Is another “silent red wave coming?”
That’s the question being asked Friday morning by Rasmussen Reports as the results of a new survey reflect the political atmosphere just before the 2016 presidential election that saw the surprise defeat of Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the birth of the crybaby resistance.
Rasmussen is reporting that 60 percent of likely Democratic voters “say they are more likely to let others know how they intend to vote this year, compared to previous congressional elections.” This contrasts with the 49 percent of Republicans and 40 percent of independents, and there could be a big “oops” in the making.
According to Rasmussen, 77 percent of Republicans say they always vote in the midterms, while 71 percent of Democrats participate, and 63 percent of independents vote.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
“The real story on Tuesday will be which side turns out even more than usual,” Rasmussen observed.
Looking back, in August 2016, Rasmussen recalled, 52 percent of Democrats were more likely to disclose how they were voting while 46 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of independents revealed how they would vote. The country saw the result on Election Night, when a devastated Clinton could not even bring herself out to talk to her tearful campaign supporters.
All of this begs the question. Fox News is reporting that Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) have great expectations for Tuesday. Are they overconfident? Is America about to surprise them once again?
The midterm is seen by many as a mandate on the president, even though Donald Trump is not on the ballot. But according to Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll, Trump’s job approval rating is at 51 percent. Combine that with a soaring jobs report released Friday that shows a gain of 250,000 jobs in October, including 32,000 manufacturing jobs, and voters heading to the polls Tuesday may wind up voting for their wallets, not for pie-in-the-sky promises from a party that has failed to deliver in the past, is considered the “party of gun control,” and is seen by many as having nothing on its plate beyond obstructing the president.
According to CNBC, “The ranks of the employed rose to a fresh record 156.6 million and the employment-to-population ratio increased to 60.6 percent, the highest level since December 2008,” according to the Labor Department.
With all of these factors to consider, including Pelosi’s promise that gun control would be high on the agenda if Democrats take back the House, voters in may districts just might be inclined to stay the course. Conservative voters have not forgotten the spectacle of the hearings on Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and they blame Democrats for demagoguery and disruption never before witnessed during a Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
Clinton never saw the red wave coming in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and a couple of other states she took for granted. Her party just might be making the same error again.
Tuesday will sort all of this out, and if Republicans and conservative independents return their ballots or jam polling places, it might be a long night for Democrats.
