More Of This and That

The Democrats are expected to do very well in not spectacularly well in the midterm elections this year, but it will be more likely due to Trump's own ineptitude than anything the Democrats are doing right.  As long as the Democrats keep stepping on each other's toes (and their own), a Democratic victory in November won't mean that the Democrats will have won.  It will only mean that the Republicans will have lost.

As I type, Americans will have either seen their health insurance costs double or their policies slip away completely because the Republicans allowed Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire after enough Senate Democrats agreed to reopen the government for the promise of a vote on  Affordable Care Act subsidies that never happened.  Washington insiders claim that the Democrats won the fight over the subsidies by allowing the government shutdown to happen, but the only folks who are buying that argument are . . . other Washington insiders.

As for the redistricting fight . . . let's just say the Democrats lucked out, dudes.  They seemingly blew it when Texas Democratic legislators returned to Austin from Chicago to give the Republicans a quorum to redistrict the state and create five new Republican U.S. House districts, but thanks to Gavin Newsom (above) and California voters, Republicans got outplayed and lost their net advantage from the redrawing of the Texas maps.  Then Trump tried to have more GOP-friendly districts in Ohio and Indiana only to meet with fierce resistance from . . . Republicans.  Especially in Indiana.  Hoosiers (whom Trump acolytes from outside the state have referred to as "Indianians") don't like being told what to do by outsiders.  It's that stubborn Indiana independence that had long made Hoosier Republicans logical running mates for Republican presidential nominees, from Schuyler Colfax to Mike Pence (though their collective record has been mixed at best) and also produced one of the few memorable Democratic Vice Presidents, Thomas Marshall, whose wit and humor made his role as a liaison between the Wilson administration and Congress more interesting than it would have been (you know that quote "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar"? him).  

But California and Newsom notwithstanding, Democrats have benefited more from Republican mistakes than their own aptitude.  They're going to have to do better than how they've been doing unless they want to win Congress by default.

(As this blog post was "going to press," I heard that Trump invaded Venezuela and took custody of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.  I'll address that story as soon as I absorb it sufficiently.)