I know, I know, all of you poor people must be sitting around wondering, “What ancient pagan god did I piss off, to deserve a triple scoop of the Murfster on the day after Thanksgiving?!?” Well, I ain’t telling, but I will say this, Zuul is mickle displeased with y’all right now.
Today, I am a man unchained and unfettered. Like all of you, I studiously, almost religiously refused to cast so much as a wayward glance past the hallowed day of November 6, 2018. After all, you never practice for the next game until you play the current one, right? But we’re unshackled by that now, and look how nicely we almost surgically dissected the GOP with two years of planning this last time!
More than anything, the 2020 general election is going to be an election of contrast.This is a battle we can with or without the GOP’s participation, in fact I think we do better without their interference. Ask yourself this question. How did so many House Democrats obliterate so many entrenched House incumbents in November? Mostly, they did it by completely ignoring The Orange Julius, and ran on issues instead. And it worked like a charm, the more we ignored Trump, the more obnoxious he got, in order to attract attention to himself, and the worse if got for the GOP incumbents.
If the Democrats play their hand correctly, this contrast can be as much about the past as it will be about the current day. Cast your mind back to the halcyon days of January of 2009. The nation had its first black President, and he had a Democratic controlled congress to work with. It was “Yippee-ki-yay motherf^&%&^*rs! time. And yes, we had an economic meltdown to deal with, but the Democrats were brimming with enthusiasm to deal with it, and get on to bigger and better things.
And what was Yertl the Turtle doing on the night that our new President was looking like a black James Bond while he danced with Michelle? He was sitting at a rum barrel topped with a candle, in a dark cellar, surrounded by other lowlife wags, plotting on how to make Barack Obama a one term President. And the tactic they chose to help them accomplish this mission was obstruction. They would unseat him by making him look incapable of getting anything done. And that’s exactly what they did, for eight long years.
The Democrats were very judicious in the campaign promises that they made this year. They stayed with things that resonated with voters, even GOP voters, since they won in districts with GOP incumbents, and they promised the practical. And this is a very good thing, since Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats now have two years to fulfill those promises.
Ask yourself this, after the unbelievably toxic character and personality of The Pampers President, what ticked people off the most about Washington? The ceaseless, irritating gridlock in Washington. Even Trump supporters raged against it, they just chose to blame the Democrats. ut the good news is that there are way less of them than there are of us.What did the Democrats promise in the campaign that they will now make good on by passing bills? Healthcare, infrastructure, middle class pay raises, protecting Medicare and Social Security, combating the opioid crisis. What’s nt to like? Shit, Trump could have had Democratic support if he had just tried to accomplish this stuff on a bipartisan basis! They are going to pass these bills, and they are going to be Democratic bills, becaue the caucus will be united on them, since they all ran on them in the first place.
Which puts Mitch McConnell at the center of a Russian doll. McConnell’s first basic instinct is going to be to obstruct everything that comes out of the House, just on general principle and orneriness. But McConnell saw what happened earlier this month, and he damn well knows that issues the Democrats ran on that got them elected. Hell, some of them are issues that the GOP has been running on for years.He may tinker with some of the more abhorrent liberal components, just to save face, but he knows that he torpedoes these bills at his own peril. And so will the 22 GOP Senate incumbents he’ll have to whip into voting against these bills, knowing how popular they are in their home states. And it’s not like McConnell is going to get any support from above. Shit, Trump would sign the bar tab at Cheetah’s if he thought that it would make him look like a winner.
All the Democrats have to do to get a nice leg up for 2020 is to simply do what their constituents sent them there to do. If McConnell and Trump obstruct the will of the people, then the Democrats run on that. And if the GOP Senate passes some of the Democrat written bills, then the
Democrats run on those accomplishments, and trot out things like universal Medicare, things that they know people love but the Republicans hate, and promise it if we can get the Senate and the White House. If they pass a bill to sweeten the Medicaid expansion, they can flip states with GOP controlled legislatures. If the GOP Senate opposes the bills, they can run on GOP obstruction. And if they get some passed, they can take the credit, and remind everybody that they could have done this 10 years ago if only it weren’t for McConnell’s obstruction.
Right now, my fondest post midterm wish is that I wake up on the morning after the 2020 election, to find that the Democratic Presidential candidate beat Trump by the identical electoral college margin that Trump won by. I’d love to see Trump try to squeal like a styck pig about the election being “rigged,” after he spent the last four years boasting about how itthe same margin was the greatest electoral victory of all time. One can dream.
* A quick holiday reminder *
Copies of President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange make perfect e-stocking stuffer gifts for people you really aren't all that interested in impressing. And what better time to get reacquainted with the roller coaster that was the 2016 election cycle than before the release of the final volume of the trilogy, President Evil III, All the Presidents Fen.
Cross posted on Politizoom.com
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