It's only an opinion piece but it makes perfect sense to me - and it was probably the only way we could have succeeded under the circumstances.

Claim is that the Dem Fund strategized to support the wackiest GOP candidates (especially in strategic contests), trusting them to turn off the electorate - especially MAGA and anti-abortion candidates, the more extreme the better (QAnon?)

Hahaha. Hung by their own petard.

See what you think? (And I do NOT agree it was "an unconscionable risk")

What brilliant strategizing! When you examine ramifications, it definitely brings Trump down. What it amounts to, was that the more a candidate sucked up to him, the more it cost them in (sane) votes.

Machievellian Dem Primary Strategy

That strategy worried me.
What will they come up with to save the day next time?

Just saw this ode (?) to the Repubs-

The grass is green
The sky is blue
You just got your a**
handed to you

Poetic justice it may be, but you can't be hung by a petard. The quote is

"Hoist with his own petard"
meaning blown (lifted) off his feet by the explosion of his own bomb

quote:

Originally posted by AD:
Poetic justice it may be, but you can't be hung by a petard. The quote is

"Hoist with his own petard"
meaning blown (lifted) off his feet by the explosion of his own bomb

OK, OK. Hoist hoist hoist!

More on how this strategy played out successfully.

Face it, we've been hanging by a string re chances for pretty much any wins. Everything mattered, of course, but the only way to come out ahead - to have a prayer of success - was super clever strategizing. And we pulled thw rabbit out of the hat!

Fighting gerrymandering mattered too (don't know how we lost so badly there BTW - comments?) and I hope before long we can somehow strike the last nail into the coffin of the Electoral College. It should long ago have been relegated to history's dustbins, but especially now when it's been exploited to ruin our otherwise winning Presidential candidates.

But this coup de grace was brilliant and (in retrospect) almost inevitable. The outrageousness, overt insanity of Trump and his lemming followers was just too ripe a poison apple not to pluck. When something's THAT over the top, there has to be some way to exploit it in favor of those retaining their judgment.

(And naturally, Trump would never, ever see it coming after so many successful converts to his cult of Ego. "You can't fool all the people all the time"...)

I predict there will more and more said about this tactic though I don't know if we'll ever be able to apply it quite so successfully again. It will only work when there are such polarizations, with one side so whacked out and of course, our present vote counting system.

Thanks, Donald, for fantasizing that loyalty to your personal myths will always reward those who drink (or say they have) your Kool-Ade.

More Dem "meddling" in the 2022 midterms

I suppose it could be argued that Republicans boosted AOC and ILK in New York, to the same end. (It's been said that New York was bringing down the Dem chances for Congress.)

The difference is that she already had about as much support as possible without surreptitious contributions from her enemies.

(I DO think her excess popularity in this context will bring her down several notches! )

From what I’ve read, the Dem tactic had to do with pointing out that the most likely Republican candidate was the Trumpiest Trumper who ever Trumped. Nothing wrong with that, particularly as it was generally true.

Republican voters ate it up, then watched their Trumpy candidates get kicked to the curb.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
From what I’ve read, the Dem tactic had to do with pointing out that the most likely Republican candidate was the Trumpiest Trumper who ever Trumped. Nothing wrong with that, particularly as it was generally true.

Republican voters ate it up, then watched their Trumpy candidates get kicked to the curb.

But, of course, Steve, we've been telling the truth the whole time (for all the good it did us, regardless of the eloquence and brilliance of our spokespersons.)

The brilliance of their strategy was pumping up (including with $) the wackiest ones to knock the sane, more electable ones out of the running.

(And it's especially gratifying to see how utterly it's going to knock his Majesty off his throne. Do you think he's still going to make his electrifying announcement as TRUMPeted?)

I suspect we're seeing the birth of a new Republican Party, which godwilling will actually split what it had morphed into.

I am still hoping Trump's ego won't let him back down and he insists on a presidential run in 2024. Hopefully that is enough to cleave a good segment of his base off from the rest of the more rational wing of the Republican party (if there is such a thing anymore). Add that infighting to the fact that covid is still around and without much press coverage it is still slowly and steadily killing off the folks who are all "freedoms and I ain't wearing no mask or getting no microchip 5G shot." I really think that was a big factor in this election -- it's morbid but think how many millions of republican voters are dead this election who weren't dead 4 years ago. That has to count for something.

Anyhow, I think all this bodes well for the dems prospects over the next several years as long as they don't do anything major to screw it up.

I'm pretty certain Trump will run. It's not in his being to *not* run after his defeat in 2020. He's proving some point that he has in his head. Maggie Haberman's book does a great job of explaining who the guy is and how he ticks.

Some thoughts from folks in the GOP:

https://www.theguardian.com/us...residential-election

As far as the midterms are concerned, they demonstrated that people who were not bowing down to Trump can and do win. I think it will bring us more centrist candidates as each side tries to capture the support of the voters in the middle....I hope it's ultimately for the better....

I agree Lisa and Wtg, that Trump WILL announce his intention to run (and WILL run - or at least, try to.)

My great hope like Lisa's is that his will to run (whoever comes forward to oppose him from the Right), will serve to divide the Republican Party and in so doing create a schism within the party so great it will split their campaign.

All we need is ONE Third party candidate coming up from the right to give the Dems better than that paltry (critical but paltry) 1% lead.

And no spoilers on the Left, please!

(Maybe the Republicans will split into Trumplicans and Libertarians. Seems most Libertarians are really Republicans in the wool.)

Note: It looks like one major factor in the surprise upset was the younger vote. It really is time to move things back a generation.
And as much as I sympathize withsomeof AOC's thoughts, I think, her influence has been pernicious. I agree with the analysts who blame the loss of all those representatives in NY on her. We just do NOT need another so-called "socialist-radical" to allow the whole party to be scapegoated.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:

Some thoughts from folks in the GOP:

https://www.theguardian.com/us...residential-election

As far as the midterms are concerned, they demonstrated that people who were not bowing down to Trump can and do win. I think it will bring us more centrist candidates as each side tries to capture the support of the voters in the middle....I hope it's ultimately for the better....

How not? As long as there's real unity on what "middle" means.

I'm not sure what you mean by "real unity".

"The middle" to me is very broad. It's something between getting 100 percent of what you want and getting zero percent.; I think a lot of our problems stem from believing that anything less than 100 percent is a loss.

We need to find ways to move to compromise and to accept that sometimes we'll get 30 percent of what we want and other times we'll get 80 percent.

Problem is, there are people working all the time to make us think of each other as enemies. Also those that work primarily in their own interest rather than for the country at large.

I don't know how we build back the trust and re-develop connections with each other that allow us to negotiate in good faith, but it's essential to our survival. We have to figure it out.

As long as he splits the GOP I don’t care what else happens. It might be fun to see who the moderate Republicans decide to run.

As for me, I’m rooting for injuries. With any luck they’ll scratch each other’s eyes out.