For people who don’t hate their fellow citizens or fear refugees might be lurking in their drywall, there is an endless list of reasons to want Donald Trump to lose in a historic landslide that would at least reminiscent of Obama’s sweep of 2008 — coattails and all.
Here are a few:
- Trump deserves nothing less and far worse
- If it’s close at all we’ll get months of his whining about something being rigged, which means more Trump
- It’s the best hope of injuring the movement that has gleefully embraced Trump’s bigoted demagoguery
But the most important reason Hillary Clinton needs to win big is to execute her agenda, which requires her to be able to appoint Supreme Court justices the way all presidents used to be before Republicans decided their party was dying so it wasn’t worth preserving democracy.
If there’s one lesson of the last year it’s that justices can die at any time and Democrats can’t expect to fill a vacancy if they don’t control the Senate because Republicans really, really DGAF about anything but taking over the Court and undoing a century of progressive gains.
Research shows we’re likely to see at least one liberal member of the Court retire in Clinton’s first two years in office. That would mean two likely appointments that would help shape the first left-leaning Court in generations. It also means a third appointment, if it happens, would likely be after her 2018 election. That’s a problem.
If Clinton barely wins, you can expect Democrats will take Indiana, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire too, giving them the slimmest majority. In a healthy victory, Democrats could take Ohio, Florida and Nevada as well — a 53-seat majority.
Here’s why that’s a problem. This is the 2018 Senate map:
Democrats face as many as 11 tough Senate races in 2018 and only 5 of them are in states that Obama won twice. Give Democrats every Obama state and they’re still likely to see a 53-seat majority sink to 47.
Democrats only hope to avoid this daunting odds going into an election when Democrats tend to stay home and the president’s party tends to lose seats? A landslide victory in 2016 that includes Senate pick-ups in North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia or Missouri, leaving the party with a defensible majority of 56 seats.
How do we make this happen?
You can support bunch of progressive Senate candidates at once — including Ann Kirkpatrick in Arizona, Patty Judge in Iowa, Jason Kander in Missouri, Deborah Ross in North Carolina, Tammy Duckworth in Illinois, Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire, Ted Strickland in Ohio, Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania and Russ Feingold in Wisconsin all at once through Daily Kos’ endorsements.
If you can’t donate, volunteer.
If you can’t volunteer, share this link and remind people that if they care about voting rights, reproductive rights, labor rights, LGBTQ rights, fighting climate change, and ending Citizens United, a functional Senate is our only hope.
