1. Democrats Have a Problem
WSJ writes: What if Obama voters remember how lousy the Obama era was? The left worries that young people and minorities don’t hate Trump enough.
WSJ writes: What if Obama voters remember how lousy the Obama era was? The left worries that young people and minorities don’t hate Trump enough.
2. During the Obama admin there was much confident chatter on the left about the “coalition of the ascendant.” This rising population of young people not only carried Obama to two national victories but was destined to exert an increasing leftward tug on American politics.
3. The potential problem for the Democratic leaders of this coalition is that along the way some of their followers may have noticed the results of their policies.
4. A few warning signs have been appearing lately as the Obama generation makes it way into the workplace and as minority voters seem unwilling to hate President Donald Trump as much as Democratic politicians and the press expect them to do.
5. “It’s time for some alarm about the midterms,” writes David Leonhardt of the New York Times. “The most recent polls have underscored the real possibility that Republicans will keep control of both the Senate and House.”
6. Democrats now appear highly unlikely to take back the Senate, which was always going to be hard for them, given the conservatism of the states holding Senate elections this year.
7. And while Democrats are still favored to win the House, many races remain so close — with neither candidate yet polling above 50 percent — that they could break either way in the final weeks. It’s easy to see a scenario in which many Democratic-leaning voters fail to turn out.
8. How could turnout possibly be a problem for Democrats, given all of the rage from professional leftists directed at Mr. Trump? Apparently amateur leftists aren’t as angry and in many cases may not even be leftists.
9. Mr. Leonhardt writes that a big challenge for Democrats is “their apparent inability to win big margins among Hispanics.” His column in the Times makes clear that Mr. Leonhardt isn’t the only one concerned about the lack of ill feelings toward our duly-elected President.
10. “The fact that Donald Trump is viewed in a relatively favorable light by as many as 1 in 4 Hispanic voters should be alarming for Democrats,” León Krauze, of Univision and Slate, writes, “but it’s not even their biggest problem. That would be turnout.”
11. Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman tweeted, “Why do Dems have a serious midterm problem w/ Hispanics? Lower-income/young/urban Hispanics just aren’t that motivated to vote. And guess who’s left: higher-income/older/suburban Hispanics who aren’t nearly as reliably Dem.”
12. It also remains unclear how strong the turnout of younger voters will be. As Ariel Edwards-Levy of HuffPost has noted, many Americans under 30 believe that people should not vote unless they’re well-informed about politics.
13. So there you have it. Blue Wave may just crash with a whimper on the jagged rocks of reality.
The END.
The END.
