Democratic Overconfidence/Complacency = Dire Consequences at the Polls in 2014

We watch the right wingnut crazies make what we consider to be their incredible blunders, their ridiculous statements about rape, their never ending war on women in The House and state legislatures across the country and say to ourselves that they are shooting themselves in the foot, that despite their supposed desire to appeal to women and minorities, they just keep sticking that wounded foot into their mouths. We find ourselves believing there is no way they can continue to hold onto The House, and that they will lose control of a # of state legislatures and perhaps some governorships come next year. Maybe.

Keep in mind, though, that they are, via their words and deeds effectively preaching to their own choir. There's a large contingency of their true believers that buy into all of the crap they are spewing. This is the stuff their dreams are made of. Doubtless they feel quite secure in saying what they are saying and doing what they are doing. They are likely looking back at us with just the opposite notion, that not only will they hold onto a majority in The House, but may well gain control of the Senate and strengthen their hold on many of the tates. Republicans obviously feel embolden, perhaps owing to lingering high unemployment numbers and the string of trumped up "scandals" that have hit the White House over the last couple of months, or they just believe that the pendulum will swing back for them in the midterms and hopefully in 2016, or simply that they can't miss because God's on their side. Maybe. But, they believed that virtually down to the wire in the 2012 national election, and some still can't believe they lost, claiming that Obama stole the election , perhaps with the unscrupulous aid of ACORN, an organization that went out of existence long before the Presidential campaign had even begun.

What I fear is overconfidence on the part of Democrats and the Left in general. While a number of Republican spokes persons have made outlandish statements, and Republican controlled state legislatures and state houses have been enacting draconian anti-abortion/anti-contraceptive laws, that would seem to have the effect of splitting the Party and alienating more and more voters, I fear it could be disastrous for Dems to lower their guard.The dumb asses making all the stupid pronouncements about abortion are not the ones directing things behind the scenes. They may in fact be acting as a diversion, a means to get Democrats to relax and take their eye off the ball, as it were. There are a lot of machinations underway that are designed to insure Republican wins across the country via gerrymandering and by enacting Jim Crowe type legislation regarding voting rules and regulations that will effectively disenfranchise a record number of likely Democratic voters, or by other means keep them away from the polls and prevent them from voting. The Reps are involved in what they see as a holy war - very like that being waged against the West by radical Muslims - and they are willing to accept any means, regardless of how unfair, how unethical, or even how illegal, and perhaps even regardless of how violent they may be.

The coming months will be interesting and not a little scary. I simply hope we don't have a repeat of the 2010 midterms when complacent Dems chose to sit on their hands. I hope that what we believe to be missteps by the Reps as in Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and elsewhere will have the effect of galvanizing the Left into action and that they show up in record numbers at the polls despite all the opposition's efforts to prevent just that.