After the Supreme Court decided it was just too hard on everbody not knowing the outcome of the 2000 election and handed it to George Bush, the media and much of the population anticipated a concilliatory administration, lots of cross-the-aisle appointments and bipartisan gestures. What the country got was the Republican version of the spoil system: "We won, we get to do whatever we want and screw the opposition". It's easy to forget now, but this did not go over well with the public. Early in his administration, Bush never came close to cracking 50% in the polls. As we know, 9/11 gave the administration the mandate it never achieved electorally and it used it to bitchslap the Democrats in the midterms. As the wrongheadedness of the administration's policies became apparent in 2004, the Republicans again turned to the playbook; crunch the numbers, find the base that will swing important districts, swiftboat, and suppress oppositions' turnout. When the strategy produced one of the slimmest of victories in presidential elections, once again they governed as if they had achieved a broad mandate.
So here we are facing the fourth "most important election in our lifetimes" in as many cycles and we better have figured it out. The Republicans have always been focused on one thing: winning. Values, Small Government, Security are not tenets of a political philosophy, they are a means to an end. They have no ideals about good governance. By defeating and humiliating the Democrats, they believe they are fulfilling their destiny. Every bit of legislation, every public posture, every position is not based on principle, it is based on winning the next election.
The meme that they are already sending out is that "Dems are poised to take the House and Senate". That means if we don't take both the House and Senate, it represents a stunning repudiation of Democratic policies and another broad mandate to stay the course. If we get 14 House seats and 5 Senate seats, you know what we got? Bupkiss. They are going to go to the mat for that 0.5% majority and if they get it, they will crush us. We now know what that means. It will be ugly. Karl Rove has been liberated from indictment hell and now he will have all the spreadsheets in front of him. Anticipate Swiftboating at strategic moments that defy response, pushpolling in rural districts, whisper campaigns, direct mail, and yes, voter suppression.
We can't be intimidated, because we've seen it before. But this is a fight for survival. We can't simply read online polls that support our candidates and say "Oh thank God, people seem to be waking up finally". It is too early and a storm is still to come. This is the fight of our lives. We have to respond to every punch with a kick in the groin, every knife with a bazooka. We have to show them a Democratic party they don't know exists. The beauty of the 50 state strategy is that it allows for flare ups in races that weren't on the Republican maps, and when they flare we've got to pour gas on the flames. We have to fight every fight and play smash mouth. We can always reclaim our civility when Republicans are the minority party.
It is time to win. We can't deride "winning ugly". If we win, believe me it will have been plenty ugly. We just can't afford to lose this time.