It is not hard to predict what will happen if, indeed, as many of us hope, close polls are narrowly wrong and Democrats sweep the tossups to keep the Senate. Seems to me that it has happened before: that all the close races can fall to one side or the other instead of what you might expect, a split of the tossups.
It won't be pretty.
If the headline reads, Dems Hold the Senate, the outrage and paranoia from the right will be deafening. The Republican base will be absolutely positive that the election they were destined to win was stolen from them, somehow. If you play this out, it could be a very dangerous situation, fueling the right's antidemocratic tendencies consisting of voter suppression, inflammatory rhetoric, threats of insurrection; in general, there will be vastly more energy behind the narrative that has given rise to the hard right in the first place during the Obama presidency. I refer to the overarching narrative of Obama as an alien and illegitimate president; by extension all of us who voted for him or for Democrats are likewise unAmerican.
Of course, in this very diary I am characterizing the right as unAmerican, which is something I increasingly believe to be true. Thus this era's seemingly unbridgeable political impasse, with each side increasingly certain that the other is beyond the pale of legitimacy. If Wednesday's headline reads, Republicans Capture the Senate, won't we on the left feel like they stole it from us with dark money, ugly campaign tactics and the gerrymander?
Win or lose on Tuesday, Democrats face a bleak two years, with only a hideous 2016 election cycle to look forward to. Do you share my sense of dread ahead of the results on election night?