Why Aren’t Democrats Walking Away With the Midterms?
The night Donald Trump was elected was supposed to be, for most liberals and a few conservatives, the beginning of the end of the world. The economy would surely implode. The U.S. would probably blunder into a catastrophic war. The new American president would be blackmailed into conducting foreign policy as Putin’s poodle.None of that has happened — not yet, at any rate. On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported the fastest rate of annual wage hikes in almost a decade, depriving Democrats of one of their few strong arguments about the true state of the economy. Unemployment is at its lowest rate since Vince Lombardi coached his last game in December 1969. The North American Free Trade Agreement has been saved with minor modifications and a new name.
Oh, and: The Islamic State is largely defeated. Tehran has not restarted its nuclear programs despite America’s withdrawal from the Iran deal. U.S. sanctions on Russia are still in place. Democrats badly damaged their chances of taking the Senate with their over-reaching and polarizing crusade to stop Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court. What more could Trump ask for?
In normal presidencies, good news, along with your opponents’ mistakes, is good politics. It’s your Topic A. In normal presidencies, the politics of cultural anxiety, social division or ethnic scaremongering — that is, of proposing the end of birthright citizenship and demonizing elite media and militarizing the U.S. border — is Plan B. It’s what you turn to first when you don’t have enough to say for yourself otherwise.
But that’s not how the Trump presidency rolls. In this campaign, fear is what’s on the Republican menu. Peace and prosperity? Mere side dishes.
The mystery of Donald Trump is what impels him to overturn the usual rules. Is it a dark sort of cunning or simple defects of character? Because the president’s critics tend to be educated and educated people tend to think that the only kind of smarts worth having is the kind they possess — superior powers of articulation combined with deep stores of knowledge — those critics generally assume the latter. He’s a bigot. He’s a con artist. His followers are dumb. They got lucky last time. They won’t be so lucky again.
Maybe this is even right. But as Trump’s presidency moves forward, it’s no longer smart to think it’s right. There’s more than one type of intelligence. Trump’s is feral. It strikes fast. It knows where to sink the fang into the vein.
This has been Trump’s consistent strength from the moment he entered the Republican race until the second he got wind of the migrant caravan. Yes, his administration doesn’t even have an ambassador in Honduras, and if the U.S. has any kind of coherent Central American policy it would be news to me. Also, the idea of deploying thousands of U.S. troops to repel and even fire on the caravan is repellent, fascistic and probably unlawful.
Still, several thousand people are pushing their way to the U.S. border with the idea that they will find a way to push their way through it. If they do, tens or even hundreds of thousands more will surely follow. It’s perfectly reasonable for fair-minded voters to wonder how the U.S. will vet and then absorb even a fraction of them (though I think we easily can), and what doing so will mean for our wider immigration system.
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Comments (29)
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2018-midterm-election-forecast/house/
Would I bet heavily on ANYthing this time 'round?
Nope
What WOULD I bet heavily on?
We'll know alot more 'bout it Wednesday morning.
...
Let's hope the Living have more sense than that,the Republic can't stand much more of the 'Progressive' Agenda without collapsing!
We'll see Wednesday but the dems are still favored to take the House. I'm interested in some of the senate races. The governors race in GA is an interesting one to watch. That race is close to a dead heat. Senator Cruz in TX appears to be in a very tight contest now with just a slight edge.
I'm not holding my breath either way until it's done. I will say that if this country allows dem majority anything after sensibly kicking them to the curb in 2016; that's why we can't keep any forward movement.
Because, voting isn't over yet.
One thing I noticed at Trumps Rallies were the majority of deplorables had two teeth in their bloody head
Come on bring on that impeachment and make Trump hand over he's tax returns.
I can't stop laughing
This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend
The end of our elaborate plans
The end of ev'rything that stands
The end
No safety or surprise
The end
I'll never look into your eyes again
Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need of
some strangers hand
In a desperate land
Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain
There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the king's highway
Weird scenes inside the goldmine
Ride the highway West baby
Ride the snake
Ride the snake
To the lake
To the lake
The ancient lake baby
The snake is long
Seven miles
Ride the snake
He's old
And his skin is cold
The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here
Seems you haven't done your Homework again!
ooooo that's gotta hurt.
"so,Ooby,to you SCOTUS is just another Branch of the Legislative?"
That seems to be what it is becoming thanks to the former talk show host who only picks hard right judges like Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and the barefaced enabling of that Turkeyneck from Kentucky, Mitch McConnell who shamelessly blocked Obama's appointment of Merrick Garland to the SCOTUS
You are so in love with Donald Trump you can't see it, or you can but would never admit it. Or are you afraid you might get fired too?
Your grasp on that subject is atrocious!
And a lot of misplaced anger!