Republicans still have an advantage. Democrats are a big tent party of many competing factions. Republicans are united by bigotry, greed, homophobia, misogyny, racism, self-interest and xenophobia. There are even black Republicans who hate most other blacks, Republican women who hate most other women, gay Republicans who hate most other gays, and foreign-born Republicans who hate most other foreign-born Americans. Because greed and self-interest are all common to ALL Republicans, including the cringers. In fact, even though some Republicans may cringe when Trump speaks, these same cringing Republicans share ALL of Trump's core beliefs.

To quote from this article: "Ms. Schriock said the groundswell can be traced to Election Day 2016. That was when the first female presidential nominee from a major party not only lost but was defeated by a man many Democratic women consider repugnant." True, but SO incomplete. Most Americans of both traditional genders and every conceivable sexual orientation in between find Trump to be "repugnant". This particular heterosexual, white male finds my skin crawling and my gag reflex triggered every time I see an image of this repugnant creature or hear any of the crude, semi-literate, infantile, bullying blather which emanates from his spittle-flecked mouth. The fact that We the People were, in part, gullible, ignorant, fearful and bigoted enough to allow this cretin access to the Oval Office will be an indelible stain on our nation for at least the next hundred years. If this vulgarian and the Party he hijacked with virtually no resistance are not overwhelmingly repudiated at the polls in 2018 and 2020 - America will NEVER be Great again. There. Fixed it for ya.

What seems obvious to me is that Trump is a master of the media. He keeps the spotlight moving, yet it is always shining on him. People are forgetting about Stormy Daniels because he's already on to the next chaotic and yet planned agenda--the border wall and the DACA mess "created by the Democrats." The next day it's tariffs on trade with China or rewriting Nafta. Why does he get to tell the narrative? Why are we always on the receiving end? Democrats need to take hold of the narrative and the media spotlight and keep it.

When a democrat wins a primary the other candidates need to support that candidate. The Bernie Bots and Hillary supporters need to work together to bring this country back to full democracy for all. Forget identity politics. You can change it when in power. Deems, propose solutions that fit your district. Lamb focused on vising as many people in his district as possible. Great! He campaigned on getting help for the opioid crisis that plagues his district. That's how he won. Being a leader means caring about the people you represent and being for the betterment of all citizens. Deems, get your backbones out of storage!

I wouldn't get too excited until the last votes are counted. Lately too many elections have had too many twists and turns. The gods would show their mercy if only voters could temper Republicans and put to an end their madness.

Wishful fairy-tailing here, methinks. Things don't happen while you sit on your hands. Democrats need a LBJ. Someone to summon the deep pockets and with the ability to play politics as clean, or dirty, as needed at the moment. I don't see a LBJ yet.

Why any Democrat wants to impeach Trump is beyond me. It should be blaringly obvious that he's the best recruiting tool for Democrats, bar none. Furthermore, have none of these Democrats not yet gotten a good look at the soporific Pence? The guy is like Trump in that he's hates women’s reproductive rights, and he loves cutting taxes for the rich, throwing money at the military, and straight white American-made bread. But unlike Trump, Pence is a savvy and wholly effective politician. Pence – like the computer Hal from “2001, a Space Odyssey” – soft-spoken, mild-mannered, seemingly trustworthy, but calculating and heartless. And everyone is expendable who’s in the way of Pence on his hellbent drive to achieve an extreme conservative Republican agenda. Or what most of the nation would call a dystopia.

The Democratic party has to craft a plan, a focus, and potential contenders for the presidential title. They have not done all of the above, and till they have a solid plan they will not do much.

Ok, and if you don't win your primary, back the winner and show up and vote. No "Berniecrats". Look where that got us in 2016.

We need more women in Congress. Lord knows we men have done a pretty good job of srewing things up. Who knows? Maybe a female-led congress could go a long way towards fixing things.

Republicans best recruiting tool? DEMOCRATS

Good news. When Democrats challenge each other for nominations I hope that the Democratic Party has the sense to choose the most electable candidate. This time around WINNING needs to be the #1 priority, far above ideological purity. Local races need to be run with an understanding of local needs and desires, NOT based on a national platform. Encourage Bernie Sanders' model for fund raising. It re-affirms that the power lies in the hands of the people, not the elite. The DEMs need to remind Americans that they are OF and FOR the people. They've drifted too far from that in the last 2 decades and now we're seeing the results.

If all the voters who supported Independent candidate Sanders vote for a Democrat in the midterm elections the Republicans will end up a minority in Congress. They still may not be able to impeach Trump but will definitely limit his powers. Unless a miracle happens and Trump changes his ways I think the odds are in favor of the Democrats. Of course Democrats are famous for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory so I am not holding my breath.

Yes, Trump is so awful that he is the Dem's best salesmen, but in the long term, we better offer more than stopping Trump- the last swing of the pendulum only got us 2 years of true power to do anything, so we better have something better to sell this time. The Democrats have to offer a clear to-do list on how they plan to make dramatic changes for the American people. Here's my suggestions. 1 Campaign finance reform. Corporate and plutocratic influence has really reached a tipping point and it is a chaotic, inefficient and undemocratic free-fall the Dems must call out and take on. 2 Universal Medicare- not just to protect the unprotected, but to get costs in line with the rest of the world- to save lives and trillions of $. 3 Defense spending reform. It's time to make a critical evaluation of exactly what America is getting for their money including the competitiveness of contracts and what we are receiving for our bloated budget, while the nations infrastructure crumbles and millions of children attend sub-standard public schools. 4. Criminal Justice reform. If we can't keep our streets safe without putting 5X as many or our citizens in prison as the average wealthy nation there is something very wrong with us. 2-4 can't happen without 1.

Who will end up winning nominations? That will be more telling. Democrats have managed to stay away from identity politics in the special elections. But it's like crack to party leaders.

Although Trump may be the worst president in history, he may be a blessing in disguise. Americans are now beginning to realize how important it is to become involved in the political system and especially to vote. Our democracy is a delicate experiment that can be easily brought down by a demagogue intent on changing it to his advantage. It has to be protected by those that understand how government operates and know history. In addition, for a few decades now, we have allowed invested interests to rule when it should be the people that rule. This may change for the better due to Trump's efforts to make America profitable for corporations at the expense of worker safety and environmental protection.

Thank you, Jonathan Martin and Denise Lu, for taking the trouble to clarify the current position of the Democrats. We wanted something 'New', and this has never been about 'Politics are a dirty game', but all about Trump. If I add it was a failed experiment, it will resound like Jeb Bush sounding like a blighter in dismissing Obama as a failed president. Right off the cuff no less, and enough to determine that this was glib and irresponsible on the part of The Republican vying for office. The Nation needs a leader. We are in a pickle at the moment and let us hope that panic does not follow. If former President Obama has time in his schedule to give the Public his views on a weekly basis on our current State of Affairs, it might give some Americans a better sense of direction. At the moment the political compass is spiraling out of control.

Although Trump may be the worst president in history, he may be a blessing in disguise. Americans are now beginning to realize how important it is to become involved in the political system and especially to vote. Our democracy is a delicate experiment that can be easily brought down by a demagogue intent on changing it to his advantage. It has to be protected by those that understand how government operates and know history. In addition, for a few decades now, we have allowed invested interests to rule when it should be the people that rule. This may change, due to Trump's efforts to make America profitable for corporations at the expense of worker safety and environmental protection.

The large number of Democratic candidates for the House is surely affected by the extreme distaste for Trump among Democrats and women.. But, almost without fail, the number of candidates running is tied most closely to the number of seats considered winnable by the DNC and Democrat donors. There is reason for confidence that many districts not normally in play are winnable this year. That is partly because of Trump's low popularity, partly because of the low popularity of the Republican Congressional delegation, partly because of the large number of Republicans who are not seeking re-election and partly because midterm elections regularly swing to the minority party. So Trump's unpopularity is only one of a number of reasons that a particularly large number of Democrats are running this year.

An even better recruitment tool would be a clear Democratic Party platform with goals like universal health care, clean air and water, investment in public education and infrastructure, with dramatic cuts to corporate welfare and the military industrial complex. "We're not them" doesn't cut it, QED.

During the primary, a lot of registered Independents were frustrated that were were unable to vote for Berney Sanders in the primary because it was forbidden by the Democrats in many states. I wonder how much this surge of democratic registrants might be related to that..