Signs continue to indicate that there should be a blue wave. In fact, most off-year or special elections went to Democrats. Who would have believed that under any circumstance a Democratic Senator would emerge from Alabama? Moreover, Democrats won even a few reliably red seats.
Republican enthusiasm had been in the tank for some time. Democrats were the hungry ones. They smelled blood and they were ready for the kill. Then came the fight over Brett Kavanaugh. It was evident to many that Kavanaugh is at best a drunk, at worst a sexual abusing misogynist based on many stories from those who knew him. How would the fight over his nomination and his subsequent confirmation change the Midterm 2018 dynamics?
Soon after Republican enthusiasm started surging.
They are getting outraised. They are struggling in suburbia. And their top guy is dividing America. But suddenly, five weeks from Election Day, Republicans are seeing tangible evidence of a spike in GOP enthusiasm that has eluded them all cycle.
“It’s got to be Kavanaugh,” said Republican pollster Robert Blizzard, coming to the same conclusion as GOP operatives nationwide: the Democrats’ efforts to block President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee are backfiring with Republicans who were previously apathetic about the midterms but are now angry—and engaged.
McConnell said that Democrats’ resistance against Brett Kavanaugh did something Republicans were unable to do, activate their base.
“The ironies of ironies, this has actually produced an incredible surge of interest among these Republican voters going into the fall election,” McConnell told USA TODAY in an interview just before Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court.
“We’ve all been perplexed about how to get our people as interested as we know the other side is, well this has done it,” he said.
Two recent polls were perplexing. The conservative-leaning Generic Ballot Rasmussen Poll is even at 45% while the CNN poll shows it as 54/41% in favor of the Democrats. The CNN poll points out something more profound about Democrats. They are prepared for disappointment even with high enthusiasm and with a clear majority saying they support Democrats.
But for all the good signs in this poll for Democrats, they have not made gains in the expectations game. Half of Americans (50%) say they expect Republicans to remain in control of Congress after the elections, while just a third think Democrats will win control (34%), down from 40% who thought they’d take over Congress in an August survey.
On balance, more say the country would be better off if the Democrats take control of Congress (38%) than say it would be worse off (32%). But that gap has narrowed since September, when 40% thought the country would be better off under Democratic control and 28% said it would be worse off. About a quarter in both polls said it didn’t make a difference.
Republicans should be entirely on the defensive on health care, a booming economy for the few, a tax cut that will force the reduction of Social Security and Medicare, the poisoning of their base with deregulations, low unemployment with no post-inflation wage gain, and much more. But they are building a clear message. In politics, one must put the opposition on the defensive first. Remember the phrase, “If you are explaining, then you are losing.”
Republicans are starting to build a cohesive, message that ALL Conservative & Right Wing Media, politicians and pundits are rolling off of their tongue ad nauseam. And they are doing it in a conniving manner.
Republicans were ready to confirm Brett Kavanaugh irrespective of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony. In hindsight that would have been a PR disaster. Long-suffering Jeff Flake threw Republicans, not Democrats or women, a lifeline. He got the confirmation delayed for a week for an FBI investigation. It turned out the FBI investigation was a farce but presented the necessary point to add to a winning Republican Midterm 2018 narrative.
Pre, during, and post-Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, Progressives have been peacefully protesting the ascension of a misogynist to the Supreme Court. They got more coverage on the mainstream media than they usually would get relative to the disproportionate coverage Right Wing small protests tend to get. And the Right Wing decided to repackage it all into what they hope is a winning message in the closing weeks leading up to Midterm 2018.
Now the message every Republican Politician, media outlet, and pundits are pushing is clear. They repeat ad nauseam that the protesters were mobs while packaging videos deceivingly. Repeating lies sometime cauterize into truths in the psyche of the uninformed. The Republican bogus FBI investigation allowed Trump to go on National Cable and Broadcast News all at once during the Kanavaugh second swearing-in, to say that Kavanaugh was found innocent and that the Ford accusation was a hoax.
Most Democrats and Progressives know the President was full of it. The problem is many Americans do not realize the President outright lied. Did any significant leader of the Democratic Party fight his/her way to a microphone and TV camera to refute the lie? No!
It is still not too late. However, anyone who remembers the Buffalo Bills comeback on the Houston Oilers should have pause. To date, it is still the largest comeback in NFL history. Democrats could themselves make history if they don’t fight as if they are ten points behind. They must put Republicans on the defensive making them defend the ACA/preexisting conditions sabotage, unheard-of deficits, poisoning of their constituents with deregulation and much more. Democrats must be directing the narrative on the issues that will help all Americans in their daily lives. They must not allow Republicans to put them on the defensive on lies using smoke and mirrors as their method of deflection. It is time to win once and for all.