Yeah, yeah. We're all anxious about the midterms, loyalists wondering what to do because Obama and the gang just don't seem to get it, loyaler-than-thous hyping gloom and doom on 'the usual' untrustworthy polls trying to take us all back to pre-kindergarten with closet-monsters galore.
Disgruntled as we may be, we Kossacks really are a slice of the loyalist left. Not all of it, as for every one of us there are a couple tens of thousands out there who don't spend time on DKos or HP or DU or any other democratic/political website. Just as for every FoxBot and/or rabid Teabagger out there, there are a couple tens of thousands of regular, sane Republicans who don't watch FoxNews or go to Glenn Beck tent revivals or belong to the KKK. Or even go to church. What we see paraded in front of us and focus on is the fringe - I expect every dedicated Kossack who votes (and I'm pretty sure Kossacks vote whenever they get a chance, even if they have to hold their noses) will vote Democratic, and every dedicated Teabagger who votes will vote Republican. These are NOT the people who decide elections. No matter how much we want to believe the fate of the nation resides solely in us, that's just not true. We're loyalists, nobody's counting us.
The people who decide elections are those in the broad middle of the bell curve, those independents and R/D others who vote their conscience as well as their intelligence, and who aren't too committed to any party (thus may cross over). For all the talk-talk and all the in-house bickering and all the fear-mongering, the people who really do decide elections aren't particularly crazy. But they do pay enough attention to see that our nation is in Big Trouble.
So. I've looked the situation over carefully. I've weighed all the pros and cons. I've talked to a lot of people. I've followed a lot of propaganda. I have developed a feeling about November, and thought I'd offer it, if for no other reason than to point to more than a glimmer of hope.
Presuming that the election isn't blatantly stolen, I predict that Dems will NOT lose either house of Congress, and will gain governorships. I predict we'll lose a few Blue Dogs in the House, but that's just comeuppance for DINOs. They deserve it, and it opens 2012 with a clean slate for more liberal candidates. Conversely - and I am the ONLY one I know of predicting this - I expect we'll pick up at least three Senate seats. There may be a few shuffles, but I think we'll end with 60 or more. Why? Because any intelligent person paying the least bit of attention knows we must. That includes Independents and quite a few erstwhile Republican centrists among the voting public.
Nobody with a lick of sense believes that the U.S. voting population is defined by either the activist, progressive left or the reactionary, certifiably insane theocratic right. These are extremes within the broad demographic. There is no confusion about who is doing the obstructing in D.C. There is disappointment at half-measures coming out of Congress, but despite wins enough in '06 and '08 the Democrats simply do not have enough power in the Senate to do what needs doing without the Republicans. Most informed centrist voters are fully aware of the stupid filibuster rule and have seen good legislation gutted or shelved completely because the 'Pugs are so completely useless to the nation when the nation needs statesmanship much more than it needs graft and corruption.
Turnout in midterms is usually much lower than in Presidential elections. That's just how things work. While we should all be making sure our friends and family get out to vote this fall, we shouldn't be disappointed if the counts come up minimal. 2006 was a midterm too, Democrats made great gains because the people who decide elections saw a need for Democrats to make great gains. I believe the same voters who decide elections will come through again this November. And when they do, Democrats will have run plum out of excuses for why they can't get much of anything done.
It's put up or shut up time. We all know the Republican Party has marginalized itself out of the equation by chasing nut jobs down the rabbit hole. Once the voters catch up with them they will never again be a formidable force in American politics. Democrats will have shrewdly moved in to the center-right to pick up the left-behinds, and a new party will appear and quickly assume the role of 'loyal opposition' from the left end of the spectrum. But that's all down the road a bit and this diary is about November.
Despite the obvious fact that there are some unbelievably stupid people in America, that our media is solidly geared toward the stupid, and that the game of politics is designed to confuse and distract more than it is to meet and address, those loosely affiliated centrist voters are not all that dumb. Faced with a choice between a regular, sane Democrat and a raving wacko Teabagger, they will make the right choice even if unenthusiastically.
Bottom line: Calm down, people! Let's do our work and keep the pressure on, but let's not fall prey to the FoxBots and planted fantasies of the MSM or the polls, which are easily manipulated and entirely unreliable this far out. And let's have a little faith in the American People because if we cannot do that, we have already lost our nation to the forces of darkness. I refuse to give up, will wait until the last vote is counted before confronting the outcome. Then what will be will be.