Trump winning is the best thing that could happen to Democrats

[progressive85]

A President Trump would become extremely toxic and unpopular with everyone in Congress.  The divided Republican Party would look so weak and pathetic that it would give Democrats the best midterm election since 2006, and my god are they due for one.

2018 is a pivotal year - governors races and state senates in particular are the battleground for the redistricting in 2021.  If the Democrats can sweep the governors, they will be able to block any Republican attempts to maintain the gerrymandered maps of 2011-2012.

Trump being President would tie him to all Republicans on Capitol Hill, they would have to fight their own President constantly and the name calling and the bitchery would be epic.  As Republicans bloody one another, the Democrats can announce major changes.

First, retiring Nancy Pelosi and putting in someone that cannot as easily be smeared and attacked, someone like James Clyburn of South Carolina, who is pretty quiet and reserved and would also make history as the first black Speaker in history.  Clyburn could hold the Democrats in line.  Get EVERY SINGLE DEMOCRAT in the House and the Senate to pledge to block any Trump initiative, forcing him to deal with Speaker Ryan (with whom he will have a nasty relationship) to pass anything.

The gridlock and the stalemate and the interparty arguing between Republicans will make people wonder "Why the heck are the Republicans still in charge of the House?"  They will be more willing to vote for Democrats, even elderly whites who turn out the most in 2018.

President Trump will allow Democrats to fundraise hundreds of millions of dollars from their donors - the Hillary network, Bernie Sanders' network, Obama's old network, even Wall Street, who I think will get very nervous with the Trump administration.

Democrats really actually do recruiting this time around and get really good candidates.  Don't go after the old Blue Dog districts -- instead, go after the suburban districts.

I think a Trump Presidency would dramatically help the Ds pick up the House, even if it was designed for only republican majorities.

then in 2020 Trump is up for re-election.  This will be another possible wave for the Democrats, who now have control of Congress.  Trump may surprisingly win re-election if he's able to do better in 2019 and 2020.

basically my point is that Democrats will only take back the House when there is an unpopular Republican president or if they win 2018 and 2020 and undo the gerrymanders

The words "President Clinton" should scare the daylights out of the entire Democratic Party.

[Virginiá]

While I believe you are correct in the wave that would follow a Trump win, Democrats are close to forming a massive majority of liberal/center-left judges in the federal judiciary and very close to creating a majority on the USSC - Perhaps even 6-3 if Kennedy ends up retiring within the next 4-8 years (highly likely). That is something we cannot get at any time. If we don't hold the White House, we forfeit a rare opportunity.

Due to the aging of the heavily Democratic Millennial generation, we are set to take back Congress/the House in the 2020s regardless, imo. Once Millennials age more and vote more regularly, there will be a wave of Democratic support overwhelmingly many states across the nation which should begin to even out House elections. Combined with what will be nearly unanimous (85% - 90%) non-white voter support after a failed Trump candidacy, Democrats will be in a strong position to make major gains no matter what in the coming decade.

Federal judiciary is simply more worth it for the time being, in my opinion.

[Torie]

Not if Trump mucks everything up while in office hurting the nation. I would like to think most Dems would not want to hurt the nation in order to then win an election. This hyper-partisan stuff sucks.

[Virginiá]

Yeah, then a recession hits and we have a new Republican generation after the millennials. Don't get your hopes up.

Obama had to endure a lot of blame for the Great Recession even though people do associate the start of it with Bush. Most recessions are not like that one. Reagan had to deal with a recession too, but it didn't stop the conservative tide that swept up that generation. Recessions seem to happen almost every decade, so it's not something that will overwhelmingly hurt a party in power long-term, unless it is a massive recession. It may cost Democrats an election cycle or two, but what the parties stand for and how closely the people align with them matters arguably more. Nixon's catastrophic implosion hurt Republicans big downballot from 1974 - 1976, but they bounced back rather quickly because the public still favored the party and what it stood/pushed for.

As it stands now, Millennials are going to remain a strong Democratic generation and based on the GOP's current position, the next generation is not likely to be significantly Republican. Most of history shows either balanced party support or slight advantages for certain age groups, and only every 15 - 20 years or so do parties pick up major, lasting support (Eisenhower/Republicans, Nixon/Democrats, Ford/Carter/Reagan/Bush1 - Republicans, then Clinton/Bush/Obama generation is pretty heavily Democratic).

Finally, even if the next generation is fairly more Republican, it will take a long time for that to trickle down to Congressional races due to the low participation rate of young voters in midterms. That's how it has always seemed to play out. The pendulum always swings back, so yes, Republicans are going to gain an edge eventually, as they have before.

It would take Trump taking office and  destroying much of the US for what you described to occur.

You mean Democrats taking back Congress in the 2020s? That is already going to happen, imo, regardless if Trump becomes president or not. It probably will not happen as long as a Democratic president is in office due to the issues of making legislative/Congressional gains when your party is constantly being blamed for the country's problems, as is typical for the president's party. The exception I think is that we might get a Trump wave this year, but will probably lose a lot of those gains in 2018.

I think the trigger point would be something akin to Bill Clinton's 1994 disaster. That wave was always going to happen due to the buildup of Republican-leaning voters that were beginning to outnumber Democrats in midterms. The same will happen for Democrats at some point.

[Frodo]

You may be right, but I am an American first and foremost -I love my country more than I love my party.  

I would not wish for a Trump presidency even if it means my party would benefit from it.  

[136or142]

Except that in this case, as much as I think Trump is a total phony, I think he also genuinely believes some of what he says, and I think he's genuinely so erratic he's likely to start World War III.