Anyone else feeling so confused by this cycle?

[windjammer]

I agree with the whole sentiment.

It's like if both Biden and Trump are still on the ballots.

[RI]

It feels a lot like an inverse 2018 to me, with Dobbs replacing the Kavanaugh fiasco as the nationalizing motivator which keeps the out-party from seeing the floor fall out. And, like 2018, the in-party may net seats in the Senate.

[Progressive Pessimist]

I agree with the whole sentiment.

It's like if both Biden and Trump are still on the ballots.

Yet recently the referendum seems to be turning into one on Trump. He is dominating the news cycle in a bad way as Biden is seeing his fortunes change. And to make matters worse Republicans running all across the country do not seem to care about appealing to those beyond the Trump hive-mind.

I'm not saying that this is permanent, but for now it's part of a very obvious changing dynamic with these midterms this year that are defying historical patterns.

[pikachu]

This is a tbqh dumb way of putting why I feel the vibe is weird, but if you look at the aggregate predictions over time on the Atlas main site, all of the Senate midterms show Atlas getting increasingly bullish on the out-party's seat count as we got closer to the election meaning we all started with the assumption of an even election before realizing there was a wave coming. With 2022, I think the consensus here has been some type of R wave for awhile (because as we've learned since 2006, of course that's what will happen), and that hasn't really panned out in the data so far so we're now adjusting our expectations in an unfamiliar direction.

Ultimately, I think that's what making people feel weird - we've gotten used to a certain type of midterm narrative since 2006 and so far this cycle hasn't really fit that, so we're all trying to figure out what's happening.

[MT Treasurer]

Tbh, there’s so much that doesn’t make sense about this cycle and honestly confuses even me at this point that it might just be that voters are trolling us and making our wildest dreams come true by finally giving us our long-desired....

CANDIDATE QUALITY WAVE.

Get ready for Fung, Golden, Fetterman, Flores, etc. all winning in November..

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Tbh, there’s so much that doesn’t make sense about this cycle and honestly confuses even me at this point that it might just be that voters are trolling us and making our wildest dreams come true by finally giving us our long-desired....

CANDIDATE QUALITY WAVE.

Get ready for Fung, Golden, Fetterman, Flores, etc. all winning in November..

Flores is a horrible candidate

[Xing]

Tbh, there’s so much that doesn’t make sense about this cycle and honestly confuses even me at this point that it might just be that voters are trolling us and making our wildest dreams come true by finally giving us our long-desired....

CANDIDATE QUALITY WAVE.

Get ready for Fung, Golden, Fetterman, Flores, etc. all winning in November..

Senators Ryan and Smiley will surely give each other high-fives as well.

[The Arizonan]

Tbh, there’s so much that doesn’t make sense about this cycle and honestly confuses even me at this point that it might just be that voters are trolling us and making our wildest dreams come true by finally giving us our long-desired....

CANDIDATE QUALITY WAVE.

Get ready for Fung, Golden, Fetterman, Flores, etc. all winning in November..

Senators Ryan and Smiley will surely give each other high-fives as well.

Too bad Tim Ryan didn't make it.

[jamestroll]

A big part of the reason this midterm feels so strange is that the out-of-power party typically reinvents itself (in some stylistic/rhetorical way at least) and breaks away from the brand that lost the last Presidential election, whereas in this cycle's case they have doubled down on it. I can't remember the last time that happened.

This is exactly what I thought.

I did not get into the whole granular details and discussions about individual races or the general mood. After VA-Gov  2021 I was worn out and did not want to get into arguments with anyone. I literally told I few people that "the gop will gain 33 seats" just to avoid argument and make them go away.

Enough votes knew that inflation had too many external factors to completely blame it on Biden, and it is not like the GOP presented any plans to reduce inflation.

Screaming about a stolen election by some parts of the GOP about an election that was not actually stolen was not helpful.