Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Where We Are

After 2016, no one wants to venture any confident guesses as to who will win control of the House and Senate.  Also, whether your a Democrat or a pundit, it is easy to believe that the Democratic Party could screw up just about any advantage. As Josh Marshall notes, what makes this so fraught is the incredibly high stakes of this election. If Democrats don't win control of the House, it means two things.

First, the Republicans will feel "emboldened."  They have held an election with an historically unpopular president in a divided electorate, and they suffered no adverse consequences.  Why not give Trump even more latitude?  Why not press even more unpopular policies.

Second, and Marshall doesn't really note this, we will continue to have a democratic legitimacy crisis.  Let's say the Democrats win the "popular vote" by 6 points in the House but fail to win a majority.  After losing the Presidency while winning the popular vote by millions of votes, having a clear majority that prefers their party but failing to win the House, they legitimate question is whether America is fundamentally a broken democracy.

No pressure or anything.

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