about those senate democratic midterm "losses"...

[unblock]

by my count, we won 24 out the 35 senate races this cycle (assuming we lose mississippi, despite republicans' best efforts to hand it to us).

that's a 69% win rate. pretty damn impressive.


the only reason it results in a loss of 2-3 senate seats and seems like a "loss" is because 6 years ago, in the last election cycle for this senate class, we won a whopping 74% of the seats up for grabs, while obama was cruising to a fairly easy re-election and his coattails helped senate democratic candidates considerably.

but really, it's hard to see a 69% win rate as anything other than a huge rejection of donnie and his sycophantic republican backers in the senate.


don't let anyone tell you it was a split decision or that people voted for bipartisanship or anything like that.

voters rejected donnie and the republican party wholesale.

once again, it's only quirks of our electoral system that cloud the will of the people.

[caraher]

1. Good point

Six years ago we had a couple of implausible gains thanks to Republican candidates offering stupid thoughts about rape and abortion. Without those basically unforced errors we would not have held Senate seats in Missouri and Indiana for the past 6 years.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

5. +1

Yeah, we basically got lucky with those two seats in 2012. Democrats are now completely washed out at the statewide level here in Indiana. :-/

[dbackjon]

8. Yup - that is what people forget - Legitimate Rape!

[MyOwnPeace]

2. I feel no shame

in not taking back control of the Senate. It would have been VERY GOOD if we had, but it was not expected and it did not happen.
There is major excitement in taking the House - we FINALLY have "votes that count" in the legislature AND control of committees that will allow oversight of this corrupt mis-administration!
To expect a "grand sweep" in a mid-term election when there are still almost 40% of Americans thinking that IQ45 is doing a good job is to hold out hope that the "Tooth Fairy" will pay one final visit to cover your dental work for the past 20 years.

[unblock]

3. Democrats got 8% more votes than republicans. 2020 could be epic

Better demographics, better senate map, presidential cycle with an opportunity to directly vote Donnie out (they may be in even worse shape if Donnie can't get denominated), and quite possibly a recession.

2020 could set republicans back for a long, long time. They know it, too, which is why they're pulling out the stops to put their stooges on the courts.

[MyOwnPeace]

4. I totally agree..........

if the Dems are smart, plan well, have a unified (as "unified" as any group of Democrats can be ) plan, and a solid, qualified candidate, the Senate openings promise to be quite interesting with great potential.
Imagine, a Democrat as President, and a Democratic controlled House and Senate. It would be a great move forward to clean up the shit-bowl that IQ45 has created! (I was going to say "great start" but we've already done that by taking back the House!)

[RockaFowler]

6. Shenanigans in Florida doomed us

I'm so ashamed of the 2 senators we have representing Florida now. Hopefully in 4 years we can be rid of Rubio and 6 years we can get rid of pRick Scott

[unblock]

7. we're finally at the point where republican contempt for the majority outweighs their dirty tricks

their dirty tricks are easily worth 5-6 percentage points, counting gerrymandering, dubious voting machines, voter id, limiting availability of ballots and polling places, disenfranchisement, legal challenges to avoid counting all ballots, etc.

in florida, at least, it looks like felony disenfranchisement is gone, at least for ex-felons. a step in the right direction.

[BaronChocula]

9. Great Primer

for the sophomore news crowd for whom anything but a 100% Dem wipeout is reported as coming up short because they are moderating from an artificial point of objectivity skewed by Fox. It's like when Jon Ossoff lost the special election to Karen Handel in a solid Republican Georgia district in 2017, the sophomore narrative was that "Democrats aren't competitive in the Trump era." When Handel was defeated by DemocratIC candidate Lucy McBath in that solid Republican district weeks ago, the sophomores sang the blues over Dems not winning the Senate. it's cool. We're coming for the Senate and there are more endangered gopper seats up in 2020.

[jimmy the one]

10. Senate Status Quo Ante Bellum

unblock: the only reason it results in a loss of 2-3 senate seats and seems like a "loss"

It shouldn't even be considered to seem like a loss, it should be 'Senate Status Quo Ante Bellum', or in plainer english, the senate is status quo after the (election) wars.
Pretty much eh? Dems still retain filibuster ability which they had with 49-51, at least for the 41 - 59 rule. But what did repubs gain from winning two senate seats? Only makes it a lot harder to gain a win or defeat repubs with only 47 - the main setback, but dems weren't going to win too many of those anyway, especially not on critical close issues..... maybe something more I'm missing, dunno.

So the senate remains 'status quo ante bellum', pretty much no change, while the house now has a 35 democrat majority to push democrat policy thru & put rightwing cretinism under their thumb at last. Even allowing 10 - 15 red state dems to vote on the repub side (if it helps them with their constituents in 2 years).
It was largely the unfortunate draw of the electoral senate map which made it so difficult to pick up seats, I figured we would lose more than 2, thought it was gonna be 45 - 55.

And that argument that dems lost over a thousand seats while obama was in office is a bit misleading as well, since, like you also said about 2012 (was it?), dems were at an artificial high after the gwbush financial collapse of 2008, and picked up 60 senators & the house as well. Toss in gerrymandering where one state could be split in popular vote yet repubs still control 66% of the state legislature, a wonder the political pendulum swinging to the right didn't wipe out the democrat party altogether (ha).