2012 was a victory for progressives:

We now have Elizabeth Warren in the U.S. Senate

We knocked out a number of Tea Party Republicans out of the House (including the jerks Joe Walsh and Allen West)

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Healthcare Act.

More states are moving (whether slow or fast) towards recognizing marriage equality for all.

Legalization of marijuana was approved by voters in Colorado and is now being heavily debated nationwide.

The NRA now is kicking itself in the foot and its President is making an ass out of himself.

Finally, even people like Virgin Group founder and chairman Richard Branson are criticizing the war on drugs and now debate is finally being made on how to resolve the pointless drug wars that have been going on for years, from the U.S. to even Mexico.



There's of course many other things I could mention as far as accomplishments. However, right now as much as additional accomplishments will be made during President Obama's second term (whether they are done by him or others), my eye is focused solely on one thing:

2014

That's right. Ever since this whole fiscal cliff deal has happened at the last minute and still needs to get approved by John Boehner and the House, my frustrations have not been directed at President Obama (although I sympathize with those in the liberal community are frustrated at him) but rather at the fact that the GOP still control the House and we couldn't knock off enough Republicans out of the House in the November 2012 elections.

That is why I believe we should start preparing now for the November 2014 mid term elections. I will refuse to sit still and let 2014 turn into another 2010, when the Democratic Party did probably the most horrible PR campaign ever with regards to the Affordable Healthcare Act and in turn, lost a considerable number of seats in Congress (as well as progressive hero Russ Feingold losing his U.S. Senate seat to a man who couldn't get his MBA degree because he didn't have and still doesn't have time to finish the thesis).

A number of you want to focus on the U.S. Senate seats, my eye is solely on the House of Representatives. The following people and seats should be targeted, whether the districts are deep red, not winnable or not:

House Speaker John Boehner (aka John Boner)



House Majority Leader Eric Cantor



Darrell Issa



Patrick McHenry



Michelle Bachmann



Steve King



Joe Barton



Louie Gohmert



The ENTIRE Tea Party Caucus (all of the Tea Party Republicans, every last one of them)

Paul Ryan (the con man)



Jason Chaffetz (yes, work DAMN hard starting now in Utah and shake up the would-be progressive Utah Democratic Party)



Don Young



Doug Lamborn



All the Republicans who narrowly won in 2012 must be defeated in 2012

Vern Buchanan



Tom Price



Kevin Yoder



Ed Whitfield



Andy Barr



Andy Harris



Steve Daines (since there are two U.S. Senators from Montana who are Democrats, might as well focus on picking up the only House seat available in Montana)



Richard Hudson (he beat the would-be Democrat Larry Kissell, now we must focus on beating him with a real Democrat in this NC district)



Kevin Cramer (might as well focus on the only North Dakota House seat, currently in GOP territory)



Scott Garrett



Steve Pearce (clean house by replacing him with a Democrat. New Mexico is becoming more blue)



Mark Amodei and Joe Heck (same process here as in replacing Steve Pearce: Cleaning house. Nevada is becoming more blue)





Peter King and all the House GOP representing NY (clean house)

Greg Walden (yes, there is red territory in Oregon but why should the GOP even have a seat in the state? It's super blue)



Keith Rothfus, Scott Perry and bunch of others in the House representing Pennsylvania (wipe them out)

Kristi Noem (same process as in Montana and North Dakota)



Joe Wilson (take him out too)



Tom Rice



Marsha Blackburn



Ted Poe



Jeb Hensarling



Randy Weber



All GOP in Washington State (just turn the state deep blue already!)

Jim Sensenbrenner (get rid of him already!)



David McKinley (shake up West Virginia)



Shelley Moore Capito's seat (she's running for U.S. Senate in West Virginia and of course she'll lose)

Cynthia Lummis (Gary Trauner should have won when he ran. Now either get him to run again or frickin get another person to run)



All current House members in California besides Darrell "Darth Vader" Issa

Trent Franks



Every Republican who voted for the budget and deficit increases during the Bush administration

One thing to keep in mind: There were a LOT of narrow races that weren't won by Democrats. All those races should immediately be put on the radar.

Also, for those races where the Democratic House candidates got anywhere between 41%-45% for the final votes and lost, they should be targeted as well. This includes:

Jerry Tetalman, who ran against the richest man in Congress, Darrell "Darth Vader" Issa Christine Vilsack who ran against Steve King

Rob Zerban who ran against Paul Ryan and really should have won

Jim Graves who ran against Michelle Bachmann and was just about to send her backing

Wayne Powell who ran against Eric Cantor and should have gotten more support from the DCCC

Anyway, I don't want to continue on with this. You know what to do and obviously we want to AGAIN, not turn 2014 into 2010 but 2012 redux and BETTER.

Oh and of course, elect as many progressive Democrats as possible.

Feel free to add any comments to this debate as it's important to start planning ahead.