Republicans need to heed the power of the woman's vote. I fear they are waking the sleeping giant, even if it isn't fair. Right now, women are freaked about the school issue for their children, freaked out about Trump being a misogynist, freaked out by the perception that his picks will end abortion and same sex marriage. They can be a powerful voting block.
I have a feeling this will come back to haunt the mid-terms.
OK, I'm gong to respectfully disagree.
I don't disagree with you that the Democrats played this well. They did, and Warren got to grandstand and play the sexism card, which was the whole point. However, I disagree that this has a real chance to have a major political impact.
First, people have very short memories when it comes to politics. In 2013, the GOP was supposed to be in massive political trouble, becasue they screwed up a government shutdown. (You were around here in 2013, so you know I strongly opposed the shutdown.) It was a public relations disaster (as shutdowns always are for the GOP), but all they've done is win since then. Nobody cared about it in the 2014 midterm elections, and they took back the Senate and expanded their already significant majority in the House. And of course, in 2016 they took back the White House with the most unpopular nominee in history. They lost seats in the House and Senate but did FAR better than they were expected to do. Nobody would call it anything but a decisive win for them.
The point is that 2018 is a long way away. It's hard to keep people freaked out about the Secretary of Education when the schools are still open and still educating kids as well or as poorly as they were before. It's hard to keep them in a rage about same-sex marriage getting overturned when it hasn't gotten overturned and when there isn't even a case on file. It's hard to keep them in a rage about abortion when it's still legal and when there's still a pro-choice majority on the Court.
Second, you are correct that
some will remember all this and still be angry about it in 2018. However, if there's a lesson to be learned from 2016, it's that there are limits to the impact of identity/'outrage" politics. Not every voter (including female voters) makes them central to their voting decision, even if many on your Facebook feed do. Keep in mind that with everything Trump did to screw up his standing with women, he still got 41 percent of their vote and still won the election. The impact of Trump's screw-ups will probably be less in 2018, not greater, because other issues will likely overshadow them and because Trump won't be on the ballot. It'll be individual House and Senate members on the ballot and with a Senate map that strongly favors the GOP. Let's put it this way, a voter who will be angry about this stuff in 2018 probably lives in a solidly blue state and was never open to voting Republican anyway.
Third, to the extent that an undecided or Republican-leaning voter is sympathetic to Warren, that voter's mind probably isn't closed to hearing the other side. And frankly, McConnell's actions were pretty defensible.
