Congressional Republicans panic as they watch their lead dwindle

[speak easy]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Washington Post,

With control of the House and Senate still undecided, angry Republicans mounted public challenges to their leaders in both chambers Friday as they confronted the possibility of falling short of the majority, eager to drag Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) down from their top posts as consequence.

The narrowing path for Republican victory has stunned lawmakers from both parties, freezing plans for legislation and leadership maneuvers as they wait to see who takes control and learn the margins that will dictate which ideological factions wield power. Regardless of the outcome, the lack of a “red wave” marks a devastating outcome for Republicans, who believed they would cruise to a large governing majority in the House and possibly flip the Senate.

The GOP faces a small but real prospect that it may not reclaim the House majority despite high pre-election hopes based on the disapproval of President Biden, record inflation and traditional losses for the party that holds the White House. Late Friday, Democrats moved one Senate seat closer to retaining their majority in the chamber as Sen. Mark Kelly won reelection in Arizona. Winning either in Nevada — which was still counting votes — or in Georgia, where a runoff is set for Dec. 6, would allow them to stay in power.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/11/senate-republicans-mcconnell-midterms/

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As EarlG said, the 2022 midterms were/are a catastrophe for the GOP.

[Lovie777]

1. I too am surprised .......

for over a year 24/7 the corporate media had been pounding us of the gloom and doom of the Democrats. The NYT, WP, Politico, etc, writing articles of the same.

[True Blue American]

2. They always lie!

Notice the MSNBC BOARD, 2 R to take the Senate! Why not 2 D,s to hold
the Senate? They all have egg on their faces!

[Farmer-Rick]

26. Just finished looking at all the break downs of the votes on CNN

The break downs by sex, location, favorability opinions and such done by CNN was devastating for Democrats. CNN claims these are exit polls but they are not the traditional exit polls done in most countries to determine the truthfulness and accuracy of the vote count.

These were extra special exit polls done by CNN.

And guess what? Dems dropped or lost votes and percentage point on every single category as compared to 2018. Every blue line went down while every red line went up. Soooo, how did Dems manage to hold the wall if we dropped in all voting categories?

They can't even now be truthful with their polls, it's just not in them.

Corporate media is going to lie, and lie, and push the propaganda for the filthy rich until they get bankrupted by some filthy rich heir.

Never believe their polls. Even Nate Silver fell for their really badly designed and executed polls. Even some very Democratic political consultants were pushing the awful poll data.

[McKim]

39. Yes!!!!

Yes, this is our wake up call to not trust the media!!!! Now we can see how they manipulate us!

[True Blue American]

44. I quit trusting the media long ago!

My kids are right. Turn off the news!

[speak easy]

5. The under 30s turned out in force

with ± 70% voting Dem. The polls guessed a 2010/14/18 turnout.

[yardwork]

11. Abortion was an important factor, I think,

[Bengus81]

13. I agree and WHY does it have to take something that massive to wake people up?

Dem's have been warning about the abortion issue for at least 20-25 years. We've been warning about Social Security and Medicare for the same time frame or longer. Trump took the first steps to gut SS in the last couple of months of his Presidency. More and more Republicans state in public and in the media they want it gone.

People were warned well before he was President that Trump would try and kill the ACA and of course promise a never to be seen replacement plan. He tried and luckily he failed.

[The Jungle 1]

17. Yea and now repukes want to raise the voting age.

Dirty rotten cheating cheaters.

[OldBaldy1701E]

18. Which is why I felt that the Democrats were going to do okay

Anytime the media starts railing about something, it is usually because the owner is trying to program the masses. Due to the very large collection of articles that tried desperately to convince us that Dems were going to lose and lose big, I was fairly certain that we were going to probably manage to hang on, if not flip some seats. Despite this programming, we showed them that they are backing the wrong horse (or in this case, elephant). Now, on to the glue factory for that party!

[SheltieLover]

31. Absolutely!

[McKim]

35. Thanks for this Comment....

Thanks for this comment. The brainwashing is always something to question!

[AmBlue]

48. I felt the same way

...and turned off the news (cable and network) for the last 3 weeks before the elections, except for a quick weekly toe-dip in the M$M cesspool once or twice a week. I also keep constant eyes on our beloved DU, and LBN especially. You all really do keep me sane in these moments.

I knew with every fiber of my being that WOMEN and POC and young voters would turn out in droves after the Roe betrayal by SCOTUS.

I'm so proud that the American people have loudly and forcefully rejected Trumpism this time. We need saner discourse in this country and I think voters now will settle for nothing less.

[SheltieLover]

30. Precisely why I don't watch tv!

[McKim]

34. Yes, they did their best!!!!

Yes, the Corporate Media did their best to spread shade on our party! But the people have talked back!!!!! A good reminder to not believe “pollsters” and pundits, but use your own eyes and ears!

[Bengus81]

37. All about ratings and nothing else. That's why they still give Trump millions in free advertising...

Many of them STILL cover his dinky Nazi rally's--and he still trash talks them.

[Victor_c3]

3. I wonder what this means for 2024 and 2026

Not counting the presidential race in 2024, I’d imagine that this would give Democrats a much better footing to gain a larger majority in congress during either of those two elections.

[Puppyjive]

4. I have questioned the media and pollsters often

They all predicted the red wave. Keep in mind we are talking about voters who decided that Trump was not a good president. They assumed that because the economy tanked, these voters were going to change back to supporting a republican party that has not improved over the years, but somehow seems to have gotten stupider. The repubs have no plans other than Benghazi, Clinton's emails, and Hunter Biden's laptop. Now, they are literally eating their own. The media underestimated the voters. Anyone with half a brain knows that inflation was caused by several factors and Biden is not the person to blame. However, I believe the voters knew that the republican party was most likely unable to navigate us out of inflation. My 2 cents.

[speak easy]

7. one thing here

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2993427

under 30s are the most difficult to poll

[mwb970]

8. I had a couple of MAGA nuts whine to me about Biden causing high gas prices.

I asked exactly which Biden policies had caused gas prices to go way up in Australia, a separate country 10,000 miles away.

[ Crickets ]

A little more discussion revealed that they had ZERO idea how the international oil market works, or even that there is one.

SMH

[Lonestarblue]

14. The MAGA cult is mostly ignorant by choice.

They choose not to learn facts, preferring to exist in their alternative reality where fake Christianity rules so that only white people (and mostly men) make all decisions and have good jobs, few if any minorities are allowed in the country, and LGBTQ people don’t even exist. They worship their white supremacist leader because he’s corrupt and says all the crap they want to hear.

[dlk]

22. There is a definitely, "I'm ignorant and proud of it" streak in some segments of the population

In the age of information, it seems to be getting worse.

[SheltieLover]

36. Absolutely correct! I'd encountered an old rural woman in TN

During the tfg nightmare. I can't remember now what the issue was (there were so many!), & I told her the facts.

She didn't believe me, of course, and said the "left media would lie" about whatever the issue was.

So I told her she can look up how Congress people vote & info on most court cases directly in each entity's online records, no media involved.

She grasped both sides of her face & gasped so loud everyone in the small store turned to look at her.

I guess the thought of indisputable truth not favoring tfg & qpukes was just too horrifying.

I told her, "Try it. You'll like it. Truth is good & very enlightening."

[Bengus81]

38. Next time ask them why US Oil companies export oil to China and Mexico

While we pay out the arse.........

[mwb970]

40. They just assumed that oil from America went directly to American gas stations.

They really didn't seem to know what they believed, except that everything bad everywhere is Biden's fault.

[PatSeg]

28. The media and pollsters were living

in a bubble - just because things had always gone a certain way, it certainly would do so again. The media reported on reactions to the extreme anti-abortion measures and the very apparent threats to democracy, yet failed to see how those reactions would affect the election. Their assessments were a real insult to voters.

I never for one minute anticipated a "red wave". Everything about the time we're living in has been an exception to pretty much every rule.

[mwb970]

6. Will the trump fever break now?

Or will they stand by the louse come what may?

[speak easy]

9. Trump is a mob boss -

he will threaten anyone who wavers with hell-fire. He is the only one who can say with any confidence, 'I will make sure the GOP will lose the 2024 presidential election'

[70sEraVet]

10. I think the stranglehold tfg had on the GOP is over.

He used to be able to threaten that he'd run as an independent and break the party. Now, I think party leadership is just wishing that he WOULD go away, and they don't care if he's going away in handcuffs and a orange jumpsuit, or on a flight bound for Russia.

[yardwork]

12. He'll take some of his voters with him.

Those voters who registered and voted for the first time in 2016 just because of Trump will go back to being uninterested in politics.

Of course, most Republicans will continue to support whoever their party runs.

[70sEraVet]

16. My nutty cousin is one of those voters who had ZERO interest in politics before 2016.

She has now apparently shifted her passion to a new hateful hero, DeSantis. And didn't even break a sweat from the effort.
Con artists are a dime a dozen.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

15. So much for historical trends ar this time

When Democrats were posed to lose big.

Thank President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama. Sen. Bernie Sanders, and others for stressing how important the concept of DEMOCRACY is.

The Supreme Court awoke the women of this country up. Unfortunately, many women still voted for Republicans at the state level where their rights are still being trampled on.

[vlyons]

19. Surprise surprise!!!

And GOP won't learn from this debacle either. They'll just point fingers, backstab, whine, and vomit vitriol. Then go back to calling us commies and accuse us of letting criminals into the country. It's just all so tiresome.

Meanwhile old white racists continue to die off, young voters continue to register and vote, and Dems continue to offer up legislation that actually benefits people.

Don't look too promising for the GOP. Really hoping that his royal ugliness, TFG, runs for POTUS. His hatred and vileness is sure to sicken and disgust all those young new voters for sure. Gee, how do you think all those young new voters are likely to vote? I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.

[yankee87]

21. Youth vote

Like you said, Qpublicans are frightened off what going to happen in the future. But the racist will just double down on their beliefs.

[llmart]

23. Youth vote

Let's not forget Biden's student loan forgiveness program. That surely brought the youth vote out.

[Farmer-Rick]

29. Exactly this.

Imagine the wave of blue voters if he had forgiven all student loan Debt like they forgave the billionaires and millionaires their PPP debt.

[llmart]

33. The last ten years of my career...

I worked in a law school and then a university. I can tell you for a fact that both women's rights and student loan forgiveness were what brought the youth vote out.

[Marthe48]

20. The only ideological faction that should wield power

is the ideological faction that not only reflects American values, but also benefits ALL American citizens.

I hope the rabid r's keep their blood bath out of the chambers.

[progree]

24. "record inflation" -- looks like Winston Smith has been busy putting the 70's-80's inflation down

the memory hole.

CPI: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0

To see year-over-year changes:

* Change the start date back to 1970
* Click on "More Formatting Options" and then check the box "12-month percent change"
* Click "Retrieve Data"

In the page that appears, scroll down to the bottom half to see the 12 month changes.

Much bigger inflation in both 1974-1975 and 1979-1981

[Deminpenn]

25. Old enough to remember that

In 1974, we had Nixon's slogan W-I-N (whip inflation now). There was the Arab oil embargo, truckers strike and that year, the US did not have a time change that year in order to save energy in the mornings.

Then in the later period, Paul Volker gave us "stagflation" a combination of inflation, high interest rates and low/no economic growth. Home mortgage rates were 12% and higher.

The current ecomonic enviroment isn't bad at all by comparison.

[Deminpenn]

27. This is what happens when you believe your own

propaganda.

The Rs charted this path when McConnell and Leo conspired to put judges on SCOTUS who would achieve Leo's catholic wet dream of overturning Roe. That turned into phyrric victory.

[Jon King]

32. 4-5 Republicans will have barely won in swing districts.

These people barely won and want to hold on in 2024. If they barely won in a swing district, voting for nonsense like a show impeachment is a sure way to lose. I think no matter who holds slim majority, there will be a handful of Republicans who vote with the Dems and block a lot of the crazies.

[Roc2020]

41. Yeah. I'm not surprised

that the Dems didn't do as badly as many predicted. But I'm shocked the Dems did that well. It's colossal disaster for the Rs.

[republianmushroom]

43. I like it

[LiberalFighter]

45. I was feeling it was going to be better for Democrats than expected.

There were too many factors involved. EarlG provided some of them and I added a few more.

[True Blue American]

46. As one who

Is old I think the younger generation are much smarter than they are given credit for.

The older generation has become calcified. Why else would they keep voting for those who have made it clear they intend to try and destroy their benefits?

Young people see who works for them.

[Faux pas]

47. ...

schadenfreude makes me happy lol.

[Omaha Steve]

49. After a review by forum hosts....LOCKING

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