I've absolutely no pity for the Republicans. This is a strong lesson to all aspiring politicians that it's never, EVER worth it to sacrifice your integrity, dignity and long-term prospects for short-term ideological gain. Remember why certain politicians are remembered, long even after they've passed; because they've implemented long-term policies that help Americans, the people, even at the short-term cost of popularity.
This is merely their chickens coming home to roost. But don't take it for granted; if you're tired of seeing a Senate and/or a House slavishly groveling towards Trump when they're supposed to be a check on the Executive Branch, vote! Use the one power you have!
20
Reading through this article and comments, it seems the democratic advertising message should be simple "tell the truth".
Call out the lies-- "democratic" is intentionally not capitalized.
True democracy cannot exist when the government and its financial supporters intentionally mislead their citizens. The politicians and their supporters who tell blatant lies deserve to be called out LOUDLY.
21
What can be said? When presumably sane individuals like Mrs. Collins can -- with a straight face -- say that her purpose is to prevent the "nuts" from taking over, you know that you are dealing with people who are deeply invested in their delusions. How can the nuts "take over" when they have been clearly running the show for the last two years?
The real test of the 2018 elections is going to be in determining just how effective the politics of denial and disinformation can be in 21st Century America. And it's an important test. When politicians and governments are free to invent their own realities and "alternate" facts, and are not punished at the polls for doing so, then democracy is effectively already dead. We'll know whether or not that's the case in a month.
139
@curious-While the factors you mention carry weight, there's also the problem of voter suppression and vote manipulation. The headlines about Georgia and North Dakota just being the latest movements to ensure that Republicans can keep their seats and hold on power.
1
So, the Party apparatchiks of the Right are putting up a firewall funded by gambling money. They may remember various firewalls that were sure to hold for Hillary. We will throw out the trash in California this November.
Anybody for a 100 seat national cleanup?
22
The far right went with Trump because they wanted to bask in his star power. A televangelist, he preached the word. Eliminate legal abortion and lock up non-white immigrants, and he can act like his favorite drunken frat boy and hire like-minded thieves at the pubic trough. To keep the noose tight he will get rid of those pesky regulations that keep us safe. He preaches anger, disloyalty, lock them up, a frenzy of contradictions and rage.
Donald Trump strangled the Republican party into an entity few recognize. When it's all over he will rise again from the ashes of the destruction he caused, preparing for his sequel, while those that got too close will implode as they search for their next front man. For sure, it's not Mike Pence.
There is only one certainly - when Donald Trump brings down the house, and not in a good way, every single one of his staff will say they stood up to him and his base will deny ever supporting him. Sinking ship calling rats.
28
This article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/us/non-voters-midterm-elections.html
about Americans who don't vote is both disturbing and very sad.
I'm hoping for a much stronger turnout than usual on 11/6 but we really need changes at the federal level in election laws and ways to make it easier to vote in general.
13
The American president is not only leader of America, he is also leader of the free world. He, as president of a super power nation must play a leading role in upholding International law and norms - and decency.
Jamal Khashoggi had been killed in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Istanbul - and his body dismembered by a 15-man hit squad who flew in specially for that purpose.
The leader of the free world has done nothing so far - a classic dragging of his feet. Hoping the matter will be forgotten and swept away.
Citizens of America - use you vote wisely. Restore decency in the White House.
31
Republicans, beside shifting money from weak to strong candidates, win by cheating and lying. Just look at the nefarious scoundrel Brian Kemp in Georgia and his voter purge. Yes it's a governor's seat but it's right in their playbook along with insane gerrymandering. And Rick Scott running for Senate here in Florida: Politifact gave him a 100% in lying. They can't win on their merits
31
@Kanaka
In Georgia 53,000 voter applications are on hold, shelved - not processed. Why? 70% of these applications belong to African-Americans. This is criminal. Whoever said: America is a rule-of-law nation! America conducts free and fair elections???
20
Just like the 2016 election had "stealth" voters who did it want to disclose they would be voting for Trump I hope and pray that there are "stealth" voters who will come out and vote for Democrats in November.
24
“The Republican Party has gone so far to the right that you can’t even really have reasonable conversations,” Ms. Hankins said."
How does anyone talk to a person especially a female who votes against having affordable healthcare for themselves & their family , votes against the party that wants women to have equal pay for equal work , votes against women having control over their own body , votes to give the 1% an $800 billion tax cut and in Blue states a tax increase for the 90%. Votes for an admitted crotch grabber and serial womanizer.
America , you are better than the Trump crime family and its abettors …….. aren`t you ?
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@Duncan Lennox He may not walk the walk but he sure talks the talk and they choose to believe. Was it Groucho Marx who said, who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?
10
The demographically Republican oriented share of the population is shrinking. A high road party would try to broaden its appeal. But the Republican “solution” is to shrink the electorate through voter suppression. This is not a pro-democracy approach.
34
I am desperate for Dems to win the House if for no other reason than to take the chairman position away from that low life piece of &&&&, Devin Nunes.
53
@William Whitaker - Amen
18
@William Whitaker Oh, you mean the Nunes that recused himself from the committee after being caught as the ultimate Trump lackey? The one that reneged on his recusal? You must give Jefferson Boregard Sessions credit - at the very least, he is a man of his word, unlike this, " low life piece of &&&& "
15
Republicans abandon all of the vulnerable. The litany would include poor people (of every color which applies to all of these categories), women, children, immigrants, the ill, infirm, and helpless, immigrants, blue-collar workers, all workers making minimum wage, the earth itself, every soon to be extinct critter or even the still thriving ones, every country and their people if they don't meet a bizarre Trumpian litmus test (i.e., whether they like him or say nice things about him), anyone who stands up for the vulnerable, who takes a stand for justice and human rights, all Democrats/and anyone who disagrees with Trump, and even those who stand up to allies or enemies when they speak truth to power, such as Jamal Khashoggi. Now vulnerable Republican leaders in various races - not a surprise. That is their stripe, their tendency - jettison everyone who doesn't meet their monstrous view of the world: your value is only as far as it/you get me up the ladder of power. Other than that, you are worthless. Totally. Those practical Republicans without a single moral fiber in their corporate body, none at all, shameful to anything remotely human.
30
VOTE
It’s the only way to stop this radical right wing movement from destroying our country.
34
For the good of America, let's hope their efforts are futile. My hope is that the Ladies of America will save it. Let's hope the #MeToo movement displays their power by showing up at the polls. Go ladies!!!!
28
Uh, Ms. Collins, the nuts have been in power for the last 22 months, and the country is shell-shocked. Blue wave!
24
I do wish that the columnist, Alexander Burns, had brought up the fact that FOX has stopped televising trump's "rallies" because of the drop in the ratings.
It only shows clips and snippets and has stated that the "rallies" have often been lower in the ratings than the regular programming.
There's an old song: "The thrill is gone, the thrill is gon-yon..."
Much is rapidly changing in the White House.
Has trump become tiresome? Is he no longer a shiny toy?
Well, that will be too bad for his "base", but, it was inevitable. "Lock them up!" is pretty thin gruel as a political philosophy.
"Tariffs" puzzle his Base.
And half of them ARE against sexual assault.
Some don't like kids locked up in tent cities where there are no schools, only guards, lousy food and no showers.
Like me, they don't have a clue why these children, all 13,000 of them, are being held with no access to law...?
Kavanaugh should have been thrown back.
We are bestest buddies to an out of control Saudi Arabian prince that only the trump family can stand.
There are many who have hooked their lodestar to the trump wagon and are now trying to quietly unhook it.
No, I have no prediction on who is going to win - but I know that trumpworld is no longer a sunny little paradise.
Even tyrants get boring after a while.
trump's shelf-date has passed.
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If anyone wishes to know what the GOP looks like, there no need to go anywhere except to look into the face and probe the brain of Mike Pence.
Unelectable in Indiana, he has the appeal of a white bread chicken sandwich. His Lord is the tall, be-robed white man on the cover of the King James.
I'm tired of watching Dems go soft and put their boxing gloves away. An 11th round knockout of these turkeys is needed!
VOTE.
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@The 1% - You're too kind in your description of Pence. He has all the charisma of dryer lint and he's as toxic as mold.
30
@The 1%
Vote, but volunteer too. Covina is really close to CA-39 (Diamond Barr, Yorba Linda). Go knock on doors for Democrat Gil Cisneros. If you don't do it, who will?
11
The two party system has failed us ...
5
@Steve of Albany No it hasn't. Lack of voting and uninformed voting have failed us.
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@Steve of Albany
Well, that's one way a person claiming "they're both the same, usually does excuse himself for allowing Trump to win the electoral college and become the president.
... so he can claim he's more noble than the people who did everything they could to get out the vote that would put a sane person in the oval office.
16
Whenever I hear this tired trope about the ‘failed two-party system’, I always think to myself, What in the world is that supposed to mean?! What’s better: A one-party system (China? Lol), a NO-party system? More than two parties, well that would be even more of a hot mess, politically. Politics has never, and will never, be pretty. It’s how it works. You have to fight to get what you want. You don’t agree with a candidate on a couple things? Tough! Boutique politics is not a thing! You didn’t go out there and run, yourself. Ok, rant over.
10
There are various interest groups and super PACS within the Republican establishment. I'd be careful about believing their supposed spending plans for the final weeks before the election.
No individual battle is settled until election day. And negative ads have a habit of showing up in the final days when it's too late to fight back.
Complacency and low turnout can still devastate any campaign. Vote like your life depends on it!
29
A list of the districts and the dem candidate would be helpful so that we can make contributions to their campaigns.
28
your comment illustrates one reason Dems are in the minority. you expect a newspaper to spoon feed the info so you can write a check? get off your rear and make an effort, conduct even a minimal amount of research, go with like-minded friends to nearby districts where there are closely contested races, act like this election really matters. that's in addition to writing the check.
13
@Nina - Perhaps the DNC website would have this information.
5
@Nina
Here are some links you can look at:
https://www.cookpolitical.com/ratings/house-race-ratings
https://www.270towin.com/2018-house-election/
3
The GOP is depending on their base to be 'energized' by the Kavanaugh 'win'. What they appear to ignore, purposely or not, is their core base is shrinking. It may not shrink in enthusiasm, but as a proportion of the voters who have registered to vote since Trump's inauguration. That smaller percentage of the voting public just simply bodes poorly for any kind of enthusiasm they may generate.
17
What I find interesting about Republican leadership shifting money from one possibly losing candidate to one that may have a chance to win is that it speaks to the way the Republicans treat people generally. If you look like a loser, you will be abandoned by your own party, just when you need them the most.
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A common characteristic of Republican political advertising from now to Nov. 6 is all-out attack ads on Democratic opponents, truth be damned.
Here in North Carolina's 9th District, we have a centrist who never mentions his party affiliation against a prominent Baptist minister who, in the past, has preached that women must serve their husbands and questioned whether women should even work.
Until recently, both candidates' TV ads were remarkable for their blandness, as the two introduced themselves to the barely noticing electorate. Yet beginning yesterday the minister's adds represent a complete change in tone, to one of dark horrors in store for the nation that elects his opponent to the House. One I saw last night had a grainy photo of Nancy Pelosi that made her appear to be a walking dead ghost. The voice over narrative was all about how the Democrat, Pat McCready, would be completely under the thumb of Pelosi and the Democratic "mob."
Interestingly, McCready had long stated that he does not support Pelosi returning as Speaker should the Dems gain control of the House. No matter. In politics, a lie is actually more effective than the truth, a fact the Republicans milk for all it's worth.
17
Would someone please identify the purple states the RNCC is buying into so that it might be countered?
10
Also I'd say Republicans should be worried. Anecdotally, I'm putting more into this election than any election thus far in my life. I've donated money to presidential candidates before, but this time I've donated thousands to Senate and House races across the nation. I've sent out postcards, through the ACLU, to remind people to vote, never done that before. I've volunteered to call voters in swing districts, first time for that too.
There are plenty of people like me too, that are incredibly fired up about this, because we have never seen a GOP majority so corrupt, bigoted, misogynistic, anti-democracy, and anti-American. Trump and his supporters have made it clear that they're fascists and white supremacists. I didn't like G.W. Bush, but I didn't think he was out to destroy democracy, and I didn't see him creating concentration camps for children on our borders.
This election is a fight of Republicans desperate to keep their grip on power, in order to enrich the rich further, and everybody else intent on saving America from racist fascists. If there is a God, the GOP is going down.
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GOP will take away your health care; take away your Medicare; take away Social Security. Vote out GOP. Ray Sipe
27
I noticed that Maryann Collins said she didn't want the nuts to take over. There are nuts on both sides of the aisle but my question is, which side is more nuts? Right now I think it's the Republicans.
10
Quoting a 86 year old Republican,Ms Collins: "They’re more determined than ever that they’re not going to let the nuts take over,” Ms. Collins said."
Pretty much sums up the level of political discourse in today's US.
10
@wy4ridem
And she probably has no idea which party got Social Security and Medicare passed.
Of course, she would probably give them up because the Dems (those nuts) created the programs.
3
it is funny. had they done their jobs there would not be all this anger and they could continue to be a part of the team. by choosing politics over people they have only themselves to blame
21
I mentioned this in another post yesterday.
PA-1 is a formerly red district that is turning blue with each passing year. It voted for Hillary in 2016, although Brian Fitzpatrick won his brother's seat the same year against a somewhat-flawed Democratic candidate, Steve Stantasiero.
Ironically, the Republican tax law changes and the $10,000 SALT cap have led to more "blue" residents of New Jersey moving across the Delaware River into this lower-tax state, shifting the voter registration numbers toward Democrats.
It should also be noted that of the five major row offices in Bucks County, four flipped to Democrats in the last election - and two of those Dems had no previous experience at this level of government. Prior to that, the GOP held all five row offices for 50 years. Does that tell you anything about the shifting political winds in PA-1?
It doesn't help that Fitzpatrick, although self-branded as "independent," rarely holds in-person public meetings, preferring to hold "electronic" town halls where constituents call in or log in. There is a growing resentment against that sort of representation as expressed in local newspapers - even from life-long Republicans.
PA-1 is indeed in play and very likely to turn blue. Fitzpatrick's lack of action on healthcare reform will play against him with women voters in Bucks.
25
I wish the NYT would include district numbers whenever a race is mentioned. District numbers are the easiest way to search for a district and sometimes the only way districts are shown on some political websites. And for those of us looking where to donate (no matter how modestly), district numbers simplify the process. Finally, it's just a few key strokes, so the omission can't be about lack of space!
16
@stephen beck Made the same comment re knowing to whom we should be donating.
5
I fear that even if Democrats capture the house majority, nothing will really change. Republicans will continue to throw a monkey wrench in the machinery and Trump will egg them on.
I am afraid the 30 years of right wing talk radio has poisoned the water forever.
I hope I am wrong.
28
Let's hope this Republican attempt at an orderly retreat turns into a rout.
22
‘Nothing left in the GOP except Trumpsters, hucksters, and fear mongers. Gone are the positive conservative voices espousing the benefits of globalization, free trade, immigration, and being a democratic ‘city on a hill’ example to the world. They attack everything and everything standing. The only thing they want to build is a wall. They are full on negative and lying about the effects of their ‘successes.’ They are still permanently separating children from parents. They outright lie about everything. The stock market drop reflects US and global fatigue and rejection of their bizarre withdrawal to self enrichment. The lights are out in the GOP. They are living in darkness.
80
I don't think we're in any jeopardy of reading any articles here suggesting that Republicans are looking strong in the upcoming election.
But, consider... The Republicans control the House, the Senate, the Executive Branch, the Supreme Court, and 2/3rds of the states. All of this to-do is about whether the Democrats can gain control of the House, given that this is a mid-term election and they are the party out of power.
I don't think they can regardless of all the hopeful articles providing endless reason why they should or why it looks like they can. Having read countless articles on the subject, the overwhelming majority of them talk about the Democrats being more "enthusiastic" about voting. Polling has shown a roller coaster of blue tidal wave to blue trickle. Only Rasmussen, which is the only polling group that predicted the 2016 election, shows a tie in the generic ballot. All the rest show a blue trickle or wave.
Perhaps the Democrats need actual plans and programs that they talk about in public? Not anger or resistance or attacks on Republican plans, but actual plans of their own.
When the Times and Post write consistently positive articles about the Democrats chances of wining this or any other election, like that in 2016, it comes as no surprise that the readers are surprised when the Democrats lose.
9
Wishful thinking by the left. The outrage over the Democrat treatment of Justice Kavanaugh showed just how unhinged the left is and will bring out the Republicans and Indedpendents...
10
Wishful thinking on your part. Kavanaugh demonstrated by his unhinged, angry, crying testimony that he was unfit for the court, and the GOP rammed him through. The majority of the women in the nation are going to be opposed to the GOP because of that atrocious confirmation. Watch and see.
71
@Knute - I'm an independent and wouldn't vote for a single Republican above county level right now. Republicans I used to vote for faced reality and came up with conservative solutions. I liked McCain because he worked on climate change, immigration and campaign finance reform, and worked across the aisle on issues.
The current GOP makes me miss Nixon and that infuriates me more than you would believe.
Here's part of what the current GOP needs to stop to get this independent vote.
- fighting against closing gun law loopholes polls show most Americans favor
- fighting against climate policy just to protect fossil fuel donors or because of a very-mistaken belief that 200 years of science is a recent liberal plot - wind power revenue is saving a lot of rural counties right now, and creating lots of jobs. Wise up.
- fighting against health insurance, especially when rural constituents who tend to vote Republican are harder hit by the opioid crisis than urban residents.
- passing tax law that's nothing more than running up a $1.5 trillion deficit to give money to the wealthiest. Whatever happened to "fiscal conservative"?
- giving control of health policy to the most extreme voices on abortion, while those same "values voters" fight birth control, health care and other programs that reduce abortion, and improve lives of mothers and children.
- pandering to the Kochs, Mercers, Scaifes, Adelsons that the Citizens United decision let buy your party leadership.
77
@Knute I hope so. In every poll, independents favor Democrats by very wide margins.
8
Were we able to transmit the entirety of the present-day Congress — House and Senate both — back in time and onto the Titanic as it sank, you can be sure that those Republican men (+ Susan Collins) would have shoved aside the women and children in order to occupy the life rafts alone.
68
On the Senate side I assure you the GOP and allies are spending like no tomorrow to put ethically challenged Marsha Blackburn in the Senate. One cannot turn on a TV from Memphis to Chattanooga without a barrage of direct and indirect attacks on Phil Bredesen- the centrist Democrat and former Governor running against her.
The truth apparently does not matter in the ads, as they have made charges directed at GOP hot buttons like immigration that are patently false. They claim he gave drivers licenses to illegal aliens and quote a timeline from before his term as Governor.
One real sleaze ball one running says that "if Phil Bredesen is elected, Dianne Feinstein will be running the Judiciary, Bernie Sanders will be running the budget and Chuck Schumer will be running everything"
Another claims he spent lavishly on renovating the Governor's Mansion and "living the life while we paid for it" despite the fact he lived in his own residence during his time as Governor. That one was paid for my Koch Network Americans for Prosperity.
98
Republican Confederates consolidate their dollars as their tyranny of the corrupt minority makes a last stand against American democracy and the will of the people.
Vote in historic numbers, America.
The one thing the Grand Old Phonies cannot stand is democracy.
November 6 2018
124
@Socrates that's perceptive of you, since we have a Representative Republic and not a democracy.
1
@Scott It may be a Republic, but it certainly is NOT representative!
Hey Kansas, Colorado and Michigan! How does it feel to see just how much Republicans care about your best interests?
It has not changed, it's been the same all along!
Republicans don't care about you!
82
@Glenn Thomas - Kansas is actually an encouraging story. A while ago, they went whole-hog in voting in the craziest Tea Partiers and sat back to watch The Wonderful Bright Future start...........
Some years passed, and they voted do-nothing Huelskamp out of Congress, he's head of an extremist think tank now.
They voted the Tea Party nuts out of their state government in favor of the more rational Republicans that ran.
Gov. Brownback slashed taxes to "unleash blah blah blah" and unleashed a financial disaster that led the State Supreme Court to force the state to restore funding to schools. His party joined the Democrats to override the last time he vetoed a tax hike.
(note, our incompetent governor Rauner had the same thing happen as the legislature got tired of him driving the state's credit rating into the cellar)
It's not all rosy. Voter-fraud conspiracist and general sleaze Kris Kobach won the GOP primary for governor, but on the bright side, polling shows the race is currently a tossup between him and Democrat Laura Kelly.
10
@Glenn Thomas Colorado GOP is a joke anyway. Move on to more contested battles. Says a man who works every day to keep Mike Coffman in office.
I can hear the music from the Titanic playing in the background.
16
There are no registered Republicans or Democrats in Texas. It doesn't work that way here.
3
Republican anxiety is hopeful for me, but I'm also trying not to get too hopeful. It was so gut-wrenchingly demolishing when Trump won in 2016, I have to keep reminding myself that people are highly unintelligent and biased, and thus the Republicans could hang onto control of Congress.
But it'd be great to see them lose either or both houses of Congress. And Republicans haven't thought about the future at all. They are all about clinging desperately to power for now, to further enrich the rich. They fail to understand that their base is aging and will soon be dying off. They can't grasp that as they become more and more exclusionary and resistant to compromise, they alienate more sections of society, and when they've lost a constituency they've lost it forever.
So I think in 2018 Republicans might still hang onto control, by their fingernails, they're fighting hard and their leaders can be clever at strategy. But over the next decade, Republicans are bound to fall to pieces, because they keep infuriating groups like the educated, non-whites, women, children, and so on, and they can't seem to let go of their fundamentalist notions. The party is doomed in the long run, and I just hope they lose power in time for us to fix the damage, before climate change renders the planet unlivable for humanity.
65
Democrats are making things competitive with a broad-based strategy, one the Republicans used to deploy to gain their advantage in the House in 1994 and again in 2010. Now the Republicans are trying to defend a handful of seats to preserve their power, a tactic the Democrats tried when they had an edge and which didn't work very well for them.
Frankly, I hope the Republicans continue to focus all of their attention on just those seats. I very much want to see a Democratic majority again, as we are long overdue for some subpoena power and some investigations.
111
If the hold majority, the stock market will sink. We need a check on power.
8
It's every MAN for himself. Finally.
VOTE in November.
17
Republicans will try to keep the House but I think they kind of gave up... they got their tax cut already, so now they are going to focus on keeping the Senate to confirm Trump nominees and pack the courts with conservatives as much as they can for the next two years. Hopefully it's going to be their swansong...
48
Which is why it’s still important to support Democrats who are running against vulnerable Senate incumbents, who are running to fill vacancies, or who are defending their senate seats.
8
Considering Trump's impulse to currently double down after the Democratic minority comes after him, I fear that if the Democrats make huge gains in November and become overwhelming we'll see more than mere bluffing in response. Taking back the ship only to have it go down after may feel good for about two seconds.
1
Even if you are right, pushing back is the only viable, responsible answer.
35
Republicans are in the news a lot since 2016, and most of that news isn't good, tales of corruption and illegal behavior, horrible treatment of women, children and families, environmental damage etc. This is a problem no amount of money will fix.
48
The vast majority of people who live here do not understand how this affects them. And it does. But their lack of understanding, hundreds of millions of citizens, voting and non-voting, do not understand that the electoral process was hijacked from them long ago. And today, it is so far gone, they can't begin to find a way back. And those involved in the mechanics of lying to the public, that do it day in and day out, in their campaigning strategies, and toolbox full of campaigning tricks, don't care they are all based in misdirection. All they care about is maintaining control, or winning an election, regardless of ethics, morality, and the truth. The Truth. Both parties have become like Fortune 500 Corporations. Those who run these parties, those that advise these parties, pollsters, super-wealthy contributors, the troops, the rank and file bureaucrats and polls, who rely on their parties success to insure their consistent employment, for delivering a product that is slowly destroying the reasons why the US remains United. Revolution? Start a war for a common cause? What's next? Be assured the future is coming, and these poor contributions, based in basic self-benefit, and personal enrichment, will have a cost. It's sad that's idealists have even turned into self-centered ego-maniacs, here, in the US.
5
The sad tacit fact here is that money creates the outcomes.
17
I wish we could find reasons to be more purple, Mr. Pence. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
6
No. The only responsible answer is a resounding, "No!" to this Republican charade.
29
That’s a cheap and hollow attempt to evoke the 1860 election and to position the Republican Party of 2018 as the savior of the Union. That’s a grotesque distortion of history. Mike Pence is a danger to this nation.
39
.
Vote on Tues, Nov 6th: Your Country needs you!
Actually, VOTE EARLY if you can.
60