Thread: Can a Red Wave Actually Happen? Larry Alton While midterm elections rarely get the hy

Can a Red Wave Actually Happen?

While midterm elections rarely get the hype and turnout that presidential elections do, they're arguably just as important– this year especially.

September 5, 2018

Can a Red Wave Actually Happen?

By Larry Alton

The midterms are right around the corner and political pundits everywhere are sounding off about the most likely outcomes. And despite the feeling that Democrats are about to regain majorities, there’s plenty of reason to believe that Republicans can maintain their stronghold.
Here’s What the Democrats Need to Do
It’s hard to believe that we’re already nearing the halfway point of President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House. But November 6 is quickly approaching, which means it’s once again election season.
While midterm elections rarely get the hype and turnout that presidential elections do, they’re arguably just as important -- this year especially. If the Republicans can keep control, President Trump will be able to keep up the momentum he’s gradually built over the last 18-plus months. But if the Democrats regain majorities in either the House or the Senate, the tides would begin to change.
In the Senate, the Republicans currently hold a 51 to 49 lead. There are 35 seats up for grabs this year, of which 26 are held by Democrats. Considering that they need to gain two seats in order to take control, the Democrats face an uphill battle. They’ll essentially need a clean sweep -- plus two additional seats.
The problem for the Democrats is that they have to defend ten seats in states that Trump won in 2016. On top of that, there aren’t very many opportunities to take seats from Republicans.
The best chance the left has of regaining some control in Washington is to reclaim the House. They need to flip 24 seats here, which is neither unprecedented nor uncommon.
“There have been swings of 24 seats or more in half of the midterm elections since 1994,” Jasmine C. Lee writes for the New York Times. “The last time Democrats took the House with that kind of swing was the 2006 midterm election, when they picked up 32 seats. In 2010, as the Tea Party movement against President Obama’s policies shifted the political landscape, Republicans took control of the House by flipping 64 seats. They have held the chamber ever since.”



All 435 House seats are up for grabs this year, with more than 10 percent of them considered highly competitive (tossups or slight leans towards one party).
Most pundits are predicting the Republicans hold on to their narrow lead in the Senate, while the Democrats regain control in the House -- albeit by a slight margin. So the idea of a red wave or blue wave doesn’t seem all that likely. However, as history has shown, it’s never smart to postulate the impossible. And while the blue version is certainly more probable, don’t count out a fiery red wave.
A Red Wave is Still Possible… And Here’s Why
Just as the Democrats need a lot to go right to facilitate a blue wave, the Republicans need a perfect storm of sorts. While some are more likely than others, here are a few of the reasons why a red wave is possible.

1. The Economy Continues to Thrive


The left can scream about Russia until they lose their voices, but most Americans frankly don’t care. The majority see it as much ado about nothing. (A recent poll of Americans on both sides of the political fence reveals that Russia’s alleged involvement in the recent election isn’t even one of the eight issues Americans care most about. Even the broad issue of ethics and morality is viewed as more important.)
Americans care about concrete issues -- ones that impact their daily lives in tangible ways. And what’s more tangible than the state of the economy?
Trump’s economy continues to thrive, which has been catalytic in his growing approval rating. As economist Chuck Jones explains, GDP growth is up, the S&P 500 is soaring, unemployment rates are at record lows, millions of jobs are being added, hourly wages are up, and people are happy. Voters who are on the fence won’t want to rock the boat -- which bodes well for Republicans.

2. Republicans Have Mastered Grassroots Campaigning

Trump won the 2016 election as a result of grassroots campaigning. Sure, he was backed by millions of dollars, but it wasn’t the money that earned him the victory -- it was the way in which his campaign swept through the nation and moved individual people to become part of a larger collective.
While Democrats spend a lot of time campaigning based on identity politics, their policies and campaigns are ironically very individualistic and divisive. Republicans, on the other hand, have grasped the significance of taking a collective focus and using words like “we” and “us,” rather than “me” or “them.”
If Republicans are to win big in November, it’ll be the direct result of strategic grassroots campaigning. Simple things like printing and distributing flyers or hosting community events all count. They cut through the BS that oozes from campaign commercials and involve the very people who control the outcomes -- the voters.

3. The Democrats Have No Platform


When you look at Republicans, it’s pretty clear what they’re fighting for right now. They want safer borders, a stronger Department of Defense, and true freedom of speech. When you look at Democrats, it isn’t clear what they want.
Can you name an issue that the Democrats are running on without using Trump’s name? All they care about is Trump this and Trump that. They have no platform to stand on. They’ve become so hardened against the right that they’ve actually begun to turn on themselves. The left seems to have lost all reason, with key party leaders going so far as to say that America was never great to begin with.
In the words of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “Trump has totally corroded their own standards.”
No matter what year it is or who controls Washington, it’s hard to win a midterm without a solid platform.

Only Time Will Tell
Again, it isn’t very likely that a blue wave or red wave will sweep the nation in November. It’s far more probable that the Republicans will hold the Senate and the Democrats will put up a fight for the House. But, if a red wave does happen, you can bet the three factors outlined here will come into play.

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The Democratic earthquake

The grinding Democrat tectonic plates beneath our democracy have sent rumbling tremors that indicate a major catastrophe for our nation.

September 6, 2018

The Democratic earthquake

By Alan Bergstein

I don't know if you've felt them, but we've had many warnings of a major catastrophic human-made earthquake that threatens the foundations of our 242-year-old existence as a free nation. The needle on the political Richter scale started shaking after the 2000 election of George W. Bush. The rumblings began with the Democrats contesting the 527-vote Florida game-changing presidential win by Bush over Gore that eventually was confirmed by a recount. Thereafter, Bush was for his eight more years in the White House referred to and treated by the left as America's first sitting "non-president."
Then we suffered the rattling election of Barack Obama, whose active membership in a white-, Jewish-, and America-hating church was well known to the electorate. His close personal relationship with the likes of his adored Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan was no secret. Obama was open about his goals. He told us he was out to "fundamentally transform America" and the world. He did, with racial unrest, blacks against whites, attacks against law enforcement, hatred against people of wealth, the cover-up of Muslim hate crimes, the admission of millions of illegals, the deliberate condemnations of our nation's history, the "Arab Spring" that turned the Middle East into a raging inferno of destruction and death, the support to the terrorist nation of Iran, and the eight-year unsuccessful effort to undermine the Jewish State of Israel. Worrisome tremblings, indeed.

Recently, the threats have increased in volume and intensity with the election of Donald Trump in 2016. The grinding Democrat tectonic plates beneath our (small "d") democracy have sent rumbling tremors that indicate a major catastrophe to our nation on the horizon. The forces of hate against our president have reached catastrophic levels on the political seismic scale that threaten to take down the pillars of liberty and freedom. The fraudulently concocted charges of treason and collusion with an enemy nation against Trump have shaken the nation's stability. Calls for his impeachment, his assassination, and physical attacks against his staff and supporters have rattled us all. And our Democratic elected leaders are feeding this frenzy. The recent live broadcasts of the funerals of Aretha Franklin and John McCain coming so close together should have knocked us off our feet, with the eulogists standing over caskets, attacking our legally elected president. The shock of having three open haters of whites, Jews, and America in the first row at the Franklin services seated purposely and openly right next to a former president should have rocked our senses. But it didn't...and that's scary.
Lastly, perhaps the most significant recent shudders came in the current Senate hearings for the appointment of a new Supreme Court justice. The well planned observer tantrums requiring the ejection of violent demonstrators for the whole world to see, along with the coordinated Democratic disruption from the official seats, represented a massive threat to our liberties.
We have no control of nature. Earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, and tsunamis are generated by Earth's forces. But the undermining rattling of our halls of justice, our Constitution, and our liberties for which so many have sacrificed their lives is occurring because we are permitting it to happen. The willful closing of our eyes to the earth-shaking warning signals of calamity, growing not only in frequency but in intensity, will result in irreparable cracks in the foundations of our liberties and freedom. The next shock may be coming soon.

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