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The midterms are going to be a bloodbath for Democrats. The Democrats are going to get trounced in the midterms. The question isn't whether the Democrats are going to lose but by how much.

These are the headlines circulating across the media these days, and they are sure to only increase as we get closer and closer to November's midterm elections. Pundits across the political spectrum are predicting that Democrats will lose their majorities in the House and Senate. Delighting in this accepted "wisdom," Republicans have stopped even pretending to govern while they wait out the clock to election day, and now even some Democrats have begun to parrot this narrative of imminent defeat.

Seriously!?! Since when in an election cycle do we just skip over the voting?

Democrats have helped create more jobs at a faster rate and at higher pay than at any time in recent decades. Democrats have helped vaccinate hundreds of millions of Americans against COVID-19 and infection rates are plummeting. After decades of bipartisan shortcomings, Democrats have delivered historic investment in universal broadband, rail expansion, and road and bridge repair, with all the careers to be made and futures to be built from these accomplishments yet to come.

Meanwhile, President Biden has united fractured western democracies against Russia's brutal aggression in Ukraine and put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court while he's at it.

And while the Democrats have been achieving all this, Republican voters attacked the nation's Capitol to overturn an election at the bidding of President Trump; Republican legislators sent vigilantes to patrol women's health choices in Texas; and Republicans turned students into snitches on teachers in Virginia, moved to overturn the will of the voters in 19 states and nominated one conspiracy theorist after another to every level of government. Republicans also blocked every reform and relief package they could, from gun safety to energy security to voting rights. They demeaned a highly qualified nominee to the Supreme Court just for fun, praised dictators in Russia and Hungary, and offered no positive agenda for the country or the world.

The 139 Republican members of the House and Senate who voted in 2020 to support a coup here at home will finally have to answer to voters in November.

And still the pundits say Democrats will lose the midterms!?!

Political pundits and consultants are always confident and usually well-meaning, but often wrong. And that how it should be. After all, in a true democracy, the outcome belongs to voters, and voters alone.

Democrats would do better to quit whining about poor messaging and poor media coverage and get back to engaging directly with voters. Folks are anxious about rising gas, housing and grocery prices, not to mention the cost of medicine. They are also uneasy about the state of the world. However much Republican policies may be at the root of what ails us, however much Democrats have accomplished already in the Biden administration, people are genuinely and understandably frustrated that so much wrong is not yet right.

Democrats should feel that, see it, acknowledge it. That is not failure. It's motivation.

The case for voting for Democrats in the midterms is not to reward Democrats for what they have already accomplished, but to enable Democrats to finish the job.

The job is to revive the American Dreamfor everyone, everywhere. That's what the changes that have been made and the ones that are waiting to be made add up to, and why they matter.

No matter how much progress has already been made, Democrats can't let up on doing the work to earn every vote. That means showing up where voters live, work, play and pray, listening carefully, and engaging respectfully on the subjects they most worry about.

When we show them by our actions, not just our rhetoric, that for us government belongs to and is about people, it becomes clear pretty quickly that Democrats are the only ones even trying to fix what's broken and deliver a chance at a good job, decent, dependable healthcare, a safe, affordable place to live, a more secure nation, and a better future for every American everywhere.

So, Democrats, how about we quit wringing our hands about polls and pundits, and about media who dwell on what's not yet done? Instead of trying to forecast the future, let's do what we can to shape it. That's the way to win, and to deserve to win.

Deval Patrick is the co-chair of American Bridge 21st Century and the former two-term Democratic governor of Massachusetts.

The views in this article are the writer's own.

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Democrats: Stop Whining About Polls. We Have the Record to Win in November | Opinion - Newsweek