Looking Beyond the 2016 Election...

I'm convinced that Hillary Clinton will be inaugurated as President next year. My confidence in that is extremely high. I think we'll also get a slim majority in the Senate, too. That's terrific! But what then?

In 2018, there will be another election. Democrats have a lousy record of turning out in mid-term years. Remember 2010 and 2014? In 2018, what should happen is attaining a filibuster-proof Senate majority and getting majority control in the House. But will that happen? My confidence level for that isn't as high, frankly. Unless we repeat our high turnout from 2016, what happened in 2010 and 2014 could easily reoccur. We could lost ground, instead of gaining ground. Let's please not do that. Let's think about that long and hard.

Then, in 2020, there will be yet another election. Hillary will be running for her second term. If we don't screw up in 2018 and fail to increase our Senate majority and to get a majority in the House, we could be in a position to turn the Republican Party into a true minority party that would take years to turn around. We could attain dominant majorities in the Congress. We could do that, for real. It's possible.

If we maintain a high turnout in 2018 and 2020, Democratic coattails will also improve our position in many state legislatures. If we do. And in 2020, we're having another national Census, just like we did in 2010. The following year is when legislative district boundaries are drawn, typically by state legislatures.

Remember happened with the 2010 redistricting? Gerrymandering favoring Republicans happened, partly because Democrats failed to go to the polls in large enough numbers. That could easily happen again.

Ladies and Gentlemen - It is not enough to win the presidency every four years. That's just the beginning. To make real progress, we have to win majorities in our federal and state legislatures, too, and we have to do that every TWO years. We must continue to turn out. We must continue to GOTV. We must do those things even if we are bored with the President. We must do those things because we cannot have progress without Congress and state legislatures on our side.

Let's resolve to put progressivism first in every election year. Let's not skip mid-term elections any more. Let's just not do that. Instead, let's redouble our GOTV efforts in those non-presidential election years. That would matter more than anything else we could possibly do.