Hardly a clean slate as 2018 gets underway

majorities in the Senate particularly and in the House may be in jeopardy.

The president, whose support of GOP nominees in Virginia and Alabama failed to avert defeat, has vowed to put his campaign talents to work through the new year to hold on to those congressional majorities.

The same midterm elections are being targeted by Democratic campaign organizers and planners in many Republicanheld districts, buoyed by the Virginia and Alabama elections, and especially the latter. There, Trump came out loudly but to no avail in defense of Roy Moore, the accused serial sexual harasser of young girls.

Trump’s own history of sexual harassment, aired during the presidential campaign, was featured in last year’s #MeToo movement of outspoken victims, dubbed by Time magazine its “Person of the Year.” The Democrats are counting on the phenomenon to energize their efforts in key GOP-held districts.

To a major degree, the Democratic Party was thrown into a state of despair over Trump surprise win. It now is obviously depending on its own perceptions of Trump’s personal behavioral manners, and his thrashings of the Obama administration, to turn the 2018 midterms into a referendum on the impulsive and erratic president.

Just as important, however, the Democrats need to sharpen their own agenda to appeal to middle-class voters rather than relying on opposition to Trump to recover from the defeat at his hands in 2016.

Many Democratic voices, such as former Vermont governor, presidential candidate and national party chairman Howard Dean, are calling for new faces who will appeal to the younger generation to emerge.

Dean, 69, said the other day on MSNBC that older party leaders should “get the hell out of the way” and let someone younger run the country. The references are obviously to 2016 contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, 76, and former Vice President Joe Biden, 75, who has indicated he’s not inclined to run but hasn’t closed the door either.