In step with other recent polls, the USA Today/Suffolk University poll portends trouble for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. USA Today reports:

By close to 2-1, 58%-32%, those surveyed say they want to elect a Congress that mostly stands up to the president, not one that mostly cooperates with him. . . .
If the election were held today, though, those surveyed say they are more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate for Congress than the Republican one by 47%-32% — a yawning 15 percentage-point advantage. Democrats need to flip 24 seats now held by Republicans to gain control of the House of Representatives. Winning control of the Senate is more difficult in a year in which 26 Democratic seats and just eight Republican seats are on the ballot.
“A 15-point lead in the generic ballot — that’s a Democratic House, without a doubt,” said David Wasserman, an analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “That would be a big wave.”

Unfortunately for Republicans, virtually none of whom have chosen to stand up to Trump, it means that voters will be predisposed to vote against anyone with an “R” next to his or her name.

As other polls have also shown, the USA Today poll suggests the intensity is on the anti-Trump side: “Sixty percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president, his highest negative rating in the USA Today Poll since he was inaugurated last year. Thirty-nine percent ‘strongly’ disapprove; just 16% ‘strongly’ approve.”

The issue mix also favors Democrats, with most people saying immigration and guns are the top issues. (Immigration might previously have been a good issue for Republicans but, in this case, overwhelming support for “dreamers” and opposition to the border wall suggest it is the Democrats who have the upper hand.)

Recent polls such as this one should help inform the Democrats’ message in 2018. Trump, they would be smart to argue, has abused his power to favor his own tax situation or has made foreign policy decisions based on his private interests rather than the country’s. Republicans have enabled Trump and refused to demand that he be transparent and accountable for his actions (enriching himself, treating the Department of Justice like his private law firm, hiring problematic relatives, etc.) That, Democrats can claim, is why voters need to cast ballots for every “D.” Without Democrats being in charge of committees, the country will never find out whether members of the administration are abusing airline privileges or wasting taxpayer money (looking at your lovely dining set, Secretary Ben Carson).

To Republican voters, Democrats can make a credible case that a Democratic-controlled Congress would actually better for Trump than a Congress which has allowed him to run amok and has pushed him into extreme positions on guns, health care (i.e., dismantling the Affordable Care Act without reforms to reduce costs) and the dreamers. The right-wing Congress that opposes spending money on infrastructure and is running up the debt makes Trump a worse — not a better — president. Rubber-stamping every flaky nominee means the GOP-led Senate is planting ethical time bombs in the administration. Take a more critical look at nominees and there will be fewer scandals and missteps.

For the midterms, Democrats certainly may choose to focus on discrete issues appropriate to either their districts or states. Health-care costs may be up in one part of the country. Other states’ voters may be fed up with the unresolved dreamers issue. But what ties it all together? No one is holding Trump accountable for his reckless and ethically suspect behavior. Voters say they want a check on Trump; if that is so, Republicans sure aren’t going to be the ones to do it. Whether it’s protecting our election system or preventing a war with North Korea, Democrats are more likely to force Trump to do the prudent thing than the pack of yes-men in the GOP.

And what about impeachment? It is entirely possible there is no final report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III before the midterm elections, although there surely could be more indictments. Democrats should be able to say that it may not matter what Mueller finds because Republicans are not going to hold the president accountable (there’s that word again); Democrats vow that they will be guided by the facts. The exact form of punishment (e.g. impeachment, censure, forfeiture of foreign monies) depends on what Mueller uncovers.

Voters are exhausted by Trump’s antics. They are understandably anxious to have some adult supervision. Given that Republicans have encouraged rather than stopped the bedlam, Democrats can run as the grownups — a steadying force to get us from the midterms to the 202o presidential election. If they can make that case convincingly, they might win over some of those critical GOP suburban voters and pick up a whole bunch of seats.