So What Happens Tomorrow?

Let's game out the possibilities.

Liberals have to be prepared for the worst. It is possible that "our" best isn't good enough. That despite nearly unprecedented energy and motivation from Democrats this time around, voter suppression, gerrymandering, straight up corruption and ballot tampering, foreign interference, and ever present republican ratfucking will fit Lady Liberty for cement shoes and drop American democracy into the drink. The gloating from your republican "friends" will be beyond unbearable. The damage to the country will be unimaginable.

Elections are so tricky. When I was in college, political science classes always claimed that midterm elections were stable and that incumbents had a 90%+ chance of reelection. The conditions that make for a wave are hard to assemble, but an unpopular president and complacent party of enablers in Congress are pretty good pillars to build that wave. But we've never had a "majority" (ho ho!) party so openly and brazenly rig the rules. In the unruly nineteenth century elections were pretty corrupt, but it was equally so in most cases. Except in the post-Reconstruction South, where intimidation and outright murder was often the order of the day by ex-Confederates of African-American officials overseeing elections of storing ballots.

If Democrats take back some governor's mansions and statehouses but fall short of a majority in the House of Representatives then you can probably just write of the Federal Government, from Social Security and Medicare to what's left of federal agencies. Donald Doughface will have succeeded in the lifelong republican dream of completely destroying the one institution that could hold the corporate elite accountable. Any progress the states make under Democratic leadership will be crushed by federal power intrusion and the illegitimate supreme court. Maybe people will remain engaged and motivated to try again in 2020, more likely they will give up and resign themselves to misery and ruin. Then the few of us who remain active may finally admit that this is an occupied nation. No other force would take over a country and strip it of resources, drive it into unprecedented debt, wreck every function, and strive so hard to placate it's supporters. It's as if the mafia took over and is getting ready to burn it down for the insurance money. Oh, duh. That probably will happen soon too.

If many states see state level gains by Democrats, a large percentage of those nearly one thousand legislative seats and governorships lost during the Obama Administration, then a lot of the gerrymandering and voter suppression can be undone. At least the conditions for free and fair elections can be restored. It was strategic state level investments by project REDMAP in 2010 by republicans to capture whatever levers of power to draw the maps they needed to take over a majority of seats with a minority of voters. This is the level of farce we have been living in since at least 1994, an entire generation of minority rule.

A gain of 25 seats in the House of Representatives will mean that committee chairs pass to Democrats, the Speaker's gavel goes to a Democrat. It means that Democrats will set the agenda. It will mean Democrats have subpoena power and can get moving on the investigations needed to uncover the criminal conspiracy of the occupying force. Retaking the Senate is realistically out of reach. THAT WAS WHY ALL OF YOU JACKHOLES SHOULD HAVE VOTED IN 2016 EVEN IF HILLARY DIDN'T "INSPIRE" YOU OR WHATEVER RUSSIAN-INSPIRED NONSENSE YOU BELIEVED AT THE TIME.

*Ahem* Sorry about that digression. I'm just unimpressed that it takes a fascist takeover of our country to get people to finally take notice. That is the most important thing tomorrow. STAY AWAKE! You and I and everyone we know have to stay involved, informed, and ready to vote again. Next time and every time. Evil thrives on apathy and division.

Whatever occurs tonight, don't you dare pretend ever again that politics doesn't affect you. Or that both sides are equally bad, or that you don't want to bother because it's only the lesser of two evils. Democrats have flaws but Republicans are a death cult of human suffering, their evil is on a completely different plane. Tomorrow if Democrats retake the House expect a unified chorus from Doughfacedonny on down the right wing noise machine about fraud and illegitimacy. Expect constant efforts by the lame duck devils to bury the bodies and wreck everything they can before leaving. If they leave.

This election season was a battle. Tomorrow will be a battle. When the new Congress and legislatures are seated will be another battle. Democracy is worth the fight. Fascism needs to be defeated.