We need a massive GOTV effort if we are to win in 2018
It's clear that the only thing really in our control is to get more people to vote. Half the voters can't be bothered. We need to reach and energize those voters to vote D. Not an easy task when they can't be bothered to vote for anyone at anytime.
But what else is there? Gerrymandering has screwed us across the country. None of that is going to be changed/redrawn by next November. Same with voter suppression. The best we can do is wrap those targeted for voter suppression into a GOTV effort and make sure they get to vote. People need to realize that the Rs will continue to use every play in the suppression playbook - dicey voter rolls, long lines at the polls, electronic vote switching.
Flipping "heartland" tRump voters? Yeah, good luck with that. Flipping Rs? I have a bridge for sale.
Incumbency? Always hard to win against an ensconced politician, especially an R, who under tRump has been given cover to behave more irresponsibly than ever. A pol who might have worried about their negatives taking them down can now point to every negative as a positive if that positive pisses off the lie-bruls.
So that leaves us with GOTV. Of course, the big drawback to GOTV is that you don't know until election day whether your efforts have worked. Getting the cynical to get off their asses and vote is a daunting proposition.
But I think that's where we need to center our efforts and our resources. What's important is that the Ds/progressives start NOW, and not next March.