Experts stunned as Mitch McConnell brags he's handing control of impeachment trial to Trump

[VOX]

163. And Republicans have capitalized on the damnable Electoral College to their advantage twice now.

With the extreme polarization that’s occurred in the electorate, the Electoral College has become the grail. In recent history, it’s the only avenue by which a Republican presidential candidate can win, by taking those recite-‘em-in-your-sleep swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin. And possibly Arizona in 2020.

The most vulnerable states (where His Majesty Trump eked out his 2016 victory) are the Rust Belt states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Highest concentrations of working-class whites, Democrats mostly bunched up in urban/suburban areas. Lose any two of those states (assuming that the remaining states perform as usual), and an overall EC victory is in grave doubt.

So the Democratic candidate must walk a tightrope across the Rust Belt cautiously, usually meaning, in these strange times, running a centrist candidate, or a more liberal candidate who poses as a centrist— as difficult a pill that is to swallow. I can barely choke it down myself. Worse, running on policy alone in that region isn’t enough. The Democratic candidate must engage those voters with a *genuine* concern for their well-being, which translates to “tread lightly when it comes to new/green technologies— robotics, wind, solar, etc.” Yet another antithetical contortion for progressive/liberal Democrats.

I fear that the 2020 election itself will be fraught with outrageous behaviors from the right, powered by the mob zealousness of various hate groups and Trump cultists. Disinformation, already in widespread use, will be pumped out like so much sewage by the “usual-suspect” media outlets. “Flood the zone with shit,” as the odious Steve Bannon puts it.