It is widely assumed Republicans are poised to take control of the Senate, strengthen their hold on the House and completely dominate politics on Uranus and Neptune. It is also widely assumed that this is because President Obama is so unpopular, with barely over 30% of the people approving of the job he’s doing. Of course, only about 10% approve of the job Congress is doing. What gives?

What gives is, from the first day of his presidency six years ago the sole strategy of nihilist Republicans has been to do nothing and blame the Kenyan, socialist, black guy for everything. And to be fair, the “let’s reason together” law professor has seemed flummoxed by an opposition uninterested in any achievement other than his elimination.

There’s sure a lot to blame somebody for and, as president, Obama naturally gets to be the goat. He tried to get our troops out of the snare engineered by Bush/Cheney in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet lo and behold there are still Islamic fundamentalists haunting the region. The more we drone, the more they want to destroy the West.

This is all clearly Obama’s fault. He should have left more troops behind to serve as ISIS targets. Folks like Lindsey Graham say because Obama hasn’t committed to another gigantic ground expedition into the heart of darkness, ISIS, Assad and all other Islamic evildoers will come here and kill 310 million of us in our beds, which will require a lot of beheading. But clearly, Graham is right. We’d better immediately invade all countries who harbor people hostile to us and kill all of them. At last count, this was about 130 countries.

The VA, which has been screwed up and underfunded for decades, is still screwed up and underfunded. More so than ever because there are more aging and wounded Vets to take care of. Obviously this is Obama’s fault since he tried to get us out of war. He must be hostile to warriors. Yet oddly enough, it is the job of Congress to write budgets, appropriate funds and oversee the performance of departments like the VA. I guess no one told them that — or they were too busy raising campaign contributions.

Ebola is rampant in West Africa and a few brave journalists and healthcare workers have contracted it. We have brought them home in an attempt to save them. And so far, one foreign national has come here after being exposed, has shown symptoms that were initially ignored, and died.

Texas Governor and presidential wannabe Rick Perry has called for an infectious disease task force now that his state has bungled the case, and fellow Republicans have implied the Obama administration has been too lax in not cutting off all flights from Africa or too foolhardy in sending American troops to Africa to help. In other words, it is all because of his Kenyan father, though Republicans may bear part of the blame by cutting funding for Public Health, the CDC, and medical research. But that’s probably Obama’s fault too. When he put such appropriations in budget requests, he didn’t say “pretty please.” Nor did he offset the spending with tax cuts for wealthy Republicans donors.

The Supreme Court seems to have decided not to interfere with a half dozen states permitting gay marriage. Senator and presidential wannabe Ted Cruz has blamed Obama and his liberal judges for thwarting the will of the people by making law from the bench. Though, the will of the people by about a 60/40 split favors gay marriage, and the judges haven’t made any law but declined to hear cases, thus leaving laws in force. Yet it takes only four justices to agree to hear a case, and there are five conservative justices on the court appointed by Republicans and only two justices appointed by Obama. But when attacking the president, who’s counting?

The Secret Service is apparently completely incompetent. Agents have gotten falling down drunk, chased prostitutes, let an armed man on an elevator with the president, let an armed man get into the White House seeking prey and have failed to notice for several days that a third armed man shot up the First Family’s living quarters. Needless to say, Republicans have blamed the President for letting the Secret Service put his and his family’s lives at risk. But wouldn’t he kind of care about that? He may have been guilty of thinking there were bigger problems on his plate, like hostile Republican and Islamic militants.

Still, these are all merely sideshow attractions. According to polling by the Democracy Corps, Republican and Democratic voters in 12 key battleground states differ on many of the most important issues facing the country. Republicans are more gung-ho for foreign entanglements 40% vs. 27%. Democrats are far more concerned about so-called women’s issues 41% vs. 9%. But both agree on their biggest concern. Fifty-four percent of Republican voters think the number one issue confronting the country is the economy, jobs and wages. Guess what, 55% of Democratic voters think the same thing.

Have you heard much from the Republicans candidates on that issue? You have not, other than the suggestion that taxes on the wealthy investing and donating class be cut and then we wait for the dough to trickle down to workers. Unfortunately, those workers are in China.

Obama has called for more spending on public works to repair our crumbling infrastructure and put people to work ever since 2009. Republicans have said no. Obama has agreed with Republicans that the corporate tax should be reformed, a top issue for them. But they have refused to pass it alone. They want complete tax reform, including cuts for the wealthy donor class or nothing.

Obama has called for raising the minimum wage to a level equal to that of several decades ago. Republicans have said no. He has called for shoring up Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to provide the most vulnerable Americans with a safety net. Republicans want to cut back such programs, turn them over to the states or make them into personal investment accounts so people can entrust Wall Street with their old age pension and medical care. What could go wrong? Obama has proposed ways to help kids attend college and lower the cost of college loans. Republicans have said no.

So, in a few weeks the voters will make their choice. Except in the many states where Republicans have managed to rig elections by gerrymandering districts to make it hard for Democrats to win or have jiggered election laws so as to exclude or hinder access to the polls by constituencies that favor Democrats, like minorities and students. Oligarchy at work.