Nov 4, 2014.  By the time the Republicans were forced to hand the country back to the Democrats, the economy was in shambles.

• Half of all stock value had been wiped out.
• A third of home values had been lost.
• The American auto industry was 1/3 gone and in accelerating decline.
• The banks were still mainly frozen.
• The national debt had set an all-time record that still holds — a $1.1 trillion increase in 100 days (between July 30 and Nov 9, 2008).
• Afghanistan was festering, bin Laden was thumbing his nose at us, and Bush had installed a Shiite strongman (tied to Iran) in Iraq, who would only allow American troops if they submitted to Iraqi law — was not gonna happen.

Obama and the Democrats changed all that. The far left likes to belittle the $800 billion stimulus, which likely prevented the second Great Depression, and created 2 to 2.5 million jobs even according to ultra-right economist Peter Merici. And they like to dump on Obamacare (already a success) because it’s not “single payer” and had early computer problems. This has discouraged many.

But what the Democrats did in the face of Koch funded Tea Party fanatics and ultra politicos like Mitch McConnell who, in the middle of the recession announced that his main objective was to make Obama a one-term president, is nothing short of astounding. And almost all of what they accomplished was due to Obama’s carefully strategic leadership. Yes, he compromised. But he got the job done.

And this is all part of a very old pattern. Not even one House Republican voted for the stimulus — talk about putting politics before your country. That’s how they’ve been since the 1930s. And a majority of House Republicans wanted to let the Banking Industry collapse. That’s even worse than George W. Bush.

This anti-government attitude is why job creation has gotten worse every time Republicans took the presidency for the last 85 years, and better every time the Democrats took it back. This is no small effect. The job-creation rate was three times higher under Democrats over the last 75 years. Take a look at all five graphs on the front page. Republicans are quite simply a drag on the whole country and only help the rich.

There’s only one chance in four that McConnell will not take control of the Senate. But surely you can brave those odds and go vote when the stakes are so high. If you don’t, you will have only yourself to blame for what lies ahead.