Dems' dreaded deja vu: Another 50-50 Senate

[riversedge]

I try to be optimistic but it is hard sometimes.





Dems' dreaded deja vu: Another 50-50 Senate

Although the party eked out wins from its current even-split slog, it badly wants to pick up more seats — and has a shrinking list of chances.


https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/15/democrats-even-senate-midterms-00061961

If Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto loses in Nevada and John Fetterman takes Pennsylvania, but party control of all other tossups remains the same, it’s a 50-50 Senate again. | John Locher/AP Photo

By Marianne LeVine and Holly Otterbein

10/15/2022 07:00 AM EDT

Democrats face a real and uncomfortable possibility after the midterms: two more years of a Senate divided 50-50.

After slogging through — and extracting some significant victories from — the longest evenly split Senate in history, Democrats are pushing hard to expand their majority by netting seats in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. But as their list of potential pickups shrinks, they’re staring down a 2023 that may start with another 50-50 chamber: At the moment average polling forecasts exactly that, and POLITICO currently rates control of the chamber a toss-up.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is pulling ahead against his Democratic opponent, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, according to the latest polls, while Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s advantage over GOP foe Mehmet Oz has shrunk. And Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) is in essentially a dead heat against GOP challenger Adam Laxalt, who has taken a slight lead in recent polls.

The tightening races, and fear of a narrow GOP takeover, are leading to some finger-pointing about the top Senate Democratic super PAC’s performance, particularly in prime potential pick-up states.

Asked about the possibility of another Senate locked at 50-50, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) sighed.

“Lord … obviously we would prefer it to having less. But we’ll feel like it’s the myth of Sisyphus or something,” he said, referring to the Greek mythological tale of a man doomed to push the same stone around. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, he added, will feel like “I’ve been trying to roll a boulder up the hill, and it’s rolled back on top of me.”.....................................

[electric_blue68]

1. Of course I'm Hoping we add at least 1 extra Dem in Each Chamber Preferably 2+ each...

but I'd Sure rather Have a 50-50 Senate than a fully Repuglican Majority!!!!!

[elleng]

2. I don't listen to pollsters or analysts,

to save my mind. (EXCEPT for Michael Moore. Try his e.mails.)

What if, in the next 23 days, we all woke up one morning and realized that we are indeed the majority of this country, and that there are millions more of us than there are of them. Because once we truly know that we hold the real power, the charade of the owner-class will be over. We will, as the graphic above shows, simply step back off the plank of doom and let the politician or the predator capitalist or the preacher man go flying off the edge of the very cliff they’ve brought us to.

There are so, so many of us, and the day we decide to end our misery (and the planet’s misery), our suffering will start to be over in a matter of hours. Sometimes change does take forever. Sometimes it happens in a snap of the fingers. On June 26, 2015, at 9am, it was illegal in many states to marry the person you love if that person was of your gender. Just one hour later, it wasn’t. Boom!

On November 6, 2018, it was perfectly legal to gerrymander Congressional districts and commit acts of voter suppression in Michigan. Just 24 hours later, a landslide of voters showed up at the polls to place an amendment in the Michigan Constitution that made both of those atrocities an actual crime. Mic drop!

So step back off that plank. Reclaim the power we already hold in our hands! Convince 5 nonvoters you know to vote this week. “Just this once!”

Volunteer with any of these organizations — Grassroots Democrats HQ, Democratic Volunteer Center, Democratic National Committee, or Vote Forward — and become one of the millions who are making calls and sending postcards this month — from the comfort of your own home — to get out the vote! Most candidates’ websites will also connect you with remote volunteer opportunities (I have links for the Senate ones below).

If you live anywhere from Minnesota to New York to South Carolina — from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean — you are most likely just a 2 to 4 hour drive from one of the four states — Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina — where we can take a U.S. Senate seat back from the election-denying, woman-hating, Democracy-destroying Trumplican Party.

Or if you live from Oregon to New Mexico, or Florida to Tennessee, you live in a state that borders one of the states — Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia — where we must hold the seats we currently have but could possibly lose. This must not happen.

Please think about driving there for a day or two on one of the 3 weekends we have left before November 8th, and join in the grassroots campaign taking place there to make sure we secure 54 seats in our Senate (and there are House districts we need to hold, too — and you can help!). Make it a family trip! There are 74 million adult Americans who voted for Trump two years ago. There are 162 million (Biden voters, 3rd-party voters, and adult nonvoters) who did not. We hold the power, but we are powerless if we don’t use it.

([e-mail]

[Chainfire]

3. We are so finely balanced between winning and losing that it scares me to death.

If the far right gains power in both houses, and with the support of a Fascist Supreme Court, they will never surrender it, and elections be damned.

[rso]

4. Senate

At the very least, even a 50/50 Senate would allow Biden to keep appointing lifetime Federal Judges unimpeded for at least another 2+ years.