Another election day is in the books. As results for state and local elections roll in, conversations are already turning towards the 2022 national elections, where control of the U.S. Congress will be decided. Democrats are playing defense, hoping to maintain their slim advantage in the House and the tie (plus tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris) they have in the Senate.
However, on top of the usual headwinds which incumbent parties run into in the midterms, Democrats are facing a groundswell of disappointment from within their own ranks. This is due primarily to the scaling back of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” legislation, which has been trimmed by almost half in negotiations with holdout Democrat senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin. As of this writing, BBB still hasn’t passed, despite Democrat’s control of the executive and legislative branches.
In the face of this disappointment, a particularly confusing argument has been put forward. George Takei has summed up the argument best on his Twitter account- if people are disappointed with the stalling and scaling back of President Biden’s agenda by Democrats, they need to respond by electing more Democrats!
This argument makes no sense to me, because I’m old enough to remember the promises that were made back in January when we were asked to deliver Georgia, and the Senate, to the Democrats. Back then we were told that if we did the impossible and turned Georgia blue, that $2000 checks would be out the door as the first part of a progressive agenda that would otherwise be stymied by Democrats.
Well, Georgia delivered. And then the powers that be unilaterally cut the checks to $1400. Georgia delivered, and BBB still looks like its in jeopardy of being degraded even further. How is the solution to this problem to elect more people who seem unable, or unwilling, to pass their own agenda?
The handwringing about the Democrat’s electoral successes and failures has already begun. Somehow it’s always the voter’s fault, and never the ineptitude of the party and its inability to do what they promise. Yet the ask is to give them more power in 2022? We’ll see how that goes.
