This just hit me like a brick as I was getting ready to shut the laptop for the night, so here I am for another hour yet. Fortunately Teri is home to keep my article from looking like The Rosetta Stone.
There’s an old saying, Lightning never strikes the same place twice. And I’m sure that’s true. But if you combine good timing with excellent planning and execution, you sure as hell can pretty much replicate lightning.
Cast your mind back to the tumultuous days of 2017. On January 20, 2017, Emperor Numbus Nuttus was sworn in. Which led to the largest single day global protest in the history of the world. Well, at least one thing about Trump’s presidency was YUGE! And the protests obscured almost everything Traitor Tot tried to do in the first year.
But it also led to something else. Massive grassroots activism sprang up like spring grass. And so did something else. A groundswell of totally non political citizens of all stripes stepping forward to run for office in Washington to right the ship. But they did it at home in their states as well.
Case in point. The commonwealth of Virginia is one of the rare states in the country that indulges in off year elections. And in 2017, normal, moral, commonsense Virginians surged forward to run for state office. And the state Democratic party stepped forward to help them out, along with assistance from the national party.
And in the general election in Virginia that year, there was a new paradigm. In some districts, for the first time in 10-20 years, entrenched GOP incumbents were finally being challenged by Democrats on the ballot. And the Democrats were kicking their *sses in fundraising. The Democrats were relying solely on grassroots fundraising, and it was rolling in. When the counting was done, the Democrats literally cane within a coin flip of flipping the House.
In the national elections of 2018, it was more of the same thing. State and district Democratic offices had trouble keeping up with the demand. And again the national party responded with support to fill every slot on the ballot. Again the Democratic challengers refused corporate of large donations, and fundraised solely by grassroots. And when the dust settled, the Democrats had flipped 40 seats in the House, and given Madame Nancy the gavel back again.
And it wasn’t just Virginia in 2017, or the US House in 2018. Illinois also has off year elections, and 2019 was one of them. Former Democratic House member Cheri Bustos actually set up legislative boot camps to teach neophyte candidates how to run for office. And when the dust settled, Illinois had flipped red seats that had never had a blue *ss sitting in the chair since the seat was created.
And now here we are, going into 2024, and never have the pickings been potentially richer for the Democrats. There are going to be two major national issues on the ballot this year, abortion and gun control. And on both issues, the GOP is so far from national public opinion that you need the Hubbell telescope to find them, way out there to the right.
Recent polling shows that 73% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in most instances. And 67% of Americans support universal background checks, with 51% backing an assault weapons ban. And for the cherry on top, 54% are in favor of full LGBTQ rights. The GOP is wrong on everything!
The secret in 2024, as it was in 2017, 2018, and 2019 is going to be to Put a name in every ballot on the ballot! Kansas Republicans came out in the midterm primaries to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Virginia and Illinois Democrats booted entrenched GOP incumbents who hadn’t seen a general election opponent. To put it bluntly, They gave the people a choice!
And we need to do it again in 2024. After all, Oklahoma GOP parents don’t want their children slaughtered in the classroom, and they want to control the size of their families. But the GOP representatives don’t give a sh*t, because they run unopposed. Get a name on that ballot, and force these GOP ballot mice to defend their positions on abortion and gun control. These are issues that well schooled Democratic candidates can run on, even in red districts, because they’re so popular.
Put a name in every slot. It worked in Virginia in 2017, it worked nationally in 2018 and it worked in Illinois in 2019. The GOP has a losing message, but the problem is that there are too many legislative districts, both statewide and nationally, where nobody bothers to challenge an entrenched GOP incumbent! Put a name on the ballot, and at least make the dipsh*ts work for it for a change. There is no downside.
Only fools celebrate wins before they occur.
I would like to point out that although Democrats won the Presidency, they don’t control the House.
Plus, it appears that a lot of Democrats are actually fascists just like republiCLOWNS.
Take those @ssholes like Manchin and chicklets for example.
Don’t start acting like that chump musk and start bragging about your future accomplishments before they occur. Pay attention to the amount of pushback that Senator Sanders has to deal with before bragging about accomplishments because at the end of the day dejoy is still destroying the post office and other trolls are still in place sabotaging our President.
I believe his point is Democrats CAN will more seats if unopposed seats are challenged this go around. Especially considering the environment and cash raised, there is NO excuse not to at least try. It is really sad when a voter has only one choice on a ballot for years. I know because I was in one that flipped in IL. I don’t mean one seat either. ALL of them flipped blue and have stayed blue.
Having a candidate for every seat at every level (even if the odds truly are hopeless of winning some of them) can make a huge difference. I grew up in rural/small town America (southern Illinois) and later in life in a quite similar area – the eastern panhandle of WV for about ten years. There ARE Democrats, as well as Independents that are persuadable in such places that seldom, if ever seeing a Democrat on the ballot for local/state races and sometimes even for a block of counties like a Congressional seat stopped bothering to vote at all. Having a candidate they can actually support can provide enough interest and sometimes even enthusiasm (that will cause them to encourage others like themselves) to vote come election time. Maybe donate a bit too. In some places yes, it’s still tilting at windmills but I suggest people take a good look at those maps colored red, blue and purple. There a lots of large, red swaths that are red. Almost all of them are relatively sparsely populated but in state after state those large areas of red contain enough people to counter the small blue or purple areas that make up the cities and suburbs/exurbs. In red states that ratio of small town/rural v city/suburbs is actually tilted towards the former! Still, even if scattered throughout all that red a notable increase in Democratic or Independents that if given a Democratic candidate to vote for would do so can add up enough to make a difference. You can’t gerrymander an entire state, and both Senate seats and Governorships tend to be closer races than lower level races. Enough to even tip the balance our way sometimes. Even if it doesn’t if a series of elections like that are close it can shift how hard RWNJ’s conduct themselves. Some as we see double down, at least for a while on their extremism but sometimes in their primaries the GOP voters take a hard look and vote for a strong, but not bat-sh!t insane candidate to make sure they win.
With all due respect, Ptg, I don’t think Murphy’s celebrating anything; he’s showing us what can happen when the liberal faction of our nation stands up and gets counted, despite entrenched gerrymandered Repugnican ‘majorities.’ One of the biggest weaknesses of any democracy is the tendency for “good people to do nothing,” while the bad guys get busy stealing everything in sight.
I didn’t read a single thing in this article about celebrating wins in 2024. It’s almost like you skimmed the first patagraph & then started your rant. What I’m fascinated by is why you seem to be so enraged. Clearly, this hit a huge nerve.
You cannot win something unless you enter. In GA many offices had no Dems running.
The ‘pubes being on the wrong side of so many issues does not change the fact that H.O.R. seats are gerrymandered to hell and back. They have been on the wrong side of reasonable firearm restrictions for quite a while now and they still win their districts. Ditto abortion and as the years go by LGBTQ+.
They have control of the H.O.R. and this after numerous mass shootings, the Dobbs decision, and the pro-LGBTQ+ sentiments sweeping the nation. It once again comes down to getting the vote out but specifically getting the vote out to young voters. If the dems can’t get them onboard, at the state and federal levels, they’re toast. At least in the House. Not sure about the senate but I’m noticing this: people like daines, cotton, the howler monkey, etc. do not look like they will be losing their seats any time soon and people like Tester might. As ‘pube legislatures change voting laws to favor themselves it will get much harder to dislodge this offal from our body politic.
Actually, lightning DOES strike the same place twice – often more than twice. Not every place it strikes, but a lot of them, because there are things which attract electricity, and a place that has one or more of those things is a sitting duck for lightning.