Polls suggest the Democrats shouldn’t lose in the House, but after 2016 everyone is paranoid.
By Gideon Resnick and Sam Stein
Nearly two years of organizing, marching, candidate recruitment and
unprecedented fundraising has led the Democratic party to a critical
moment. On Tuesday, it can either reassert itself politically or fall
short, prompting an utter and complete psychological meltdown.
Most
in the party believe that the path they will go down will be the
former; that they will gain a majority in the House of Representatives
for the first time since former President Barack Obama’s
first term. But paranoia is part of the Democratic DNA, especially
after the shock of the 2016 election. And in the final stretch of the
midterm campaign, a scenario in which the party is unable to flip the
requisite 23 House seats looms in the dark recesses of the mind.
“It will be paralyzing for a while, it will,” said Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress.
“Candidly, I think there will be a fair amount of soul searching and
people will feel back on their heels... We will have to rebuild. But the
resistance is built on opposition to [Donald] Trump's extremism. And
the more extreme he is, the more we will have.”
Or, as veteran
Democratic strategist Paul Begala put it: “After all this work, all
these volunteers, it would be absolutely shattering.”
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Source: The Daily Beast
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