In 2018, the DCCC successfully perpetrated the myth of the Blue Wave. That kind of p.r. is part of their job. The problem is, they believed it. And the results reinforced that mightily. There were 41 seats that flipped from red to blue. In 2016, the House Dems hadn't done badly. Even with an apparent Trump victory, they had managed to flip 6 seats and they increased their national congressional vote margin by 2.5%.
Last cycle, Pelosi's dreadfully corrupt-- as in just like a GOP pay-to-play outfit-- SuperPAC, the House Majority PAC, spent $72,107,669, very little of it supporting progressives and almost all of it supporting New Dems and Blue Dogs from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. These were the 26 candidates who got the most help-- over a million dollars from Pelosi (and not counting the money the DCCC spent in these districts).
Erik Paulsen is a mainstream conservative who won his suburban Twin Cities seat (MN-03) in 2008 when Jim Ramstadt resigned. Previously Paulsen had served as the majority leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Although the 2008 race was tough-- Paulsen beating Democrat Ashwin Madia 48.5% to 40.9%-- he sailed through his reelection bids... until he got on the wrong side of Señor Trumpanzee.
Although it was certainly predictable, Katie Porter has been distinguishing herself as one of the best of the 2018 freshmen. She joined the progressive caucus, dominates on his committee and avoided the sleazy Wall Street-allied New Dems and Blue Dogs. So... she's exactly what the DCCC wasn't looking for. And they predicted it too-- which is why all their primary heft lined up behind weak centrist and corporate shill Dave Min, an especially bad candidate the DCCC loved but voters didn't.
Last night I had a long working-dinner with a world-famous author and neuroscientist whose new book on the aging brain is coming out early next year. He was explaining to me why the average person reports that their happiest years were around 80, if they live that long. There were quite a few reasons but one big one had to do with a tendency to shut out negativity and to focus exclusively on good news and happy memories (or happy manufactured memories). This is working out extraordinarily well for Biden, whose support among extremely old Democrats is overwhelming.
The worst new senator (AZ) and worst new House member (NJ)First the good news: Although there haven't really been enough controversial votes yet to definitively analyze the voting records of the congressional freshman class, there are mostly pretty good signs. With every day that passes, records are beginning to become somewhat clearer, at least at the extremes.
Joe Biden by Nancy OhanianMatt Longjohn was a good solid progressive candidate last year in MI-06, the southwest Michigan district that is centered on Kalamazoo and includes all or part of 6 counties: Kalamazoo (the biggest and overwhelmingly blue), Berrien, Allegan, Van Buren, St. Joseph and Cass.
Both parties suck and one of the themes of DWT for the past decade has been that the Democrats are simply the lesser of two evils-- sometimes not even that. The 2018 elections were not a "blue wave." Few people were excited about what the Democrats were offering. 2018 was simply an anti-Trump wave or an anti-red wave.
An Associated Press story on Friday, Trump's Presidency has Changed Washington, Defied Convention, sounds kind of good-- but is kind of horrible.
