A piece that reflects what I think is really going on....
Read this piece (https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/the-gop-doesnt-care-if-you-like-their-tax-bill-and-heres-why/) before you celebrate our latest defeat.
The Tax Cut Travesty is a huge loss for the country, for the U.S., for the middle class, and for the Democrats. It cannot be viewed in any other way. This is what happens when all the levers of power are in the Republican's hands. In spite of the demographic trends that tell us that the Republicans should become the minority party any day now--the Republicans continue to work on all fronts to make sure that they don't lose power even if they don't actually have the majority of the votes. By and large they continue to be successful.
A couple of predictions. Mueller is not going to save the day. There will be a lot of fallout from Flynn's guilty plea but Trump will not resign and he won't be impeached. Given the incredible job of gerrymandering the Republicans have performed there is little chance that they'll lose the House in 2018...or the Senate. Pence won't resign (someone posted that yesterday but I can't imagine what it was based on).
The truth is that we have an illegitimate President (again). Gerrymandering and voter suppression have made Democratic victories in key states very unlikely. Just look at Texas where the demographic knife should be cutting the sharpest. There are very few Democratic victories to be had no matter how bad the Republican candidates. Roy Moore will win.
Cheating works. Until it stops working those other guys won't stop cheating.
Even the sexual harrassment/assault issue is going against us. While Roy Moore seems to be surviving the flood of formerly pubescent females coming out with their stories you have Franken, Louis CK, Conyers etc. falling on their swords and profusely apologizing while the other guys are obfuscating, denying, and dissembling--but never admitting. While some have called for Moore to drop out of the race those who matter have not. Whereas the Democratic leadership have predictably assembled the circular firing squad and demanded Conyers' resignation and the resignation of a couple of others.
On the other side, Blake Farenthold, who has clearly always been a complete demented perv is denying, denying, denying even though there is a $84000 payment to one of his accusers that worked for him. See the difference?
Sarah Sanders put her finger right on it when challenged about the accusations against Trump vs. the accusations against Franken. Trump has never admitted anything while Franken has. And there you have it.
I don't know what the answer is. If we as Democrats throw our obviously superior morals to the wind we might start winning, but we would also become those we fight against.
Right now we are on the ropes and I don't think we'll be coming out of it any time soon. We cannot even agree on what we are for and articulate that to the American people.
There is a big opportunity here. What Trump is delivering is very different from what many of his voters thought they were signing up for. But until we (the Democrats) define, describe, and promote an alternative what is there to bring these idiots over to our side?
We are against what is going on but what are we telling the voters we are for?
Much of what is going on stems from what are becoming obvious weaknesses of our constitutional republic. There is nothing that can be done about a questionable election at any level once the results are certified. Our remedies to malfeasance in office are too much in control of whoever has the majorities in the legislative branch. Our lifetime appointments to powerful judicial posts means that the most ruthless players of the confirmation game are the ultimate winners--thus the minority party was able to keep a Supreme Court justice from being seated by the duly elected President at that time. The list goes on.
We are losing at the Game of Thrones.
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