Kos has a diary up about the whole “Fight like we’re ten points down” nonsense (which he’s against), and posted this challenge:

So here’s a test—are you motivated by Democrats leading the Maine Senate race by five points, or losing the Kansas Senate race by five points? Which one gets you more excited to donate and volunteer?

If you say “losing by five points,” you are lying. Because we can see how Maine’s Sara Gideon has raised more money and generated far more national excitement than Kansas’ Barbara Bollier. That doesn’t mean that we can’t win the Kansas race! It doesn’t mean we aren’t fighting for it! But which one gets people more excited? Time and time again, it’ll be the race in which we’re leading (or tied).

Conservatives know this, which is why they have a media machine to feed them sweet, sweet reassuring lies, which is why Trump screams about “fake news” and “fake polls,” and why conservative bunk polling outfits like Rasmussen and Gravis exist. They create an alternate reality in which they’re always winning, because even hints of losing demobilize base participation.

In 2010, Democratic chances plummeted the more we realized we were losing. There wasn’t any “oh, we’re losing by 10, I’m so fired up!” Nah, people said “fuck it” and walked away from politics. And we got saddled with a decade of Republican gerrymanders at the federal and state levels, and the voter suppressive legislation that cost us the 2016 election.

Don’t tell people we’re losing, or to pretend that we’re losing, because you’re hurting the cause.