Republicans admit the GOP’s midterm forecast is bleak. But they’re clinging to two hopes: voters’ fear and loathing of Democrats.
“It’s going to be a hate election,” a Republican tied to President Trump’s political operation told Axios. “Voters have to hate the Dems more than they hate us. And we have material to work with.”
Why it matters: There’s broad GOP frustration that Trump has made challenging midterm elections worse by not focusing heavily on pocketbook issues — especially the tax cuts Republicans won — while launching the Iran war, which raised gas prices and fueled inflation.
Trump’s prime-time speech Thursday night about China’s alleged influence campaign targeting U.S. voters six years ago did little to assuage those concerns.
“I have yet to understand how we win the midterms by talking about what happened in 2020,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Axios.
The Republicans’ plan will probably work too. Hate is the opiate of the masses. Some say its religion, but religion is merely a syringe.
People have been calling me pessimistic for saying the midterms are the Dems election to lose but just… For fuck sakes have you all not been paying attention for the last decade?! Like seriously, you people trust the Democrats to run good campaigns? Have you not seen how Republicans have been putting their thumb on the scale every possible chance they get? How many times do you have to go up against a stacked deck before you learn the game is rigged?
If a race is less than +5 in favor of the Dem, it’s a loss. If a race is less than +15 in favor of the Dem, it’s a toss up. Lots of people taking it as a given that the Dems will take back the House (some dumbasses are even entertaining the idea that they’ll magically take the Senate, lol), but it’s very much an uphill battle. How the fuck does no one else see this?
Almost every election is the Dems’ to lose. Unfortunately they tend to deliver.
Dems need to lead with bold, sincere policy proposals to meaningfully improve Americans’ living conditions in order to win. We have many young socialists winning primaries and elections with such a strategy, however the establishment dinosaurs are terrified to deliver for their constituents instead of their donors.
If the old guard refuse to get out of the way, and once again return to the familiar identity politics and pro-corporate talking points, they will once again manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
That’s still a win for them. For like 90% of our “representatives” they’re only Democrats by necessity. The area they live in won’t choose a Republican or the Republican role is already taken by a different parasite, so if they want to continue the game of being a political parasite they need to pretend to give a shit about what people want who vote for them. Corpos win, Republicans win, their investments win, so they couldn’t possibly care less.
trump would have handily won 2020 if his catastrophic and completely expected bungled response to covid weren’t fresh on everyone’s minds. as it was, he barely lost that one too