Day 659 Tuesday November 6, 2018 922 Days to Go
I’m reminded of a joke I saw on a bulletin board years ago.
It showed a man standing in front of his bed. His wife was asleep on the other side of the bed. On his side of the bed were two garbage cans fulls of stinky fly covered trash. The line under the cartoon had him saying, “There was something I was supposed to do today. Think! Think!”
There’s something you are supposed to do today.
Think. Think. What is it?
I’ll give you a hint. It’s Election Day.
What does that mean?
That means you go and vote.
Go to your polling place, even if you haven’t registered. Insist on voting. Get a provisional ballot if you must. But vote.
For the Democrats to take the House they need 23 seats. In order to do that due to the highly rigged gerrymandered districts the turnout must be 11-12% in the Democrats’ favor. If it was a fair election they’d only need 2%, but this isn’t a fair election. In fact, the Republicans have done everything they can to suppress the vote. They’ve kicked people off voting rolls. They’ve closed polling locations or moved them out of town. They’ve changed the rules on what makes a valid voting ID. What has the result of this been? It’s pissed people off majorly.
What else have they done? They’ve held military type exercises today near polling places where recent immigrants to this country live. Why? Immigrants fear the military that’s why. A lot of Latinos want nothing to do with the government. Voter turnout in Texas along the border may not materialize, which would be bad for Beto. However, women are pissed. The images of kids in cages still lingers. The loss of health care. The lying of Republican candidates about their stand on health care has upset them. Women are running in record numbers.
Young people traditionally haven’t voted. It’s not clear if they will turn up. However, where the candidates are young they seem to be coming out. Howard Dean said you want candidates to run that look like the voters you are trying to attract. It seems to be working in the places where the candidates are young.
Where Democratic candidates are running on the message of representing all the people and on not trying to run as Republican Lite, it seems to be working.
Turn out is huge.
It is likely that Republicans will hold the Senate but lose the House. But it could be that the Senate flips and the House has a huge Democratic majority.
If the House flips the Democrats will head up committees and Jeff Greenberg said the best job to have in Washington would be process server. Boy oh boy, I can’t wait.
Once people actually see how corrupt Trump is and how complicit Republicans have been in aiding and abetting him, I hope that more and more people will turn against his hateful racist anti-women anti-immigrant anti-Jewish actions and words.
Our own race between Spanberger and Brat is being touted as a bellwether; one of four in Virginia. Spanberger is being hailed as having run a smart campaign and Brat as one of the dumbest. The Republicans concentrated on putting up huge signs, many illegally I think, touting Brat. Spanberger seemed to concentrate on TV and super sized postcard mailers and making public appearances all over the district. Brat can not be found. He keeps his schedule hidden. I’m not kidding. He doesn’t want people to know where he is.
Meanwhile, other groups have been working since Trump got elected to change the political environment. Indivisible has 6,000 chapters and they have been showing up at representatives offices telling those representatives what they don’t like. For some Republicans they have held retirement parties, sending cakes and balloons wishing those folks a happy retirement. Many Republican representatives decided not to run again.
If Democrats take back Governorships in key states, and they are likely to do that, it will change the calculus on Trump’s electability in 2020. No longer will those states be able to put in draconian election regulations and obstacles in the way of people to vote. That could be huge.
Fingers crossed.
Seven hours until the polls close here.
922 Days to Go
PS Abigail, Dave, and Mr. “We Do Bad Things to Bad People” ahead of me in line to vote (I wonder, “Who gets to decide?”)
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