This excellent column points out that the attention the media has given to Daniels, Cohen and Comey makes it harder to focus on issues such as the economy.
The column states:
“The intense media attention on Trump’s personal deficiencies might not actually move many more voters than they already have, and the economic message pushed by Democrats—one that’s rooted, in part, in the tax bill—is having a hard time breaking through.”
Sad!
I don’t feel sorry for anyone who voted for Trump who is hurt by his policies. He’s doing what he said he would do during the campaign. Trump voters have forced all of us to put up with an incompetent, lying bigot.
This is an excellent article in the New York Times. The writer got out of New York and spoke with Midwestern farmers about their concerns and the potential impact on future elections.
Crooked.com is looking for answers to those questions.
I sent them this in an email:
Here are my thoughts which are too long to leave on a voice message
Anti-Trump is not a winning message. We saw that in 2016. People knew he wasn’t qualified but voted for him anyway. Why? Because of issues such as abortion.
I’m sure you have polls that show what voters are interested in such as health care, jobs, gun safety, income inequality, bigotry, the environment, etc. Focus on what voters are interested in. Don’t focus on Russia and Stormy Daniels. That doesn’t affect everyday living.
I’m tired of getting email, paper mail and requests for contributions from so many overlapping groups. I disregard a lot of it because I get so much. I suggest having a central clearing house similar to the Combined Federal Campaign for federal employee charitable donations. Within the one site, you could designate which component(s) you want to send funds to. ActBlue seems like a start.
Most times when I see Democrats on TV, they are being asked about what they think of the day’s Trump tweets or action. They need to respond to that but that also need to show how Democratic positions would be different than cutting health care and taxes for the wealthy.
When he gives a speech that is part or all an election speech (which is most of them), Democrats should ask for equal time from TV networks comparable to the time they showed Trump focusing on politics rather than presidential stuff. He has a huge head start in getting his message out. Democrats should designate a few people to give the responses. (I’m thinking of something like shorter versions of the response to the State of the Union address.) Trump is brilliant at sucking up all of the TV time – Democrats need to fight this.
I think that will only motivate the Republicans and it will fail in the long run. Concentrate on supporting the Mueller investigation and we’ll see how it plays out.
Do focus on getting out the vote, fighting voter suppression and fighting gerrymandering.
Trump is already talking about voter fraud, especially in CA. Remember that he said the election was rigged and only committed to accepting the results if he won. The Republicans will never voluntarily accept the new map in PA. Make sure to point out that it was a victory for fairness, not for Democrats.
This is the scenario that concerns me:
Imagine if the Democrats win the House by 2 or 3 and pick up 4 or 5 seats in PA and/or CA. Do you really think Trump and his conspiracy theory-supporting followers will accept the results? Remember, many of these people believe in things like Pizzagate, the birther movement, and that mass shootings didn’t happen. Do you think it would be hard to convince them that there was voter fraud.
Thanks for letting me rant.
update: This looks like a good start.
From a Washington Post editorial:
“The Republican playbook is all about fear. By wallowing in wedge issues and demonizing The Other, the party hopes to frighten voters out of their wits — and into voting for GOP candidates who, like Mr. Trump, would capitalize on division by flirting with the electorate’s most noxious elements.”
This is an overview about what we do and don’t know about election hacking. Election hacking could be a problem in the November elections and Trump has shown no concern about it – he only cares about bogus voter fraud which he thinks hurts him. Sad!
I am very concerned that Trump will say there was voter fraud if Republicans lose the House of Representatives in 2018.
Look at the false accusations from right-wing supporters in 2012. They’ll say similar stuff this year if they lose.
This poll from September 2016 shows that
Then there’s the threat from Russia. However, not everyone is concerned about that. Only 34% of Republicans think Russia will attempt to influence the 2018 elections while 80% of Democrats think it is likely. The poll also shows that “Eight in ten Americans, or 79 percent, are also concerned that the country’s voting systems might be vulnerable to computer hackers, including nearly half (47 percent) who are very concerned.”
The bottom line is that many people already distrust US election results. Trump will fan this distrust and try to discredit elections that are not favorable to him.
He is also not taking any leadership role to prevent Russian interference since it will help him. Republicans in general are not concerned about the Russians which is incredible to me since we know they interfered in the 2016 elections.
There’s going to be something for everyone to be skeptical about in the 2018 Congressional elections. Sad!
Trump continues to lie about voter fraud in the 2016 election. In particular, he has claimed there was massive voter fraud in California, a state that voted for Clinton.
I think he’s doing it to set up claims of voter fraud for the midterm elections in 2018 if the Republicans lose the House of Representatives. I don’t think he will accept the results if his party loses and he will claim they are fraudulent. His followers will believe him since they believe all of the lies he makes. In late 2016, 52% of Republicans thought Trump won the popular vote. That’s not true. This is an analysis of why Trump keeps claiming voter fraud.
I can see a scenario where he tries to block the seating of Democratic representatives. We know he likes authoritarian leaders and that Congressional Republicans will do nothing to stop him. Remember, he said the 2016 election was rigged and he would only accept the results if he won.
Losing the House would be very bad for Trump. In addition to making it harder to pass legislation, there will be endless investigations (like the Republican Benghazi ones) and possibly impeachment proceedings. Trump will do everything possible to avoid this result.
There is a real problem with outdated voting machines and not enough money to fix it.
This article points out that funding will be based on population. Shouldn’t need be the basis?
There are 13 states, including Pennsylvania, that do not have a paper trail in all counties.
Pennsylvania will be a key state in 2018 because the gerrymandered map favoring Republicans was replaced by a fair map. The governor ordered counties to buy voting machines with paper trails but his budget doesn’t provide funding for it.
As I said before, I think the 2018 congressional elections could be a catastrophe. Trump is already beginning to cast doubt on the integrity of the voting system. If Republicans lose the House by a small margin, I expect Trump to question the legitimacy of the results, especially in Pennsylvania and California. Sad!
Trump again said today there was massive voter fraud in the 2016 election. This is a baseless lie. I’m sure he is doing this to rally his base because nobody else believes this nonsense. This is a serious effort to undermine the credibility of our elections but I doubt Republican leaders will say anything.
As of December 2016 (and I doubt it has changed), 52% of Republicans think Trump won the popular vote. We have a president and many of his voters who don’t accept the facts.
This was supposed to be a roundtable discussion about his tax plan but as usual Trump turned it into a political event. Taxpayers should not have to pay for his travel and events when he doesn’t stick to official business and goes into political rants instead.
Trump targeted Democratic Senator Manchin who is up for reelection and two Republicans, one of who may be his opponent were there. The Republican Party should pay for this event since it was used as a 2018 rally.
Sad!
The 2018 congressional elections have the potential to be a real catastrophe, no matter which party wins.
I expect the Republicans to keep the Senate so I am talking about the House of Representatives. Early polls show the Democrats picking up a lot of seats but the election is a long time away. I am not focused on the polls.
1) If the Republicans keep control, Democrats could blame it on Russian interference. This is different than the 2016 election. We know a lot more about Russian meddling and we also know that Trump has done nothing to stop it. Even the head of the National Security Agency acknowledges that Trump has not given him new authority to fight the Russian threat.
Republicans are also stacking the deck through gerrymandering and making it harder for people to vote. Democrats do gerrymandering too but control far fewer state governments.
2) If the Democrats gain control, Trump will probably say the elections were rigged. He said “the system”, which I assume includes elections, was rigged just yesterday. He said the 2016 election was rigged before he won. Republicans will probably also blame the media. Of course, they will blame George Soros like they blame him for a lot of things they don’t like.
If the Democrats win by a few seats, Republicans will likely blame the new Pennsylvania map which eliminated the extreme Republican gerrymandering and will result in more Democrats winning. Trump is encouraging Republicans to continue to fight the map. What if this not resolved by election day?
There are also concerns about the voting equipment. This all adds up to the potential for many people not to accept the results of the elections.
Sad!
Trump claims that people are sneaking into America because of DACA but you had to be here by 2007 to qualify for DACA. He blames Democrats but he’s the one that terminated DACA and turned down reasonable deals that would not have been acceptable to the bigots that are a large part of his base. He could have a DACA deal if he wanted one.
Is he lying or is he that ignorant on the facts? I think he’s lying to get his base worked up his most reliable issue – immigration. He says nonsense like “Our country is being stolen.”
He says the Democrats want no borders – that’s just an outrageous lie with no basis in fact.
As this column states about Trump’s underlying message: “The just-below-the-surface message is this: White people made this country great. Brown people are flooding in. They pose an existential threat to your daily life and what the future holds for your children.”
I reject the lies and bigotry! Sad!
Sad! 