If the Senate falls tomorrow, start practicing that phrase, because De Facto or De Jure That is what we are facing in the next Congress if it is GOP controlled according to the Washington Post:
Sen. Ted Cruz spent the final weekend of the midterms on the far edge of the country trying to help fellow Republican Dan Sullivan win a race the GOP is counting on in its effort to retake the Senate.
It’s a team-player role the tea party firebrand from Texas has filled a handful of times this fall — but one he plans to abandon if Republicans win control of both congressional chambers.... Cruz made it clear he would push hard for a Republican-led Senate to be as conservative and confrontational as the Republican-led House.
Doesn't That sound like a lovely thing? Just look at his plans
Piggybacking on what House leaders have done, Cruz said the first order of business should be a series of hearings on President Obama, “looking at the abuse of power, the executive abuse, the regulatory abuse, the lawlessness that sadly has pervaded this administration.”
In other words, if you thought you were sick of hearing the GOP chant "Benghazi Now, just wait till next year if Cruz and his boys get to control the Senate agenda. For example, those 9 million people enjoying healthcare for the first time? Better not get used to it if Cruz has his way :
Cruz also would like the Senate to be as aggressive in trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act as the House, which has voted more than 50 times to get rid of the law.
Republicans should “pursue every means possible to repeal Obamacare,” Cruz said, including forcing a vote through parliamentary procedures that would get around a possible filibuster by Democrats. If that leads to a veto by Obama, Cruz said, Republicans should then vote on provisions of the health law “one at a time.”
And while that would be easy to dismiss as nothing more than Cruz throwing out red meat to his base ahead of the 2016 run, he has made a Washington "tell" that he actually intends to make a run at McConnell's job (assuming our girl Grimes doesn't take care of that problem for Cruz:
And when asked whether he would back Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for Republican leader, Cruz would not pledge his support — an indication that there are limits to how much of a partner he’s willing to be.
and after this campaign season he seems to have assembled a real "crew" of loyalists to help him make that push:
Cruz should be able to count on a handful of new friends, if not allies, when the Senate convenes next year. In recent weeks, he has campaigned for Senate contenders who beat Cruz-admiring insurgents in Republican primaries, from businessman David Perdue in Georgia and state Sen. Joni Ernst in Iowa to Sullivan and Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas’s embattled incumbent.
If she wins, Ernst is poised to be a powerful player in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, the first nominating contest in the 2016 race for the GOP presidential nomination. Perdue, who has weak ties to his red state’s GOP base, could hew close to Cruz on some votes to keep conservatives in Georgia at bay. Sullivan, for similar reasons, could do the same.
Now there is one phrase running though this diary that should give you a glimmer of hope:
"IF the Republicans take the Senate"
And that is by no means a a done deal. You know the polls, you know the projections, and many are increasingly grim for us. But here's the thing: Every Polling outfit creates a filter based on "likely voters" that they apply to their results. Turn out is pathetically low during the midterms, yes it is even worse for our side that the other one, but in most cases rarely tops about 30% r so. And thereon lies our one hope. With turnout that low a sudden surge from one side or the other can Dramatically tip races. If we can suddenly turn out a flood of UN-likely voters and get them to the polls, the political landscape can change dramatically.
GOTV efforts have already done all they can. But YOU have not. In the next 24 hours you need to become the largest "peer to peer" crowd-sourced GOTV effort the world has ever seen. Who do you know who isn't going to vote? How do you get their asses to the polls tomorrow? Who do THEY know? How can then be convinced to activate THEM?
Wars are won in the will. And we will win this is w have the guts to do everything we can to mobilize. I know it is poor taste to bring up politics in social situations, to be "that guy " whose FB feed is filled with pointed political commentary, to engage friends and even strangers abut their voting habits.
But that is exactly what is needed TODAY to prevent Catastrophe tomorrow. You have to have the will to be willing to commit the incredible breach of manners to talk about politics in social situations, to risk making a fool of yourself by being passionate about this to infect others with your passion.
Look above. You know what's at stake. What are you willing do do in the next 24 hours to prevent it?