When you think about the changing political landscape in the United States a few things pop.  Congress is a body with two pieces, and together they are useless.  Meaningful legislation is rarely passed on issues that concern all Americans.  Healthcare, Immigration, Budget Reform, Infrastructure, Campaign Finance, and the list goes on and on.  Then you must think of the dangerous swelling of the Executive Branch.  America looks too much for the President for all things.  For the power to make war on their own without Congressional approval.  For handling nuclear weapons without checks.  For Supreme Court Justice picks.  For lobbying for candidates large and small everywhere.  For hollow Executive Orders bypassing Congress and the people.  For the message of the day.  It has been out of control for some time.  I have convinced myself the one point James Comey wanted to make, in his largely empty tell-all book, is that the Executive Branch has turned into the Mafia.  Which I will admit is a great point that most will not care about or remember.  The House of Representatives has become such a marginal player that the total number of votes is all that counts.  We see today in the Republican Party that even when they are voting on issues that are supposed to be in their wheelhouse infighting reigns.  Pockets of this kind of GOP, and that kind of Conservative, battle it out.  Then whatever they were working on is scuttled before the public knows what happened.  The hard-line immigration bill versus the moderate version is an example.  Paul Ryan forced to retire. Joe Crowley defeated by a newcomer in the #NY14.  The House of Representatives is like that employee who you never know if they will show up for work.  Even if they do, they don’t know what they want and need instructions to just execute the normal.

That leaves the Senate.  A small body of 100 that decides so much.  A body that cannot be manipulated by gerrymandering. A body that has the structure to be held accountable to all voters across the entire state.  Elections were the overall makeup of the state is the voice and decider.  Or it should be.  A body that decides on the future of the judicial system.  The only check on the President in this regard.  They confirm candidates to ruin or run agencies.

For these reasons ALL SENATE RACES ARE NATIONAL RACES.  The term is 6 years and currently the incumbent wins more than 90% of the time.  As someone in a bar said to me recently, “you have to be convicted of murder to lose a Senate seat.”  Very true but that must change.  The Senate controls too much.  Right now, the Senate is flying under the radar.  The turnover rate in the Senate does not match their importance.  Or the speed of change in America.  Unless a Senator is making real change constantly they should NEVER be in office for 40 years or indefinitely.

There are 35 Senate seats up for grabs in November 2018.  11 seats are truly in play.  Right now, it is 51-49.  The Senate swing this year is everything.  No matter which side wins.  The buck stops at the Senate.  That is the way it was meant to be.  There is only 1 US Senator younger than me.  Most of them only know the Beltway because they have been there forever.  Vote them all out and get America running again.  Get involved in Senate races in other states.  Because their vote impacts everybody.  Senators do not just serve their constituents.  They decide everything for everybody.