Pointing finger time with the Nov. 2 results:
Much should not have been a surprise but it was; nothing like a kick in the seat of the pants election losses bring to bring clarity. First, the clowns in Congress thought they had a mandate with a 50-50 Senate vote to launch government social programs rivaling the New Deal..The elements were popular but not a motivating voter mandate, especially when voters did not even know what they were. Second, two senators were in the pockets of big coal and big pharma, an inconvenient political reality. Their stonewalling was an inconvenient reality but needed to be addressed early in the construction of the BBB, the social infrastructure bill. Only by the grace of Georgia did we have a 50-50 margin to even attempt passing such legislation. That was luck that progressives took advantage of, but Biden was not elected on the never defined BBB in the 2020 campaign, but that he was not Trump. There was no mandate: just an opportunity.
Trump was not on the ballot, but his followers thought so and turned out. ...His persona was a turnoff to enough GOP and independents to swing in 2020 and Youngkin was a clever wolf in sheep clothing. to the 2020 Biden voters. Sheep's Clothing worked to offset Trump's racism and hatred and a fear of a wannabe anti-democracy demagogue whose chief tool was fear of this or that.. The lesson for the GOP is that Trump as a candidate in 2024 is a loser. GOP candidates need to keep him at a degree of arm's length. The lesson for the Democrats ignored and had no response to the critical race theory red herring.. They should have said: it is not being taught now and it will not be...but burying historical truths is also fooling ourselves if we want to live in peace with one another. Even then, it was a cultural loser that should have been taken more seriously and used to get out the Democratic vote...
.Democrat's political malpractice: It may seem like a good strategy at the time to "hold the infrastructure bill hostage" to the BBB (Biden's Build Back Better that became the progressive's agenda), but the
progressives did not sell what it contained and instead focused on the cost. That opened the door to fears of inflation and the immediate impact at the gas station and cost of basic groceries. That made the Biden administration look like an impotent old man because it could not pass anything. That needs to change now. Pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill and pass the buck to the Senate on the social infrastructure bill...held hostage by two senators who are bought by big coal and big pharma. (Update 11//6: House passed the bi-partisan bill } Sinema compromised on drug costs, but the result is still significant. We cannot win over racists so we can call out red herrings and hate-mongering when we see it and show how harmful it can be to swing voters who are not comfortable with race-baiting. Once the BBB fails or passes, we at least will have each representative and senator on the record and in the 2022 midterms. All politics are local so paint the contrast between what anti-people they are with their votes against the BBB and make the case that the GOP does not care about you.. Mask mandates and vaccine mandates will be fewer factors as COVID becomes old news and threats subside.. The "steal the vote" issue will also fade as the red herring of that issue will lose its glamor as more evidence of the lie sinks in.
There is one matter of campaign and election laws and democracy that is unfinished business. Democrats must push reform regardless of popularity and pass the two voter rights bills and make fairness the issue. This means changing the rules on the filibuster in whatever way it will work to break the racist and GOP strategy to make their losses into wins. This is where painting the GOP as anti-democracy can still fit into a campaign slogan but without a wannabe dictator like Trump on the ballot, the urgency of this also fades.. On the economy, much depends what the fate of OPEC brings us but we need to take this seriously and counter the more immediate impacts. BBB is too vague and too targeted to certain demographics while everyone feels inflation.
Footnote:
To see why I was not that surprised by Virginia's results on Nov 2, go to my posting in Sep 3t and updated October 4. What worked for the GOP there was the last-minute racist dog whistle of CRT and the reminder of the "cultural" issues that energized the Trump base.. That was not predicted nor was the adroit wolf in sheep's clothing of the GOP candidate. Sept. 30 blog posting. A reconciliation compromise that will simultaneously make no one happy and everyone happy.
Nov. 4, 2021
It is clear from listening to Sen. Joe Manchin today that he will continue to keep moving goalpost, demanding that when the BBB reaches the Senate, he will keep moving the goalposts because he represents a Trumpist constituency even if the total is reduced to his demand of 1.5 trillion....or else get his commitment he will vote for the bill cost if it is reduced. Also not stated is that the reason he can survive as a Democrat in such a reality is that he has the support of big coal money. That will not change. He professes he wants the BBB $ reduced to 1.5 trillion, yet he wants more proof whatever is proposed will not be inflationary and he wants to have the Congressional Budget score first. Here is what Democrats should threaten to do and to make the midterms apply to each person who scuttled the bill or voted against it....and this will be the mantra: " did you know X voted against (child care, elder care, medicare expansion, etc)"; I voted for it. " and let them know that is what you will be running on (and it can be done whether the BBB gets kills in the Senate or passes). That the budget office score
analysis of the payfors will actually pay for the BBB contents will be helpful in either agreeing with Manchin or refuting his stance.. Also in the Senate pass the danged bi-partisan roads and bridges part now...so what if it reduces the BBB leverage. It has only made the Administration look like a bunch of manipulative fools
Per an analysis in the New York Times, Democrats are winning the better educated, while losing those with less than a four-year college degree. That outcome was reflected in the Nov, 2,2021 Virginia governor's race Biden is right: connect everything in these bills, the kinds of jobs that are created, and the relief with costs of child and eldercare that will help exactly both those with less than a 4-year college degree and those who still are struggling in the middle class to make ends meet. Biden has repeated that connection so many times that it has become background noise to voters too often burned by political promises that fail to materialize.. Perhaps eventually it will sink in with the actual experience as the infrastructure bill is implemented.. Trump gained a lot of traction when he won in 2016 by his America First agenda, pledging that he would raise tariffs on imported goods from China. However, the results were spotty and import distribution businesses simply passed the tariff costs onto consumers Biden's BBB goes at the problem a different way by helping 21st-century gree job sector of manufacturing get government contracts and subsidies to outcompete with China's trade.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/08/us/politics/how-college-graduates-vote.html?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20211104&instance_id=44581&nl=the-morning®i_id=112373093&segment_id=73505&te=1&user_id=e8cfa3486f338e7b9b08b960e834c9e6
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