The obvious targets for either a bipartisan Trump outreach or for disciplinary efforts by progressives are the Democratic senators up for reelection in 2018 who represent states carried by Trump. There are ten<\/em> of them: Bob Casey (Pennsylvania), Joe Manchin (West Virginia), Bill Nelson (Florida), Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Debbie Stabenow (Michigan), Joe Donnelly (Indiana), Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), Claire McCaskill (Missouri), Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota), and Jon Tester (Montana). You might imagine some of these states are not reliably Republican in the future, but the flip back to the Democrats won\u2019t be automatic, either, in a midterm election when the turnout dynamics have recently favored Republicans.<\/p>\n

Now, Sherrod Brown and Tammy Baldwin and probably Debbie Stabenow are not the sort of Democrats who will be hankering for a way to show Trump voters they\u2019re not all bad, and Bob Casey has his own appeal to white working-class voters that doesn\u2019t necessarily depend on bipartisanship. But the rest of these vulnerable Democratic senators could waver.<\/p>\n

And if they do, what exactly is \u201cthe tea party of the left\u201d going to do about it? Joe Manchin, for one, would probably pay<\/em> for left-bent protests against his \u201ccentrist\u201d heresies in West Virginia, and would definitely welcome a progressive primary opponent to triangulate against. Heitkamp\u2019s state went for Trump by 36 points<\/em>; Tester\u2019s, McCaskill\u2019s, and Donnelly\u2019s by 20 points or slightly less. Does anyone think a candidate more progressive or partisan than any of these worthies has a prayer of carrying their states in the immediate future?<\/p>\n

At some point, would-be members of a \u201ctea party of the left\u201d need to come to grips with the fact that the \u201ctea party of the right\u201d had more geographical material to work with. \u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This narrative is the sort of thing that has resonance with politicians \u2013 and for good reason. Prospects for the type of opposition party solidarity that we need if we are to hold off and undo the damage done by the Trump election may very likely be undermined by politicians like McCaskill who are not only skilled at playing the odds, but believe it is their only option apart from self-sacrifice.<\/p>\n

But then again, nothing\u2019s ever a done deal until its done. McCaskill might surprise us all and go down trying to hold the bridge. She might not even go down if she gets some help and does a good job on that bridge.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TPM\u2019s checklist of those who support or oppose House Speaker Paul Ryan\u2019s phaseout of Medicare has been updated to show that Claire McCaskill is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":645,"featured_media":35219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[767,1815],"tags":[2829,193,1499,1669],"yoast_head":"\n