Channeling Rip ...

Democrats are still widely favored to win control of the House in the November midterm elections,
but Republicans have gained a new structural edge through their redistricting efforts.
Credit Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Dealing with the political nightmare we find ourselves in is akin to salmon swimming upstream to spawn as it's not just the fierce currents they face, it's the predators. From sea gulls to eagles to bears and foxes, it is simply amazing these magnificent creatures make it prior to dying, thus fertilizing their environment as their last great gift to nature when going to the great beyond.

Just two weeks ago, Democrats felt increasingly emboldened about taking control of the House in November after seeming to fight the redistricting wars to a draw.

But two court rulings — one by the Supreme Court and another by Virginia’s top court — and an aggressive new push by red states to carve up congressional maps have delivered the Republican Party its biggest burst of momentum in many months.

Put bluntly, Republicans have roughly 10 more House seats that favor them than they did just 10 days ago, and Democrats are suddenly grappling with a new landscape.

“This is now clearly closer than it was just a week and a half ago,” Representative Brendan Boyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said of his party’s chances to retake the House.

As I have said to my friends ... I wish I was Rip Van Winkle able to go into a deep sleep.
Upon waking up after 20 years, this disastrous state of affairs would be but a memory.
One can only hope.

 

1875 illustration of Rip Van Winkle by Thomas Nast