There is a theme developing at Vox that the Democrats are in crisis. I guess I would say, yes and no. Democrats have an easy path to the White House, a difficult but achievable road to the Senate and an impossible road to the House. But they are withering on the vine at the state level, as noted by the tweet in the Vox piece.
Of course, the decline in absolute numbers for Democrats comes after a historic set of wave elections in 2006 and 2008. But the real issue is that Obama has failed in the issue that launched his career: the idea of post-partisanship.
It was always a chimera, but Obama made that a goal of his, and he has failed. If anything, America is more riven by the red-blue divide than ever. This is not entirely his fault. The GOP has basically adopted a position of being opposed to facts, science and evidence in their implacable hostility towards his agenda.
But the continued apathy of Democratic voters and the structural problems of the House districting process, may mean that there needs to be a Republican president - with all the crackpot economics we saw under Bush and continue to see in places like Kansas and Louisiana - to restore Democratic majorities to the Congress.
I have no idea how bad it will have to get in the red states before Republicans lose control there. Nothing seems to have mattered so far.
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