If voting didn’t matter, Republicans wouldn’t mind if your vote counted.

The safest bet in the world is that Democrats will win the popular vote for the House on November 6 the way they have won the popular vote in the last 6 out of 7 presidential elections. But they could still easily lose the House majority.

Republicans starting off with a couple million votes banked to their advantage because of gerrymandering and the sick design of the Senate is just one example of the asymmetric playing field that defines modern politics.

Republicans have figured out how to insulate themselves from the press, the electorate, and even the truth. And though Donald Trump has exploited every advantage that conservatives have spent crafting, he’s invented almost none of them — unless you consider manufacturing a “racist conspiracy theory of the day” and repeating debunked lies to be innovations.

In his new book An Uncivil War - Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics, Greg Sargent describes the current environment as “Thunderdome Politics” and he does a masterful job of not only explaining how we got into the mess but how we might be able to get out.

We wanted to talk to him about what makes Trump unique, why Trump’s whining may actually be a good sign and how Democrats can fight back without becoming the monsters we oppose.

Greg Sargent on Twitter: ThePlumLineGS.

The Plum Line at The Washington Post is HERE.

Purchase An Uncivil War - Taking Back Our Democracy in an Age of Trumpian Disinformation and Thunderdome Politics HERE.

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The Good -- McConnell Set the Stakes

The Kaiser Family Foundation: KFF Election Tracking Poll: Health Care in the 2018 Midterms

Dan Mangan at CNBC: The GOP's health-care bill is a polling disaster, with voters much more likely to punish Senators who support it

The Bad -- The Trump administration wants to delete transgender people from existence

Neal Broverman at The Advocate: Trump Admin. Preparing to Deny Trans People Exist, Erase Protections

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1054059683110182917

The Shrugly ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- Polls. Again.

Todd Spangler at The Detroit Free Press: Races for Bishop, Trott seats too close to call, say new polls

https://twitter.com/ChadLivengood/status/1053264061796925440

https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/1054036665528913921

The show notes for Episode 18 of The GOTMFV Show are at