One Texas Republican makes a dire forecast for Republicans in 2016. He even says that those screaming about Benghazi are “idiots.”
The 2014 midterms were not as successful as the GOP talking heads at the FOX Entertainment Complex would have you believe. There was no mandate. The majority of Americans stayed home. That isn’t great news but 2014 was no Republican landslide.
Texas Republican Chris Ladd penned an article in the Houston Chronicle that paints a dismal picture for the next two years and predicts that the “Blue Wall” guarantees a Democratic victory.
Ladd wrote, “What are we getting from Republicans? Climate denial, theocracy, thinly veiled racism, paranoia, and Benghazi hearings. Lots and lots of hearings on Benghazi. We’re about to get two years of intense, horrifying stupidity. If you thought Benghazi was a legitimate scandal that reveals Obama’s real plans for America then you’re an idiot, but these next two years will be a (briefly) happy period for you.”
This Blue Wall Ladd describes is a block of states that “No Republican Presidential candidate can realistically hope to win.” In 2014, New Hampshire changed the electoral map in favor of the Democrats.
Ladd explains:
“… at the outset of any Presidential campaign, a minimally effective Democratic candidate can expect to win 257 electoral votes without even trying. That’s 257 out of the 270 needed to win.
Arguably, Virginia now sits behind that wall as well. Democrats won the Senate seat there without campaigning in a year when hardly anyone but Republicans showed up to vote and the GOP enjoyed its largest wave in modern history. Virginia would take that tally to 270. Again, that’s 270 out of 270.”
Ladd continued, “By contrast, Republicans control a far more modest Red Fortress, which currently amounts to 149 electoral votes.”
In the 2014 midterms, Republican senate candidates lost every single election behind the Blue Wall. Each and every Democratic ballot initiative won – even in the red states.
Democrats were at a disadvantage in 2014 because they had to defend thirteen senate seats in red or purple states. That all changes in 2016. Republicans will have to defend twenty-four senate seats, and at least eighteen of those states are “likely to be competitive based on geography and demographics.”
Democrats will be defending ONE seat in 2016 that might…MIGHT…be competitive.
So, my dear liberal brethren, when you are at odds with GOP trolls online or your right-wing Uncle Ted at the holiday dinner table, remind them of Ladd’s warning and tell them to enjoy their victory while they can.
Watch Lawrence O’Donnell break it all down with visuals. 🙂
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