seem to understand nuance or complexity or perspective. Their mind hears or sees something and that data point becomes a fact they then become terrified of.
What they see is American “winning”. Trump captured a narco-terrorist. Trump is sticking it to trading partners trying to take advantage of us. Trump is going after illegals who are hear to steal benefits and harass our white women.
What Democrats often fail to realize is you can’t rationalize or moralize with dumb people. They will see it as a personal attack.
If there had been no shutdown the “fuck millions of people on healthcare costs” would have gone ahead without a peep (well, the Dems would protest verbally, but be ignored). The shutdown called attention to the issue.
Continuing the shutdown longer to pressure the Republicans, however, would have mean about 40 million people going hungry after the SNAP benefits expired on Oct. 31.
So we find ourselves here, in January. The healthcare subsidies have expired. Meanwhile, all Federal childcare subsidies, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) grants, and social services grants have been cut off entirely to five states, five other states have imposed restrictions on SNAP benefits, and we’re looking at another shut down at the end of this month. So billionaires can have their tax breaks.
I don’t know at which point the US population in general takes to the street with pitchforks but the Republicans seem intent on trying to find it.
Unless the Dems take both the House and Senate and have a veto-proof 2/3 majority in both chambers I don’t see the general course of Trump’s administration changing. Even if the Dems take both chambers to that extent I’m not sure how much damage can be undone.
A LOT of wisdom in this post. I wish there were an easy way (or even a hard one) to counteract all this.
I always say that stupid people will double and triple down on their stupid when presented with evidence of their stupidity. The better and clearer the evidence, the greater the pushback. It’s a psychological defense mechanism.
This is correct.