What if the Democrats don't win?

By "win" I mean "Democrats take over the house".

Here's my humble opinion:

1) For the Democratic establishment it won't mean much. If the drubbings in 2010, 2014, and 2016 can't cause a leadership change, or even an autopsy, then nothing will.
If anything they will blame progressives and embrace a neoliberal center-right agenda even more.

2) For the Democratic base, OTOH, it'll be devastating. Democratic activists will lose heart and it will begin the real start of America being a one-party state. The reason I think this is after you call the other guy a traitor and fascist, and that still isn't enough to defeat him, what else can you do to motivate your voters?
Expect progressive voter activism to plummet in 2020.
The Green Party will probably grow, but not as fast as the Democrats shrink.

3) For the Republican Party, it will reward the very worst of the Trump agenda: fear-mongering, scapegoating immigrants and the poor, voter-suppression, and blatant lying.
After all, what else are Republicans actually running on?
So expect the GOP to double-down on all of those things.
Plus, they will no longer have anything to fear from the Democrats, so they can carry out a far-right agenda in the open and simply lie about it. Their voting base will believe the lies over the evidence before their own eyes.

What does everyone else think?

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dervish's picture

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

gulfgal98's picture

The party is the neoliberal/neoconservative party.

The Democrats do not deserve to win. As a party, they have no policy positions and have based their entire campaign on the we're not as bad. That does not put food on the table, create health care security, or create living income jobs. The Democrats showed their true colors when they voted along with the Republicans to increase the DoD budget beyond what Trump requested and expanded the powers of surveillance under the President that they loathe.

Most people do not want to see a phony impeachment hearing which does nothing but drain all resources away from helping the people. If the Democrats truly wanted to win, they would be proposing an ambitious platform aimed at helping the American people.

One more thing, would this country be better off with President Pence instead of Trump? As bad as Trump is, I think Pence would be espousing similar hatred and therefore, would far worse with his theocratic ideas.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

WindDancer13's picture

Their voting base will believe the lies over the evidence before their own eyes.

I agree with most points, but disagree with this:

Expect progressive voter activism to plummet in 2020.

Given the option to just let the country turn into a full-fledged Fascist state, the logical thing to do would be for the progressives to fight even harder. Bernie Sanders is an example of turning a loss into more action on behalf of the people. (For those who constantly disparage Sanders because he is not perfect, get over it...no one is and no one will ever be. Amazon screwed their workers, not Sanders.).

Getting more and more progressives in down ballot positions will be extremely important, no matter their label.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

@WindDancer13
There would be a silver-lining: progressives and socialists would begin looking outside of the Democratic Party for a solution.

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WindDancer13's picture

@gjohnsit

as in a lot of grassroots movements.

Even if it takes having to put up with corporate Dems for the next two years or so, I would certainly prefer that they hold the House. Picking up at least one seat in the Senate would be icing on the cake.

Then slowly but surely start replacing those corporate Dems. Patience is so underrated. = )

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

on record turnout

Here in Texas, more votes have already been cast than in all of 2014. Experts have been astounded at the figures so far. We’re not likely to have more voting than in a presidential election, but it’s apparently as close to a light presidential year as it is to a normal midterm.

We’ve also had much broader participation in this election, from phone banking to small donations to door-to-door canvassing. And there’s been an avalanche of new candidates, especially at the state and lower levels.
...
And yet.

I can’t help seeing the surge in participation, much as I welcome it, as a reflection of a nation in desperate shape. I’d like to think that people have suddenly become convinced that midterms are important, and that participation in democracy is good for its own sake. But no one believes that’s really what’s happening. People are voting as if the fate of the nation hangs on whether Democrats manage to add 23 House seats or not, and that’s not really a great comment on the health of our democracy.
...
No one knows exactly what Trump and the Republicans would do with two more years of unified government. I do know that if they once again defy the polls, they’re going to think they’re bulletproof. They were already willing to ignore evidence that, for example, their tax cut was massively unpopular. If they win on Tuesday, they’ll be even less likely to allow evidence of constituent opinion to constrain them — including when it comes to stopping Trump’s authoritarian impulses (something congressional Republicans, especially in the Senate, have in fact tried to do so far).

And if Republicans win ugly, by exploiting ethnic fears and bigotry, they’ll be emboldened to do the same next time. If they win partly by making it harder for people who oppose them to vote, they’ll be encouraged to keep doing so. Perhaps there’s a line that most Republicans won’t cross. Perhaps there’s a line that even Trump won’t cross. I just don’t see much evidence of that.

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WindDancer13's picture

@gjohnsit

Perhaps there’s a line that most Republicans won’t cross. Perhaps there’s a line that even Trump won’t cross.

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Wink's picture

will emerge. Is emerging regardless of victory or lack thereof.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Wink
Another defeat of the Dems will jump start a move toward a real 3rd party.
I agree with that.

But that won't happen right away. Given our political system it's simply not possible in the short-term.

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if the Democrats win. There are other possibilities if the corruptocrats lose - more likely is that the true left could finally be forced to admit that the theory that the corporatist fifth column can be reformed was always a pollyannish delusion and (for example) Bernie will run as a Green. Without a fascist Democratic Party sabotaging him he will win easily. (Ironically a fascist Dem, in a 3 way race, would only win NY and CA, but draw off enough votes from Bernie so that he could lose the popular vote but would win the Electoral College. Trump would only win AZ, TX, MS, ID, AL and SC. the final: Bernie 379, Hillscum 84, Trump 77) On the other hand, what If 60 million people turn out and vote Democratic, and then the corruptocrats stab them in the back again? You worry about disillusionment?
Actually it might depend on how the Democrats win or lose. I would rather see 100 Dems but 75 of them Berniecrats rather than 225 "Democrats".
Or maybe you're afraid of a racist/theocratic right coup? That is a very legitimate fear. We have backed them up against a wall, but we don't know if they're a rat or a tiger. But they have had 50 years to show us which, and the tiger is still hasn't eaten us. Identity politics however, (unless you count anti-porn feminism) is less than a decade old and has already achieved more than racism could hope for. I fear the PC SMERSH more than the racist Gestapo.

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On to Biden since 1973

@doh1304 that is precisely the reason the FDs keep screaming about how "unfair" the Electoral College is.

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Mary Bennett

misread essay and question. Sorry.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Just random stuff.

  • Social security and Medicare cut big time.Trump will propose extreme measures, and democrats will meet them "half way".
  • Overall, the gop economic agenda permanently put in place.
  • Russia. Russia. Russia by the main stream media and democrats. Well, if they
    win expect the same.
  • Democrats will focus on Trump tweets over real issues.
  • Democrats will be an opposition much in the vein as Vichy France.
  • Hillary will be nominated a second time.
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1. For current Democratic incumbents who lose, it will mean a job change with a higher salary.

For a while, we wondered how Democrats could be so stupid as to engage in behaviors that might cause their constituents to primary them or vote against them in the general. Eventually, it became clear: to ensure obedience from officeholders, their owners had been giving officeholders unemployment insurance in the form of cushy, prestigious, well-paying jobs to be awarded to officeholders who lost their elected slots. This insulated officeholders very nicely from the need to cater to pain-in-the-neck constituents.

Take for example, the post-Senate career move of Senator Dodd:

Motion Picture Association of America

In February 2011, despite "repeatedly and categorically insisting that he would not work as a lobbyist,"[23][24] Dodd replaced Dan Glickman as chairman of and chief lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America.[25][26]

On January 17, 2012, Dodd released a statement criticizing "the so-called 'Blackout Day' protesting anti-piracy legislation."[27] Referring to the websites participating in the blackout, Dodd said, "It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power... when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests."[27] In further comments, Dodd threatened to cut off campaign contributions to politicians who did not support the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act, legislation supported by the Motion Picture Association of America.[28]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Dodd

Whatever do you suppose qualified Dodd to head the Motion Picture Association?

As an aside, I wonder how Dodd views censorship and/or skewing by the likes of google, which long since started doing evil, its motto to the contrary; facebook; and twitter

For all other Democratic pols, all over the country, it will mean another two years in which they make a public show of attacking Trump while just enough of them in D.C. vote for his budgets, judges, etc. to give him and their corporate sponsors what they want.

2. For the Democratic base, those who eagerly vote blue, no matter who, it will mean--Oh, screw it. Let's be candid. No one, including the Democratic Party, cares.

3. For Republicans, it would mean a minimum of two more years to be in control of the Oval Office, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court, which is better than a demotion to a mere trifecta. Continued control typically means larger donations to the controlling party and its incumbents.

While some may vacillate publicly as to whether or not Trump is good for the Party (*gives Senator Graham and his ilk the side eye fish eye*), they will, in private, be giddy with glee about both the money and power, thereby having it both ways, the wet dream scenario of US politicians.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

Hillary drops out of the 2020 race and spends the next two years lawyering up.

Meanwhile the Democratic party implodes in an angry round of fingerprinting that eventually leads to all out street fight between Bernie supporting Progressives and Establishment Liberals in the run up to the 2020 primary.

Obama tries to play mediator and runs his own slate of phony change agents, but Berniecrats and lost Hillbots are both hip to the con and aren't having it.

Bernie decides on another run from within, fighting a green tide of corporate payola and corrupt machine Dems that ends up in a brokered convention.

And that's where the crystal ball goes cloudy.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

WindDancer13's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

Have the Dems gone full Fascists?

I hate it when someone only picks out one point of my argument to respond to. Don't you?

Meanwhile, I suddenly had a picture in my head of HRC running around with a bottle of ink, a pad to pour it onto, a roller to saturate it with and some unwilling soul grasped by the wrist and forced to spread their fingers for said fingerprinting.

Crystal ball haze suddenly lifts, and we see the Emerald City in the distance. (Monkeys? What monkeys?)

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

lotlizard's picture

@WindDancer13

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WindDancer13's picture

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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle
If there is no struggle there is no progress.--Frederick Douglass

Big Al's picture

the rich will continue to get richer, the poor more poor, the middle class will continue to shrink, the war and U.S. imperialism will continue, the deficit and debt will keep going up, we won't get a nationalized health care system, climate change will continue unabated, and we still won't live in a democracy. Then the ruling class and it's corporate media will prepare the sheeple for another election in less than two years.

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@Big Al
It's hard to disagree.
Nothing will happen to fix stuff that actually matter.

OTOH, I can see how the speed of our descent is still in the balance.

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@Big Al The d's may slow walk a couple of things, didn't have a super-duper 75 vote majority, needed to be bipartisan, but yeah, you about sum it up.

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Bisbonian's picture

Long term, their absence will be filled with something better...hopefully something real, but at the very least, something that isn't the Washington Generals.

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"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X

@Bisbonian
meme.PNG

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Bollox Ref's picture

is to vote against the proto-fascist Wardlow for attorney general (Minnesota). Ellison is an idiot, but Wardlow.....!?!?

Walz for governor (very tepid enthusiasm), but Klobuchar and Smith for Senate.... meh.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

You would think the "Empire State" would get with the times. The good news, well sort of good, is that there are Green Party candidates for some of the statewide offices, gov., comptroller and AG. The bad news is the impending reelection of Hillary groupie Gillibrand, so she can run for pres. herself and fall on her face in 2020.

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Mary Bennett