Today's Reading - Waves And Troughs

As always, please go to the links to read the full articles.

Alan Abramowitz sees signs of a Democratic wave election in 2018:

... Jones’s victory reinforces the conclusion, based on the results of numerous special and off-year elections and other leading indicators, that 2018 is shaping up to be a Democratic wave election. 

One of those leading indicators is the generic ballot — a question on numerous polls asking voters if they would prefer a Democrat or a Republican for Congress. Based on an average of recent national polls, a generic Democrat now holds a 10-point lead over a generic Republican. That is the largest Democratic advantage on the generic ballot question since 2008 and, if it continues into next fall, it would predict substantial Democratic gains in the midterm elections. The Republican Party’s problems are far deeper than Roy Moore. 

Note that, as Five Thirty Eight points out,

The average swing in special federal elections has forecast midterm results fairly well since the 1994 cycle.  [snip] 

[H]istorically, the environment doesn’t change much between this point in an election cycle and the midterms. So if you’re a Democrat, Tuesday’s Alabama result is just the latest special election sign that things are looking up heading into 2018.

Infidel 753 looks at the Alabama election and, most importantly, what lessons Democrats need to take from it:

First, let's be clear about what won Alabama for us.  The decisive factor was a massive turnout of black voters. [snip] 

Second, it's worth contesting races even in places which we're accustomed to considering hopeless. [snip] 

Third, just as divisions weaken the Republicans, unity strengthens us. [snip]

Finally, sexual harassment and the mass uprising of women against coddling of harassers is emerging as an issue whose time has come.  Democrats can win on that issue, simply by doing the right thing.  

Democrats, more than ever, are on the right side of history -- not just "right" in terms of the winning side, but most importantly in terms of "simply doing the right thing."

Paleo- conservative George Will observes the situational ethics of the party of Trump/ Moore and concludes:

By basking in the president’s approval, Moore became a clarifier. Henry Adams, great-grandson of the second president and grandson of the sixth, was unfair to the 18th when he wrote, “The progress of evolution from President Washington to President Grant, was alone evidence enough to upset Darwin.” By joining Stephen K. Bannon’s buffoonery on Moore’s behalf, the 45th president planted an exclamation point punctuating a year of hitherto unplumbed presidential depths. He completed his remarkably swift — it has taken less than 11 months — rescue of the 17th, Andrew Johnson, from the ignominy of ranking as the nation’s worst president. 

We can't help but feel Democrats will be energized and highly motivated as they see the continuing rot, the assault on decency and ethical standards, the dismantling of the social safety net, the transfer of wealth to corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and the treasonous obstruction of justice as it builds at the White House and in the Republican Congress. Plus, remember that "arc of the moral universe..."