So Here's the Thing about Demographics

To deal w harassment & filth spewed at GOP MOC’s in tough seats every day for 2 yrs, bc of POTUS; to bite ur lip more times you’d care to; to disagree & separate from POTUS on principle & civility in ur campaign; to lose bc of POTUS & have him piss on u. Angers me to my core.

— Ryan Costello (@RyanCostello) November 7, 2018

Of course, pissing into the tent isn't going to help, either.

Demographics are supposed to be the salvation of the Democratic Party, only like the horizon or the future, it's always just a little ways off from helping.  Like the horizon or the future, it's never going to be reached, and we should quit expecting it to change the nation.

Let me put it this way:  I assumed millenials like my daughter, having grown up in a post-civil rights movement America where even the "n-word" is a word barely used (not the word "n*gger," the "n-word" as a euphemism). where racism was not being taught anymore and interracial couples didn't even need to be called "interracial couples" anymore, that racism would soon fade.  Then came Charlottesville.  Well, that was a lesson in itself.

Racism is a part of American culture, and I've come to think of culture as something best understood as genetic, or in the water, or simply endemic to a community in any time or place.  The old people who stood in the way of the Boomers, are now the Boomers standing in the way of the Millenials.  I'm old enough to remember when giving 18 year olds the vote was going to change American politics.  Instead we got Jimmy Carter, and then Ronald Reagan and four years of George Bush.  Sure, I was excited that voter registration among 18-29 year olds was up 500% in Texas; turned out twice nothing was still not enough something for a true revolution.  Two or four or six years from now, those "kids" will be old enough to probably vote for Ted Cruz again, if not for Trump and the GOP in Texas in the meantime.  I had thought racism would be a marginal force by now, thanks to demographics.  So much for that expectation.

So what do we do now?  Beto 2020?  Sure, why not?  Kind of hard to watch Donald Trump so ungraciously argue with a CNN reporter (and about what?  Does the man have no other work to do, that he can be so petulant?  I'd be embarrassed for a family member acting that way in front of the TV at Thanksgiving) and think "That guy deserves my support!"  As TPM (and others) have pointed out, the Democrats biggest statewide wins came in states that gave Trump his electoral college victory.  And what about Trump's immigration rants?

First, as noted by @maggieNYT the true hardliners lost. Barletta and Stewart’s message never came close to resonating. And then there is Kobach (!) https://t.co/FvlQUjMVRM

— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) November 7, 2018

Further, Bill Schuette in Michigan, Scott Walker in Wisconsin, and Scott Wagner in PA all ran anti-immigrant ads like these. All lost pic.twitter.com/Ui8jaNJxO3

— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) November 7, 2018

Then there is the House. They tried in Iowa against Axne and Finkenauer, both Obama-Trump districts. Dems won both seats. pic.twitter.com/PcXb6MwCon

— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) November 7, 2018

Gourevitch has other examples of  "garbage" appeals to fear that failed to win their candidates the election.

And I need to point out that, if you look at the map, Texas looks deep red except for the blueberries of the major metropolitan areas (no, it's not Austin alone, as some believe).  Look at the numbers, though, and Ted Cruz won by just over 100,000 votes.  Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, but Beto, with no name recognition when he started, came very close to unseating an incumbent GOP U.S. Senator in Texas.  You can call this kind of thing abject failure; or you can call it a beginning, and look for the momentum.