Ds currently sit at 51-49 with a guaranteed loss in WV.
So the strategy of keeping our majority runs through a flawless defense of every other D seat, and hopefully flipping two tough GOP seats.
Race: Montana (#MTSen)
Democrat: Jon Tester (@jontester)
Flip/Hold: Hold
Facts: If Tester can put together a coalition (Ds, Rs, Is, Indigenous, environmentalists), he can win against his scandal-plagued opponent. Our toughest race this year.
Facts: Another tough race, but Sherrod has been blessed with a weak opponent (a familiar theme this year), and with our help he'll have what it takes to win.
Time for a tutorial in right-wing media propaganda.
I came across this local print edition of the Epoch Times delivered to the mailbox of someone I know.
It has the look and feel of a standard local paper, w/ a front page featuring local stories.
But let’s look closer…
First let’s zoom in on the top of the front page.
The paper slyly promotes the Epoch Times video website featuring a documentary about “The Real Story of January 6” and a story about “Unusual Blood-clotting” (anti-vax conspiracy theories).
But that’s just the start…
Remember that Page 1 lures in the reader with the promise of local news coverage, with a small-print hint about the paper’s true intent.
But Page 2 is dives in with snippets and quotes and brief items that have a distinct conservative theme.
We’ve now had *2* major accusations against Biden that have been refuted:
1. Robert Hur’s accusation about Biden’s cognition, which was belied by his own words in the transcript.
2. The GOP’s accusation of Biden taking bribes, which fell apart when their witness was indicted.
Republicans have relied heavily on both of these false narratives, and both have crumbled away.
Impeachment is going nowhere and Biden’s SOTU killed their ‘Sleepy Joe’ approach.
That’s a big problem for the GOP.
Why? Two reasons.
1. Now the GOP needS to formulate new lines of attack. It wont be easy.
2. Those two false Biden narratives were supposed ‘cancel out’ the *accurate* liabilities for Trump: his obvious cognitive decline and his blatant corruption. That strategy is gone now.
I really encourage everyone to read this conversation with @SimonWDC (posted by @atrupar without a paywall; thank you Aaron!).
There are some great electoral and political insights that cut through many of the BS media narratives that we are being fed. publicnotice.co/p/simon-rosenb…
I love this part.
Many of us are still so traumatized by 2016 that we've created this mythology around Trump and his abilities.
But the data points to 2016 having been - dare I say - a fluke.
Don't get me wrong, a fluke could happen again.
But not if we put in the hard work.
I see this trauma every day in my conversations with like-minded friends and family.
I see the anxiety, I see the fear, I see the pessimism.
It's as though they are stuck in '16, and the subsequent seven years of elections never happened.