Outrage as City of Huntington Park Appoints Two Illegal Aliens to Civic Commissions (VIDEO)

The approving hard-copy headline at this Los Angeles Times report reads, "Huntington Park Charts Bold Path for Immigrants."

But actually, it's just one more example of how California has metastasized into one big sanctuary-state monstrosity.

At Twitchy, "Wait, wut? Illegal immigrants appointed to city council in Huntington Park, Calif."

And at CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "Tempers Flare When Huntington Park Appoints 2 Undocumented Immigrants to City Commissions."

Arizona Released 260 Illegal Alien Criminal Offenders in 2013 (VIDEO)

These sanctuary policies need to stay in the news right through November 2016.

The Dems will be hit hard.

At ABC News 10 Phoenix:

Border Invasion! Majority of New California Drivers Licenses Issued to Illegal Aliens!

Our whole state is just one big illegal alien sanctuary!

At the San Bernardino Press-Enterprise, "Most new California licenses go to drivers in US illegally":

California officials say more than half of new drivers’ licenses issued in the state this year have gone to people who are in the country illegally.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles reported Friday it has issued roughly 397,000 licenses under a state law that allows people who are in the country illegally to apply for licenses to drive. The law went into effect in January.

That’s more than half of the total 759,000 licenses issued in the first six months of 2015.

Supporters of the law say giving licenses to people regardless of their immigration status makes the roads safer for everyone. Opponents say people who are not in the country legally should not be rewarded.

Applicants must pass driving tests and show proof of residency and identity.

Palestinian Immigrant Girl Breaks Down in Tears as Angela Merkel Tells Her She'll Be Deported (VIDEO)

Heartless.

And everyone wants a better life. If you're a genuine refugee, you should have a chance. Looks like this young lady is going through the proper channels, or else she wouldn't be attending an official function with the chancellor.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "‘You Can’t All Come': Palestinian Immigrant Girl Bursts Into Tears After ‘Heartless’ German Leader Angela Merkel Explains Personally to Her on TV Exactly Why She Must Be Deported."

California's Latino Plurality Points Toward Change to Come

Latinos have overtaken whites in California's population demographics, although I don't think it's as breathtaking as folks might think. Parts of California have been most Mexican for decades, and it's not good. It's just now that official statistics are catching up.

At the Los Angeles Times, "As Latino population surges, gaps in income and education may shrink":

Yolanda Garcia's grandparents migrated from Mexico and worked multiple jobs — in farm fields and school cafeterias — to save money to send all six children to college.

Garcia's father attended Brown University and had five children. In turn, she graduated from UC Santa Cruz, worked as a teacher and now runs a gallery and boutique store in Whittier selling Latin American folklore art and other items.

Along the way, the family moved up the ladder, from South Los Angeles to the upscale Friendly Hills neighborhood of Whittier. They were the first Latinos in their immediate area. Now, there are four other Latino families there.

The Garcias' story represents a common California immigrant dream. But it's far from the reality for all Latinos, who the U.S. Census Bureau now says have surpassed non-Latino whites to become California's largest ethnic group.

The milestone is a reminder of the huge strides Latinos have made, but also of the challenges they still face.

Overall, Latinos have lower incomes, education and job skills than the average white Californian.

The Latino plurality is just a preview of the demographic shifts ahead. Latinos make up half of all Californians younger than 18, numbering 4.7 million compared with 2.4 million whites, according to census data.

This younger generation has a chance to close many of these gaps, with many achieving more than their parents.

A study published last year found that second-generation Mexican Americans in California and Texas had achieved more education, higher earnings, less poverty, more white-collar jobs and greater rates of home ownership than their immigrant parents. Only about 21% of Mexican parents had completed high school, for instance, compared with 80% of their children by 2005.

"It's extraordinary the progress that Latino youth have made relative to their parents, but they are still lagging behind," said USC professor Dowell Myers, one of the report's authors. "We need to recognize how important these people are and how urgent their success is for the well-being of everyone."

Marilyn Padilla represents the hope in this next generation.

She is the child of a Honduran immigrant mother who worked as a cocktail waitress and never attended school. Her father was deported before she was born. But Padilla stayed out of trouble growing up in Boyle Heights and is now studying linguistics at UC Santa Cruz, with ambitions to become a Spanish teacher.

"We have come a long way," she said. "We are starting to put down the stereotypes about us. Now we are becoming equals, we are doing that for ourselves."

The Latino population surge is leading the way in what demographers call a "grand experiment" in making California the most dynamically diverse state in the nation's history...

Keep reading.

Governor Jan Brewer: Everybody Knows Donald Trump is Right

Of course he's right. The left is complicit in the murder of Kathryn Steinle.

Watch, at CNN: "Former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer: Everybody knows Trump is right."

What Explains Donald Trump's Appeal?

It's not hard to explain.

Still, this was a front-page story at yesterday's USA Today.

See, "What explains Donald Trump's appeal?":

If economic inequality is a problem, erosion of traditional values is a fear, and the Hispanic vote is pivotal, what explains the political rise of a twice-divorced, thrice-married, gold-plated New York real estate buccaneer whose previous best-known utterance — "You're fired!" — is rivaled now by inflammatory comments about Mexicans and immigrants?

Donald Trump was second behind Jeb Bush in a CNN/ORC national poll of Republican presidential candidates released last week, and No. 2 in polls in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. "Not unimpressive,'' says Peter Brown of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, "for someone new to electoral politics.''

Brown and other pollsters are quick with caveats: Trump got a bounce, probably ephemeral, from his highly publicized presidential announcement; his share in a crowded GOP field has not topped 12%; and the things that got Trump this far probably ensure he won't get much further.

"Will Trump fizzle?'' asks pollster John Zogby. "I'd bet the Iowa farm on it.''

But Trump has tapped into what the writer Richard Rovere once called "dark places of the American mind'' — fear of, or frustration over, threats abroad and unfairness at home.

With his wealth (he claims to be worth precisely $8,737,540,000), fame (14 seasons on NBC's reality show The Apprentice), and chutzpah ("The American dream is dead … but I will bring it back'') there's no one like Trump in U.S. politics, says historian John Baick — "not now, or ever.''

Analysts and fans say these perceived traits help explain Trump's political appeal...

Click through for all the factors explaining Trump's appeal, including candor, leadership and independence and incorruptibility.

Interestingly, this piece came out before PPP put Trump in first place in North Carolina, getting 16 percent of the support in the GOP field.

O'Reilly Factor: Jesse Watters Shames San Francisco Supervisors Over Kathryn Steinle Murder (VIDEO)

This was epic.

At Fox Nation, "Jesse Watters Confronts San Francisco Politicians, Holds Up Picture Of Murdered Woman: 'Look Into Her Eyes!'"

Circular Firing Squad in San Francisco as City Officials Get Hammered for Illegal Alien Sanctuary Policy

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "Lee slams Mirkarimi for not talking to immigration officials":

Why did feds return pier shooting suspect to S.F.? Sheriff's Department asked them to: http://t.co/Sf9GIQULOr pic.twitter.com/yNgDcLeW06

— SFGate (@SFGate) July 9, 2015

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has deflected blame in the release of a Mexican national now facing murder charges in the Pier 14 slaying by demanding to know why federal authorities returned him to San Francisco to face a 20-year-old marijuana charge in the first place.
The answer, it turns out, is that the Sheriff’s Department asked federal officials to do so.

Mirkarimi’s agency requested custody of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez as he was completing a 46-month stint in federal prison in March in San Bernardino County, according to a Sheriff’s Department letter obtained by The Chronicle. Lopez-Sanchez had been deported five times to Mexico and had been imprisoned for illegally re-entering the U.S.

The federal Bureau of Prisons alerted the Sheriff’s Department in March that Lopez-Sanchez was going to be released. Mirkarimi’s agency, realizing that Lopez-Sanchez was wanted on a $5,000 bench warrant related to a 1995 marijuana possession-for-sale case, asked prison officials March 23 to hold him and to notify San Francisco authorities “when the subject is ready for our pick-up.”
“Also, please notify us if the hold cannot be placed or the named subject is released to another jurisdiction prior to our receipt,” said the letter, signed by Vic Gaerlan of the sheriff’s warrant bureau.

Lopez-Sanchez arrived in San Francisco on March 26, and the marijuana case against him was discharged the following day. He was returned to jail, however.

Prisoner in legal limbo

For the next three weeks, sources with knowledge of the matter told The Chronicle, sheriff’s deputies sought clarification from the department’s legal division on whether to hold Lopez-Sanchez so Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials could pick him up for possible deportation. ICE had requested that the city detain Lopez-Sanchez.

In the end, the legal division told deputies they had no basis to hold Lopez-Sanchez, and he was released April 15. He was arrested last week in the July 1 shooting death of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle on San Francisco’s waterfront, and has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

Mirkarimi’s office did not immediately comment on the letter. It initially scheduled a news conference for Thursday to “set the record straight” on Lopez-Sanchez’s release but called it off late Wednesday “out of respect for Kate Steinle’s funeral services.”
In an interview Tuesday on KQED radio, the sheriff questioned why Lopez-Sanchez had been sent to the city.

“We’re trying to understand why ICE returned Sanchez to San Francisco on a 20-year-old marijuana possession charge in a city that really doesn’t even prosecute marijuana possession … and knowing that he had been deported and illegally entered the country,” the sheriff said.

Freya Horne, legal counsel for the Sheriff’s Department, told The Chronicle on Tuesday that her office had dispatched a private transportation outfit to pick up Lopez-Sanchez.

“It seems kind of amazing that after all that time, he was brought back here for that purpose,” Horne said.

Joseph Russoniello, former U.S. attorney in San Francisco, said the city’s request to take custody of such an offender was “very unusual.” He said sheriff’s officials could have checked with local prosecutors about the case and opted not to intervene.

“They had the capability to examine the status of the file and determine whether or not to pursue the matter or move to cancel or withdraw the warrant,” he said.

The Sheriff’s Department letter came to light on the same day that San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee attacked Mirkarimi, saying his decision to cut off even basic communication with federal immigration officials led to Lopez-Sanchez’s release.

Mirkarimi has said a 2013 city law designed to protect people without immigration status — a law signed by Lee — mandated the April release after the local charges against him were dropped.

But the mayor said the sheriff’s office could have satisfied both city and state law by simply picking up the phone and asking immigration agents to come over and pick up Lopez-Sanchez before the “serious, repeat” felon was set loose.

“I’ve sent that message over to the Sheriff’s Department regarding communications with the federal authorities,” Lee said at a news conference. “Do we need to educate somebody on how to pick up the phone?”

Lee said Mirkarimi “needs to read the entire ordinance” the mayor signed in 2013. The law prohibits most inmates suspected of being in the country illegally from being held for ICE after their scheduled jail release. The 48-hour holds are known as detainers.

Jeez, who's on first?

Still more.

Ted F'king Cruz!

He wasn't in the news yesterday, but Jeb "Amnesty" Bush was, heh.

Cool.

TED f'KING CRUZ #StandWithCruz or Get MCCAINED, ROVED OVER & JEBBED IN THE EYE AGAIN #Cruz2016 pic.twitter.com/BBdrfwKADc @IngrahamAngle #lnyhb

— SpreadButter (@SpreadButter) June 16, 2015

Adios, America! The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole

I'm at the college for my last full teaching Tuesday for the semester.

Shop for Ann Coulter's book at Amazon. She's been making quite a splash.

BONUS: Also excellent is Coulter's, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.

More blogging tonight and throughout the summer!

Leftists Push for Release of Woman and Children from Illegal Alien Detention Centers

So far officials are resisting the depraved leftists, but it won't be long.

Our "sovereign" borders are meaningless nowadays.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Pressure builds to release mothers and children from immigrant detention centers":

Federal officials face increasing pressure to stop detaining immigrant families and release more than 1,300 mothers and children.

At least 600 families — many of whom fled violence in Central America — were being held at three federal detention centers, officials said recently.

As of April, half had stayed there less than a month and 70% for less than two months, according to a law enforcement official who asked not to be identified because the official was unauthorized to speak publicly.

More than 4,500 individuals were in family detention centers from July through April, the official said, with 67% of them released and 664 removed from the country.

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee became the latest group to call on the government to end family detention. The group's leaders posted a petition on their website Friday demanding that the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement release the children and mothers, including a woman who had attempted suicide and others who were pregnant.

"Neither ICE nor the private owners of its family detention centers are capable of providing the levels of care for vulnerable people like pregnant mothers that are even marginally acceptable by any humane, legal, moral or American standard," said Rachel Gore Freed, a program leader with the group who has visited the Karnes City, Texas, detention center.

Officials said a woman at the Karnes City detention center was under observation after suffering a wrist abrasion, but they denied there had been miscarriages or attempted suicides.

Gillian Christensen, an ICE spokeswoman, said the agency "takes very seriously the health, safety and welfare of those in our care."

The agency "is committed to ensuring that all individuals housed in our family residential centers receive timely and appropriate medical screenings and treatment," including "pregnancy screenings at arrival, onsite prenatal care and education, and remote access to specialists for pregnant women who remain in custody," she said.

Some pregnant women have been released, but decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, she said.

Last month, 136 Democratic members of Congress called on Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to stop confining families. "We cannot continue to hear reports of serious harm to children in custody and do nothing about it," they said. "Detaining mothers and children in jail-like settings is not the answer."

An 18-year-old court settlement is complicating the situation. Flores vs. Meese required the U.S. to release migrant children or house them in the "least restrictive environment."

Immigrant rights advocates have sued, contending that family detention violated the Flores settlement...

More.

The Unitarian Universalists are communists working to destroy the United States. What better way than to organize the invasion of aliens from Latin America, people who don't speak English, who don't share American values, and who will flood the social welfare agencies in a Cloward–Piven attack on the system? And these aliens will vote Democrat eventually, further propelling the Marxist-Leninist evisceration of this once great nation.

Man, we're doomed.

Ann Coulter Takes On Pro-Amnesty Media

From Brent Bozell and Tim Graham, at NewsBusters:

Ann Coulter has another best-selling book coming out, provocatively titled Adios, America! The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole. One major target of Coulter barbs is our “objective” media.

Lord knows Coulter understands they deserve the hectoring. News reports are slavishly sensitive to the Latino Left’s political correctness. Start with the terminology. The factual term “illegal immigrants” is somehow an extremely mean-spirited description, even though that’s 100 percent accurate. They claim to prefer less loaded lingo. Like “Dreamers.”

Coulter took exception to a New York Times story from last November reporting that a Mexican-themed restaurant in Fort Collins, Colorado called “Illegal Pete’s” was hounded by leftists to change the name, even though it was named for the Anglo business owner’s father.

A group calling itself “Race Forward” bizarrely claimed in the Times that “illegal immigrant” is “a tactical term promoted by anti-immigration groups starting in the mid-2000s. The epithet, the group said, is dehumanizing, but quickly moved into the mainstream.”

This is preposterous. Coulter reported a quick search of Nexis found 3,000 uses of the term “illegal immigrant” in The New York Times alone before the year 1990. It’s like pretending the term “Hispanic” emerged in news accounts in 2005.

Then there’s the loaded media polls. A November 2014 NBC-Wall Street Journal poll used this typical lingo: “If a proposed pathway to citizenship allowed foreigners staying illegally in the United States the opportunity to eventually become legal American citizens if they pay a fine, any back taxes, pass a security background check, and take other required steps,” would you favor it?

With all those conditions, 74 percent said yes. But Coulter points out that these kind of provisions for back taxes or background checks have been summarily eviscerated by government agencies in past “reform” laws, like the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli bill signed by Ronald Reagan...

Here's the link to Coulter's new book, Adios, America! The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole.

Rick Perry Lays Groundwork for Likely Presidential Bid

I like him.

He's one to keep an eye on.

At WSJ, "Perry Stakes Out Nuanced Immigration Stance Ahead of 2016: Outgoing Texas Governor Stands By His Support of Discounted Tuition for the Undocumented":

AUSTIN, Texas—As Gov. Rick Perry lays the groundwork for a likely presidential bid, he is standing by a Texas law that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public universities—a policy that drew opposition within his party in his previous campaign.

When Mr. Perry sought the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, he memorably suggested in a debate that those who opposed the Texas Dream Act don’t “have a heart.” Now, with the benefit of hindsight and months of preparation for a probable 2016 White House bid, the governor, who leaves office in the coming week, says he chose the wrong words but was right about the policy.

His stance suggests he will stake out a nuanced position on immigration in a future campaign at a time when many Texas Republicans are advocating a repeal of the in-state-tuition law, and as President Barack Obama ’s recent actions delaying deportations have stirred anger among GOP activists and lawmakers.

“I said they didn’t have a heart, and that was a really bad choice of words,” Mr. Perry, 64 years old, said during an interview at the governor’s mansion this past week. Of the Texas law, he said: “I still support it.”

Mr. Perry’s comments come as more than a dozen Republicans with eyes on the White House are taking steps toward launching 2016 campaigns. Mitt Romney , the 2012 GOP nominee, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have signaled strong interest in the race, potentially adding two formidable candidates to an already crowded roster.

Sounds wishy-washy. He obviously can't repudiate his own record, but it's going to hurt him in the primaries.

Keep reading.

Central American Migrants Allowed to Stay in U.S. Go Missing, Fail to Show Up at Deportation Hearings

Well, here's an "I told you so" follow-up from last summer's blogging on the Central American illegal immigration onslaught, when I predicted that alien migrants wouldn't be sent back home. See, "Few Central American Illegals Will Ever Be Sent Back Home — #BorderInvasion," and "Wave of Unaccompanied Alien Children Swamps the United States — #BorderInvasion."

And now, via Blazing Cat Fur, "U.S. shocker: Illegal Immigrant Families With Deportation Orders Go Missing."

Californians Rising Up Against Obama's Lawless Open Borders Amnesty

Shoot, good thing.

Folks on the grassroots are standing up to Obama's lawlessness.

At LAT, "President Obama's executive action has served as a recruiting tool for groups opposing illegal immigration":

For years, Raul Rodriguez Jr. would let out an exasperated sigh, then move on, whenever he read or heard news about illegal immigration. But something clicked last summer when he saw reports of multitudes of Central Americans illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

"I've got to do something," Rodriguez, 72, said he told himself. "I've got to get off the couch and need to get people involved."

Rodriguez crafted signs denouncing illegal immigration for various rallies, including one in Murrieta a few days after busloads of Central American detainees were turned back amid vocal protests.

After President Obama announced his immigration reform plan last month, the Apple Valley resident started contacting congressional leaders to express his displeasure.

California's anti-illegal immigration movement has lost a lot of steam in the 20 years since voters passed Proposition 187, the ballot measure intended to deny taxpayer-funded services to those in the country illegally.

Polls consistently show that Californians don't see illegal immigration as the same type of threat they did in the 1990s, and a September USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll showed 73% of voters support some type of path to citizenship for those here illegally.

But the last few months have shown that the anti-illegal immigration forces remain small but potent — and a movement that backers hope will get stronger with Obama's action.

Tactics this time are changing. Robin Hvidston, president of We the People Rising, a Claremont organization, said her group and other California activists have focused on targeting congressional leaders outside the state because they know there's little they can do here.

"They see their only hope being the national government," said Roy H. Beck, who heads NumbersUSA, a powerful national advocacy group opposing illegal immigration. "They don't see a solution coming from inside California."

Monrovia's Vinyl Technology Inc. Fires 240 Illegals After ICE Crackdown: Open-Borders Shills Decry 'No Justice, No Humanity'

You know, maybe Vinyl Technology Inc. shouldn't have employed hundreds of illegals? Or, maybe the border jumpers shouldn't have broken U.S. laws through illegal immigration?

But no. It's a racist "silent raid" to enforce U.S. immigration laws. Man, so pathetic.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Monrovia defense workers say they were forced out after ICE audit":

When Raymundo Lazaro showed up for a shift last week at Vinyl Technology Inc., a Monrovia defense contractor that has employed him for the last 18 years, his boss took him aside.

Lazaro, an immigrant from Mexico who came to the country illegally 23 years ago, was told he didn’t have paperwork showing he was authorized to work in the United States. Fix it immediately, Lazaro said the boss told him, or sign a letter of resignation.

Lazaro, who had been using falsified employment eligibility documents, had no choice but to quit. “I did my best every single day,” he said Thursday. “And like that they called me in and gave me the boom.”

He is one of 240 immigrant workers at the company who have been pressured to sign resignation letters in recent weeks amid a federal audit of the company’s hiring practices, according to former employees of the company and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, an immigrant advocacy group.

At a news conference Thursday at CHIRLA's headquarters, the workers called on the federal government to stop such investigations into workers' eligibility while President Obama weighs major changes to federal immigration policy.Obama promised in June to take executive action on immigration that many hope will allow millions of people in the country illegally to stay in the United States and legally work.

The president recently announced he will not take any such action until after the November election."There’s no mercy, no justice, no humanity in the implementation of our broken immigration laws,” said Xiomara Corpeno, CHIRLA's director of community education and outreach, who described the federal investigations of companies as "silent raids."Since Obama came to office in 2009, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has changed its approach to cracking down on companies that employ workers lacking authorization. Gone are the dramatic early-morning raids on factories and warehouses that were a hallmark of the presidency of George W. Bush, when armed agents routinely detained hundreds of workers, many of whom were eventually deported.

Now the agency conducts quiet audits of employees' I-9 documents at companies believed to have hired unauthorized workers, with the emphasis on the employer's violations, not the immigrant's.

Arrests of workers have fallen as the amount of fines the agency has collected from employers has risen.

Overall, the number of workplace investigations initiated by ICE fell dramatically in the last year, from 3,903 in the 2013 fiscal year to just 1,963 in the 2014 fiscal year, which ends next month.

The decrease can be attributed to budget cuts at the agency, according to an ICE official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter enforcement of immigration laws, said ICE is being too soft on immigrants here without permission and the companies that employ them.

"Audits are an important, but you need to also have work-site arrests," he said, adding that companies that employ unauthorized workers take jobs away from Americans.

"There’s an enormous supply of American workers who are not only unemployed but who have dropped out of the labor market all together," Krikorian said. "The idea that there’s not enough bodies to do the work here is laughable."

Leftists Sour on Obama

Well, not all leftists have soured on him. Some idiot progs will take their dying breath defending this epic fail of a presidency.

But O's hardcore support has definitely been eroding, especially among young people and moderate- to middle-class income Americans.

At the Hill, "Liberal base sours on Obama."

Tressy Capps Receives Death Threats Over Mexican Flag Video

Tressy sent me the video when she first posted it to YouTube. I blogged it here, "'This Isn't Mexico ... This Is America...'"

Here's the report at FOX 11 News Los Angeles, "A Fontana city council candidate berated a stranger for flying a Mexican flag in her front yard."

Also at CBS News Los Angeles, "Woman Irate That Neighbor Is Flying Mexican Flag In Her Front Yard."

Also national media coverage, at Fox News, "California city council candidate receives death threats over Mexican flag flap."

Taking a position on an issue does not make me evil, racist or unethical if I disagree with your position. Make a mental note.

— Tressy Capps (@tlc2tweet) September 24, 2014

Control of the U.S. Senate Hasn't Been This Unsteady Since the Post-Civil War Era

From Ronald Brownstein, at National Journal, "THE VOLATILE SENATE":

Instability is a constant in the modern Senate. After the 1980 election, Republicans controlled the chamber for six years (until 1986); Democrats held it for eight (through 1994); and Republicans regained control for six, until the 2000 election divided the chamber exactly 50-50. The next two years saw the parties trading the gavel (as a GOP defector provided Democrats a temporary majority) before Republicans regained control in the 2002 election. But they held that advantage only until 2006, when Democrats won the majority Republicans are now threatening.

This turbulence contrasts with the 26 years of uninterrupted Democratic Senate control from 1955 through 1980. Earlier in the 20th century, Republicans and Democrats each ran off 14-year streaks of unbroken control. From 1895 through 1912, Republicans posted an 18-year reign.

Control of the Senate hasn't been this unsteady since the decades after the Civil War. It's no coincidence that was another period, like ours, of intense economic and social upheaval as America was reshaped by reinforcing waves of industrialization, immigration, and urbanization. And yet even then, the Senate wasn't unstable for as long as it has been since 1980.

The Senate is now flipping so frequently partly because neither party can amass much of a cushion even when it gains control. From 1959 through 1980, the Democrats held a Senate majority larger than 10 seats in all but one of the 11 sessions; since then, the majority party has accumulated an advantage that large only three times in 17 sessions. These thin margins have left the governing party unable "to sustain their majority ... when things go badly," notes Brookings Institution senior fellow Thomas Mann...

More.

Brownstein should know, by the way. He's the author of The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America.