Was 2012 the election Dems should have lost?

[dw93]

50/50 chance the Democrats lose the Senate. Obamacare likely gets repealed with no replacement, as repeal AND replace didn't become a thing until Obama secured a 2nd term with Obamacare on the ballot. A Tax Cut for the wealthy as large or larger than Trump's is passed before November of 2014 and Scalia and Kennedy are replaced before then as well. A neoconservative foreign policy makes a comeback with Romney to. After that, Romney rides a recovering economy to a second term in 2016 and replaces RBG this year, though Romney replaces her with someone more qualified and less controversial than ACB.

An 8 year Romney Presidency, which is a less "compassionate" version of George W. Bush with dashes of Trump's immigration and China polices, ends with millions of people not having health insurance, a 6-3 Conservative Supreme Court, a war in Iran and/or Syria, a recession and a pandemic (though one he handles better than Trump).

[dw93]

50/50 chance the Democrats lose the Senate. Obamacare likely gets repealed with no replacement, as repeal AND replace didn't become a thing until Obama secured a 2nd term with Obamacare on the ballot. A Tax Cut for the wealthy as large or larger than Trump's is passed before November of 2014 and Scalia and Kennedy are replaced before then as well. A neoconservative foreign policy makes a comeback with Romney to. After that, Romney rides a recovering economy to a second term in 2016 and replaces RBG this year, though Romney replaces her with someone more qualified and less controversial than ACB.

An 8 year Romney Presidency, which is a less "compassionate" version of George W. Bush with dashes of Trump's immigration and China polices, ends with millions of people not having health insurance, a 6-3 Conservative Supreme Court, a war in Iran and/or Syria, a recession and a pandemic (though one he handles better than Trump).

I have a hard time seeing them hold the senate with the six year itch. It hasn't happened since 1966.

The Dems would definitely win the Senate by then and would likely win back the house sometime between 2014 and 2018. That said, Romney could do a lot of damage in the 2013-14 time frame and peal off Manchin types from the Democratic party on certain pieces of legislation.

[dw93]

There has been no election since at least 1928 that the country was better off because the Democrat lost.

And I say 1928 not because the Republican was better (Al Smith was actually the first time in a while where the Democrat was clearly leagues better), but simply because it was probably necessary for Hoover to f—k up and take all the blame for the Depression for FDR to come in and save the nation.

Given hindsight wouldn’t you say 1976 was a bad election for democrats to lose win given what happened in 1980(not only presidential but congress too) and 2004 was good that you lost as well given the 2006 and 2008 landslides vs the possibility of Romney/McCain getting in 2009 with filibuster proof of senate

Fixed that for ya. 1976 was the one election the Democrats won that I wish they lost for the reasons that you said as well as the fact that Ford would've handled (even if only slightly) the late 70s better than Carter did, and I'm also glad we lost in 2004, again, for the reasons you listed here.

As for the election the Democrats lost that had no silver lining to said loss, it was 2000. Gore would've handled 9/11 (if it even still happens) worlds better than Bush did, there'd be no invasion of Iraq, no Bush Tax cuts, we'd have gotten the ball rolling on Climate Change, and there'd be a far less severe financial crisis in the late 2000s, and that's even if Gore ends up a one term President. Don't get me wrong, 2016 was a bad loss, especially with hindsight given the events of the last year, but even that election loss had some silver linings (Dems retaking the house in 2018, GOP gerrymandering post 2020 not being nearly as bad as it could've been, Trump accelerating Suburban trends to the Democrats).