If voting didn’t matter, Republicans wouldn’t mind if your vote counted.
The safest bet in the world is that Democrats will win the popular vote for the House on November 6 the way they have won the popular vote in the last 6 out of 7 presidential elections. But they could still easily lose the House majority.
Republicans starting off with a couple million votes banked to their advantage because of gerrymandering and the sick design of the Senate is just one example of the asymmetric playing field that defines modern politics.
Republicans have figured out how to insulate themselves from the press, the electorate, and even the truth. And though Donald Trump has exploited every advantage that conservatives have spent crafting, he’s invented almost none of them — unless you consider manufacturing a “racist conspiracy theory of the day” and repeating debunked lies to be innovations.
In his new book An Uncivil War – Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics, Greg Sargent describes the current environment as “Thunderdome Politics” and he does a masterful job of not only explaining how we got into the mess but how we might be able to get out.
We wanted to talk to him about what makes Trump unique, why Trump’s whining may actually be a good sign and how Democrats can fight back without becoming the monsters we oppose.
Greg Sargent on Twitter: ThePlumLineGS.
The Plum Line at The Washington Post is HERE.
Purchase An Uncivil War – Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics HERE.
Our new project, A Fresh Michigan, can be found by clicking the logo:
The Good — McConnell Set the Stakes
The Kaiser Family Foundation: KFF Election Tracking Poll: Health Care in the 2018 Midterms
Dan Mangan at CNBC: The GOP’s health-care bill is a polling disaster, with voters much more likely to punish Senators who support it
The Bad — The Trump administration wants to delete transgender people from existence
Neal Broverman at The Advocate: Trump Admin. Preparing to Deny Trans People Exist, Erase Protections
What it would do, basically, is to amend the Civil Rights Act to include gender identity and sexual orientation alongside race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, and citizenship. pic.twitter.com/FVUxEmn9NR
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) October 21, 2018
The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — Polls. Again.
Todd Spangler at The Detroit Free Press: Races for Bishop, Trott seats too close to call, say new polls
New polls from Target Insyght for @MIRSnews:#MI11:@LenaEpstein 48%@HaleyLive 48%#MI08:@MikeBishopMI 48%@ElissaSlotkin 45%
In the 11th, Schuette led Whitmer 49-43; James & Stabenow were tied 48-48.
In the 8th (Whitmer's home district), Schuette's lead was 46-44. #MIGOV
— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) October 19, 2018
House polls are noisy, but the Upshot/Siena numbers were pretty bad for the GOP this week after having been a bit more equivocal in early October. Even in the Senate, there were some brighter numbers for Dems in a few races (e.g. IN) this week, but probably too little/too late.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 21, 2018
The show notes for Episode 18 of The GOTMFV Show are at http://www.eclectablog.com/2018/10/beyond-thunderdome-politics-with-special-guest-greg-sargent-from-the-washington-post.html
Give us a five-star review at iTunes!
The GOTMFV Show Facebook page is HERE!
Music clips
Intro and transition music: You Dress Like an Asshole by Not The 1s
Progressives Everywhere intro/outro: They’re Everywhere by Jim’s Big Ego
Flint Water Crisis Update intro: Unclaimed by Mike Wagner/Total Strangers
Outro music: Complain (from the movie Bob Roberts) by David Robbins & Tim Robbins
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Email | TuneIn | RSS
