How Do You Think We Will Do In The Upcoming Congressional Elections?

[DistressedAmerican]

Just wanted to guage how people were feeling about our chances of taking back Congress.


Right now do you think we will:

[OhioBlue]

1. I really think we can retake both houses

I have my doubts at times, they creep in... I ask myself "why did they do this, why didn't they do that, did they just shoot themselves in the foot... etc. etc." But, then I choose to be optimistic...

See the goal
Believe in the goal
Work for the goal

Not every candidate nor the DNC nor the ODP is going to do what I want them to or what I think they should do. The only thing I can really control is what I do. So, I will believe that if enough democratic supporters, give their support with actions, we can take both houses.

Hold a house party, distribute literature, canvass, register voters, phone bank, volunteer with your favorite candidate or better yet, local Dem party.

[MercutioATC]

2. "Keep wandering"....and it's our fault.

We have the greatest opportunity we've had in 20 years to make gains but we've elected a group of spineless politicos who aren't willing to capitalize on it.

Forget Howard Dean's "Bush lite" characterization. Bush has more balls.

As long as we have "we need to elect Dems" people running campaigns and voting, we'll lose. We don't need to elect Dems. We've done that. When we focus on electability, we get what we have now...a gaggle of weak, bland Dems. We need to elect Dems with stones. That's the ONLY way we're going to have the right people in position to capitalize on the Repubs' inevitable failures.

[OhioBlue]

4. okay...

So, do you lump every Democratic candidate into the same category? If not, choose one that you believe in and work for their campaign.

[MercutioATC]

7. Oh, I don't. It's a generalization.

I do, however, feel the statement applies to the vast majority of elected Democrats (at the national level, at least).

I supported Paul Hackett's campaign and I'm supporting Ned Lamont's campaign. They represent the spirit I feel we need to win.

[flaminbats]

16. this election will effect how I vote in 2008..

I believe Democrats have an excellent opportunity to win both houses of Congress. Ultimately I think we will either win or lose them both. If Democrats don't have the drive to win back the House..then I doubt we shall win the Senate.

Even as Republicans are wrecking our nation, I admire their politics. Republicans continue to fight for their President..even when the going gets tough! You don't see Republican leaders trashing Bush like Democratic leaders freely trash Carter and Clinton as weak on defense. Republicans defend the war, but attack "big spending Democrats" for opposing cuts in the revenue needed to fund it. Republicans spend endless amounts of money, while cutting taxes without a care. They know that tax increases and spending cuts lose elections, but tax cuts and spending increases win elections. After all..when the Republicans briefly lose power, who will ultimately be blamed by the voters?

We still have a few good people, like Jack Carter, running in our primaries. I still wonder how aggressively Republicans would support tax cuts in a one party system. Would Republicans oppose universal healthcare with no Democrats around to label as bleeding hearts..would they continue to oppose conservation with no Democrats to attack as crazed treehuggers? Would things be any worse or the same under a one party system?

[MercutioATC]

18. I hear what you're saying.

Strip away the issues and you have to admire Repub politics...they know how to get things done.


It just sickens me that we're where we are. We've spent so long electing "any Dem" that we have a Congress full of pansies that are politically terrified of their own shadows.

We need to start making (at least) incremental changes. Lamont for Lieberman. Hackett for Brown (although that ain't gonna happen).

Get rid of the POLITICIANS and elect DEMOCRATS. Might we suffer in the short term? Sure. The fact remains, though, that we can't beat Repubs at their own game. I think it's high time we stopped trying.

[Monkeyman]

3. If we can use what we know instead of infighting

We will take back both
www.john06.com
Like this vet against the crook Hastert

[Marr]

5. Honestly? I think the elections are going to be stolen again.

I could blow sunshine up your ass and say I think we're going to take Congress, but I don't. Most of our representatives have ignored the urges to push the election fraud issue, and the GOP simply cannot afford to lose Congress at this point.

[BeFree]

10. They will pull out all the stops

We can only hope that we catch them red-handed this time. Witness the recent San Diego election: activists are all over it, hoping to set a precedent of a recount. A recount that would probably further the idea that they do, indeed, steal elections.

But given that we are pretty much without popular leadership on this matter, the chances of theft are much higher. I can't believe the Dem leaders have cut and run from the grassroots trying to save the vote.

2008: I don't think they will be able to carry out another large scale theft, but this year remains up in the air. But having citizens such as yourself aware and vociferous is an encouraging sign.

NGU

[Faux pas]

11. Well said, I'm with you. How can we win as long as there are

Diebold voting machines out there.

[OhioBlue]

13. but what should we do?

sit on our hands and say "I told you so"?

I don't think so. I think there are many in our party and others that are investigating the machines. It might not be as big as an effort as we would like, but they are working for more fair and verifiable elections.

While they do this, we have our part to do. We can't be spectators. We have to work for what we believe in. Some of us are working on election issues while some of us are pushing Democratic candidates. But don't give up. Choose a cause, a candidate, an issue and put some elbow grease into it.

[Faux pas]

26. Thanks for the pep talk. I'm not as defeatist as I sound. Just

feeling whupped today....To many asses to kick and so little time. LOL

[NJ Democrats]

6. Take the House

Make the Senate 50-49-1.

[me b zola]

23. That would get crashcart out of his bunker

:yoiks:

[bullimiami]

8. prediction, in contradiction of all polls, another rigged election.

no democratic gains, possibly republican gains, nothing done about it. the descent into hell continues.

[tandem5]

25. Look buddy... the exit polls aren't designed to detect fraud...

we live in a 50-50 country.

Republicans simply are better at motivating their base to get results at the grassroots level.

Republican voters are "reluctant" and have cell phones, but most Democrats are dead felons from Cuba who have illegally immigrated to Ohio and have already voted twice in two other states!

It's out of line to suggest a conflict of interest simply because the official conducting the election is also running for office.

Election shenanigans are to be expected – hey that's politics, but it's an absolute waste of time to recount and verify votes as there is no proof that there was fraud significant enough to change the outcome of the election.

Even if the election results were flawed it's all in the past now – we need to be looking forward. We need to put all this divisiveness behind us and work together under a Republican controlled congress and get things done!

But no worries, we Democrats write stellar concession speeches!

[dicknbush]

9. Frankly I think Ca. 50 was a bellweqather....

If the right winged nutters weren't willing to use this as an opportunity to send a message they never will. You have a man who was essentially corrupt to the core...a leadership that was winking and nodding to let him do his dirty deeds done dirt cheap and even with all that info the right winged nutter voters in Ca. 50 still decided that it was more important to support the leadership that allowed it to happen in the first place rather then support changing the status quoe......there is no hope for a reversal of fortune as long as we have to deal with the Armageddon goofball mind set of the neo neanderthal (apologies to the Neanderthals)....They are hopeless. You will se this played out across the country this fall..Rove and company will keep the slow trickle of fear coming until November..Expect a few jumps in the terror warning status around September and October and the righties will get right back in line as usually!

Just an opinion and I hope I am wrong but.....trully if the Repups were all that dissatisfied with the status quo there would not have been a run off election in Ca. 50 they would have sent Busby to congress on the first vote and saved a lot of money to boot..They are idiots.l

[OhioBlue]

12. we probably can't change the hard core Repugs

but, we can do better on registration and GOTV efforts. It's a mid-term election. If I look at my own very red county, I see that if all of the voters that voted for Kerry in '04 voted for Strickland and Dems this year, and all the Repubs that voted for Taft in '02, we would be very close. (Usually Repubs win by more than 2-1) Also - there is a lot of conversation about a need for change.

It can be done, but it will have to be done via grass-roots. We can't hope that our candidates come out with some awe-inspiring speech or position that drives hoards of voters to the polls. We have to talk to them (likely Dem voters), keep in contact with them and remind them to vote.

[OwnedByFerrets]

15. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that

98% of incumbents are reelected. Take that, coupled with the Diebold shadow looming over the results, and it takes a lot to be optimistic.
And after what happened today with the voting results, I am so emotionally down. We are in a no-win situation with the Iraq situation. With the way I am feeling right now, I cant even express my ideas because they're so depressing. I have never felt so helpless with regard to our political scene. Sorry for venting this, but thanks for allowing it.

[OhioBlue]

17. it's okay

sometimes I use DU to recharge and vent myself. The good thing about DU is that when your down, there are always fellow DUers to pick you up. The polls are looking good for us. 98% of incumbents might be the correct number for re-election in normal circumstances. But our electorate is getting more informed, more disillusioned with the GOP talking points and in Ohio at least, more frustrated with the GOP corruption that has been plaguing our Government.

We can flip both Houses. It is very possible.

[OwnedByFerrets]

19. Thanks OhioBlue

I need all the help I can get right now. Even the Daily Show couldnt cheer me up tonite. :cry:

[unkachuck]

14. 'if these shadows remain unchanged'....

....keep wandering....here it is, the end of June, and I sit here amid the sounds of Democratic dissonance....

....what I get generally, from the people around me concerning Dems, is confusion....what are the Dems going to do about Iraq?....

....we have too many voices going in too many directions while our leadership seem incapable of leading....either we agree with the neocons and perpetual war or we don't; if we don't, then we should articulate a corresponding/unified strategy and policy....there really is no inbetween for most people....but inbetween is where we find our leadership struggling....

....if you like the certainty of war, vote repug, if you like confusion, vote Democratic....

[Pooka Fey]

20. To have elections, you need a system of democracy.

We have a system of fascism covered with a nice bright candy coating of staged mock elections which have been refined and improved over 3 sElection cycles now, 2000, 2002, and the big granddaddy of fraudulent elections: 2004. The sooner we deal with that, and I'm not sure we can 'deal' with it except to hold parallel elections which will surely be disrupted by the brown-shirts, the sooner we can make some progress toward restoring the democracy we were so graced to have had for the first 220 years of our history.

[ladjf]

21. Unless the voting fraud is stopped, the Dems will never win

another election.

[tandem5]

22. How long before America wises up to this whole

50-49 republican pull-it-out-at-the-end win gimmick? "Oh wait... I think... no the republican wins. Guess the exit polls were wrong again!"

[ladjf]

24. A large number of Americans have already wised up.

The more precise question is how long before a large enough majority of Americans realize that their Democracy has been stolen by election fraud? Second, how can that problem be rectified by those who don't have control of the process? The answer to question one is "soon". The answer to the second question is, "I don't have any workable idea".

[tandem5]

27. the majority may already exist...

but it can be easily suppressed if enough of the individuals in that majority are made to feel isolated by the mass media's supposed authority on the "mood of the country."

[burrowowl]

28. I guess I am feeling but

I think Dems will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I'll work to get Dems elected, but I feel hopeless.