Tomorrow

 Ugh. I don't know.

I think the politics of "thermostatic" elections, whereby the independent voter throws our politics into chaos because of vibes, is stupid but real. I know that inflation is not a policy problem and that crime isn't a Democratic problem, but it will likely lead to robust GOP turnout. I don't know how Dobbs and January 6th will put a dent in that.

If Democrats manage to hold on to even a 50-50 Senate, I think we have to chalk that up as a win. The GOP nominated terrible candidates in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina and Arizona. Ideally that means Democrats hold on to the ability to staff the Executive and Judiciary branches, but I'm despondent, frankly.

As Paul Campos writes:

Of course this is what reactionary centrists have been saying forever, and it’s easy enough to pick apart the bill of particulars: no elected Democrat above the level of a Berkeley city council member has advocated anything like defunding the police, crime isn’t actually up, national Democrats don’t actually favor more liberal immigration policies, inflation is an international phenomenon at present that has almost nothing to do with any Democratic policies, trans panic is a completely made up issue, “valuing hard work” is just code for there are too many colored people voting for Democrats etc. etc.

Just vote. It's all you can do.