Not a supercharged Sweden on steroids (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
For all their cautious optimism yesterday, a mild midterms victory may prove the last thing the Democrats need. If they had performed as predicted, the Democrats and their media adjuncts would now be busily dissecting their defeat. But what has to be considered a lost Republican opportunity — gaining little in a country where lifespans are now dropping — also means that the Democrats will be slower to address their weaknesses, and may be forced to accept the unpopular Joe Biden as their leader in 2024.
With no sign of a Republican resurgence, the Democrats will likely be lulled into thinking that Biden’s polarising agenda is a vote-winner, in the same way the conspiracy-minded MAGA wing of the GOP refuses to move on from 2020. Until it’s resoundingly disproved in the ballot box, stridency tends to whip up your base: Trump’s supporters have become, as the President suggested, “semi-fascist”, while his political mentor, South Carolina’s James Clyburn, goes further, decrying the GOP as the architects of a Nazi state.
When Democrats performed poorly in the past, they were forced to rethink their politics. After Walter Mondale suffered a landslide defeat to Reagan in 1984, the Democratic Leadership Council was set up to steer the ship towards the centre — and ultimately supported both a young Bill Clinton and, to an extent, Biden himself. In turn, the DLC was inspired by the moderate Coalition for a Democratic Majority, founded after Nixon’s trouncing of McGovern in 1972. Today, however, it’s hard to say that now is the time for a new political vision when virtually all the high-profile blue state Democrats won, sometimes by wider than expected margins.
So, rather than using the next two years to regroup and craft a political programme that could win the next election, the Democrats now appear stuck with a weak leader who appears unfit to deal with the global challenges that will define America in the coming decade. Internally, too, the Democrats look increasingly unstable. A stronger-than-expected Midterms performance doesn’t mask the fact that the progressives remain a dominant faction in the party — with an associated agenda that, outside of deep blue-college towns and core cities, commands remarkably low levels of support, as Barack Obama and others have warned.
Sticking to such a programme threatens the party’s already weakening hold on working-class voters, in particular those threatened by climate policies. Over time, the economic implications of Biden’s green agenda may be obvious, but for now they are hidden amid massive deficits and increased transfer payments. However, as Democratic strategist Ruy Teixeira has noted, in the longer run, the party’s emphasis on “de-growth” and austerity is unlikely to attract middle and particularly working-class voters. Already, the political implications of climate policy have ruined the Democrats’ best chance to take the GOP seat in Ohio. Their candidate Tim Ryan may have claimed to support fracking, but his backing of the Pelosi Congressional agenda proved disastrous in a state whose economy is fuelled by natural gas production and hopes to attract new investment, including a possible $20 billion new Intel chip plant in the Columbus suburbs. In Florida, meanwhile, Ron DeSantis won heavily in Latino, historically Democratic regions.
To lure back those alienated by the Left’s climate and cultural agenda, socialists such as Bernie Sanders propose a more economically redistributive policy. This has clearly worked in California where last year’s surplus was channelled into subsidies for working-class voters who are stuck paying the high rents and energy prices caused by policies dreamt up in Sacramento. To win, Sanders has noted, the Democrats need to focus more on basic economic concerns, such as pensions, healthcare, job creation and higher wages. What’s needed is a giant US welfare state, a supercharged Sweden on steroids.
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SubscribeWhy would the Democrats change? They just did much better than expected in the midterms. They have a death grip on the politics of the coastal states, notably the author’s home state of California.
Maybe Mr. Kotkin is right about the Dems hurting their long-term prospects if they don’t move closer to the center, but his own experience in the Democratic Dictatorship of California surely teaches him that the Dems won’t change one bit until they lose convincingly at the polls.
I once lived in California for a few years, and I’ve read many articles about the increasingly bizarre Democratic policies in that state, and predictions about California’s imminent demise. But California’s still there, the Dems are still the dominant political force and their politics is more extreme than ever with little or no pushback. Honestly, high-minded political theorizing aside, why would they change?
Yeah. The US has outsourced its policy making to unmarried women – makes sense, as they are clearly successful in their own life choices.
The US you are referring to is the deep state, a bureaucratic lobby for the Military Industrial Complex. A perfect picture representing the woke Biden US foreign policy is the picture of deputy assistant Nuclear Energy Secretary Sam Brinton and Assistant Health Secretary Rachel Levine. The Biden circus freak show goes International. How can any other country take the USA seriously.
In 2020, it was clear that if Biden was to be elected we would be in another war – and we are!
Deep State lol
Really? I’d tell you to “get the f*** out of here,” but I’m not sure if that violates Unherd’s terms of agmt, so I’ll say this instead: it sounds like you didn’t get the memo, so allow me to read it for you:
“Transgender people exist – not in large numbers, by any means – and some of them hold positions in various govt. depts.”
If you think that anyone holding political power anywhere in the world – that, is, in countries that matter, say e.g., among members of the Chinese authorities, or in any Western European country not steeped in nationalist, far-right ideology, e.g., Hungary – you’re out of your mind.
I know you don’t believe it, but I promise you no member of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo gives a rat’s ass about who’s heading our dept of Health and Human Services.
What is patently clear, however, is that you, Chuck Burns, has a problem w transgender people, unlike anyone holding power anywhere in the world.
Joe Biden is anything but “woke” – a ridiculous epithet utilized by reactionary conservatives who don’t understand the changing world around them. Instead, by every measure, he’s a moderate, thoroughly stepped in the values of the post WW2 Democratic Party.
No one is trans. And almost everyone knows that
I think the unexpected good outcome of this is the beginning of the end for Trump. It is clear that De Santis is a winner and Trump’s candidates – particularly Kari Lake have fared poorly. That is a good thing for the country and probably a bad thing for the Democrats. The Trump army will vote for De Santis even if they swear they won’t now.
It is still baffling how an unpopular, obviously senile, life long grifter, along with so many anti-American, free speech-hating, prosperity-hating, left wing radicals can attain so many votes from an electorate that professes to loath such policies and the people pushing them? I would love to meet just a few of the many millions of people who sincerely thing that Kathy Hochel (NY) and Gretchen Whitmer (MI) are the best choices to lead their states. And I would love to meet one person who supports JB Pritzker and believes that his policies are good for them? Illinois is, and has been, the worst run State in the U.S., with the worst bond rating of all 50. Chicago crime is legendary, with at least 1000 murders per year and many more thousands of gun shot injuries. Yet the same people get re-elected. What has to happen to get people to change? Or are the extra boxes of votes under the counting table too numerous to ever elect the other side?
Absolutely! Read any John Kass column to demonstrate your point about IL. Todays on Toni Preckwinkle, Cook County President, who basically owns Chicago, is fabulous and terrifying.
Just possibly a certain D Trump is a factor?
You could try researching the issues with the mail in ballots and the lack of voter ID on the independent media. You could also try researching the issues with voting machines the countries that developed them and the outsourcing of data to CCP China, – obviously better to research this by via the independent media rather than the MSM which will not discuss these things. If you find the meat on these issues be careful how you tell people as they have been conditioned to insult you in various ways without even looking into the matter themselves. We live in times when the truthful are called liars and a demented corrupt crypto-Marxist daddy-daughter showers time pervert is the President of the USA and the ‘leader of the free world’.
Democrats don’t need to be a “true national majority party.” They need what they have achieved: 50 percent plus one so they can rule without interference and continue to “fundamentally transform” America into their demented vision of Utopia. Their greatest triumph has been complete transformation of public (and most private) education into a program for indoctrinating the young people who will control everything tomorrow and enlisting them in that demented vision. Those of us who remember what America used to be will be gone soon enough, and terms like “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” and “Exceptional Nation” will be no more than confusing artifacts from a forgotten time.
As H.L. Mencken famously said, Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it, good and hard. They’re going to get it good and hard, all right, but by the time they do it will be long past their ability to wake up and change things.
America really was a great idea. Damn shame it didn’t work out.
If they are so bad, the question is, why are the Republicans not cleaning up with massive majorities? Perhaps a minority among them of complete nutters giving credence to QAnon just possibly doesn’t help.
Only a small group of controlled opposition nutters ever believed in QAnon.
To suggest that QAnon was ever significant in the Republican Party is really misleading.
If you cannot see that Biden and co are themselves dangerous nutters then you obviously are getting information from highly biased sources.
And … California just gets more blue as contrarians move away.
Part of the explanation for the unexpectedly good showing of Democrats in the mid terms was suggested by ‘TheLast Refuge” on twitter, thus:-
“Since the advent of ballot centric focus through mail-in and collection drop-off processes, votes have become increasingly less valuable amid the organizers who wish to control election outcomes.
As a direct and specific result, ballot distribution, assembly, collection and return has become the key to Democrat party success. The effort to attain votes for candidates is less important than the strategy of collecting ballots.
It should be emphasized; these are two distinctly different election systems. Ballots -vs- Votes. The system of ballot distribution and collection is far more susceptible to control than the traditional, now arcane, system of votes physically cast at precincts.
A *vote*cannot be cast by a person who is no longer alive, or no longer lives in the area. However, a *ballot* can be printed, distributed, completed and returned regardless of the status of the initially attributed and/or registered individual.”
Unless there is voting reform in the US elections, Democratic nominees will continue to be elected and will control the Government. I suspect that this is what happened when Biden beat Trump. Former was nowhere to be seen during the campaign yet managed to garner 10m more votes than Obama.
You are dead right. The local radio morning radio talk show hosts read off the Rhode Island (where the Dems won everything) ballot results. What pushed them into victory was the mail-in and early voting; the Republicans won the in-person voting. The state that doesn’t allow these manipulative methods, Florida, had a decisive red victory. Something is very wrong here.
Florida does allow mail in voting as well as early voting. My husband did the former and I did the latter. Shortly after I voted the annoying political phone calls and/or polling stopped. But Florida knows how to count votes quickly.
Florida makes Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada look like amateurs. Read about how the AZ election is ‘centrally managed’ – it doesn’t work. Not surprisingly, the Secretary of State Hobbs who is running against Lake is overseeing the voting process – she would not step down. It would be a travesty if Hobbs, the lousy manager won. It would be a joke.
Early voting in person is fine. Mail in and drop off ballots are clearly being used for fraud.
It doesn’t have to be. My elderly mother and my college kids all voted by mail. In all three cases their ballot was dropped off and it is easily confirmed with the registration records. But the rules need to be much clearer. If the voter doesn’t drop it off, it can not be accepted in person. The voter can mail it and in both cases, their information is easily tracked with voter registration. Expunging the voter rolls regularly is critical. All that to say, FL should be showing every state how it’s done. And if Katie Hobbs wins, you can expect this same BS in 2024 in AZ.
Since DeSantis is being accused of voter suppression he must have got something right.
Why is your suspicion noteworthy? Yes, the potential for fraud, from multiple directions, is increased by the proliferation of early/mail-in voting. But Trump lost the popular vote to Clinton–a candidate despised on a similar scale– by a few million votes in 2016, before the pandemic-era changes.
Trump was/is actively hated by a huge percentage of the electorate, motivating additional participation, just as those who are thrilled by his act were motivated to vote when they otherwise mightn’t have. Also, the eligible voting population has risen a lot since 2012, which helps to explain the record-setting totals for both candidates in 2020.
If: 1) The electoral college were abolished 2) The Senate had proportional representation like the House 3) Aggressive gerrymandering (by both parties, but the Republicans are better at it) were curtailed, it would be very hard for Republicans to win any presidency, or control of either House of Congress, now or in the likely near-future. Granted, these are big “ifs”–but I don’t think you can persuasively claim that today’s Republican candidates are more popular than Democrats nationwide, if numerical support, not geographical coverage is the metric.
It surprises me but I suppose I feel so strongly that the Dems are ruining America I cannot conceive of them winning an election. Does it mean the end of the free world?
I don’t think one’s inability to “conceive of” something that’s happening makes it inconceivable, or signals some cataclysmic unraveling to America. I agree that our politics and social dynamics are ruinous, but: What specific year would you choose to return to?
If you group associate all Dems with their most extreme candidates or Twitter twits, you’re likely to spiral into an hysterical overreaction.
Dismissing tens of millions of people on either side of an overbuilt divide is ungenerous, and doesn’t help to save anyone, let alone the Free World, which is an aspirational place that has only ever had a partial, perilous existence. I hope we can all cut down on our readiness to caricature or even condemn our perceived opponents.
Politically, 1960. (Technologically, I wouldn’t return to any year but 2022.) Kennedy and Nixon were both excellent candidates, having been vetted by both the party and the people — primaries made up only part of the nomination process. They had intelligent, serious debates. (Nixon’s shortcomings wouldn’t be apparent for another 12 to 14 years,)
1952 and 1956 were pretty good too. We would have been fine with either Stevenson or Eisenhower.
The McGovern-Fraser “reforms” in the Democratic party, turning the nomination process entirely to the primary voters, and the copycat reforms in the Republican party, were the beginning of the end of civil, responsible politics in the U.S. It’s a wonder we had any good presidential candidates after that, but we did – I’d count Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, McCain, Romney, and Obama as good candidates. But they were not a majority.
Obama and Clinton were awful destructive politicians.
No – it may mean the end of the United States though. I think the US will Balkanize and Canada will follow shortly thereafter into red and blue zones.
Your changes abolishing the Electoral College and proportional representation in the Senate would require Constitutional Amendments. It takes ratification by 3/4s of the state legislatures to adopt any Constitutional Amendment. How are you going to get small population states to ratify either change, when they would be vastly reducing their own power in the federal government if they did? Can you convince them to identify as bigger states, using a big Jedi mind trick?
It’s quite true that the US has a sharp divide between cities dependent on government services thus Democrat and other areas less dependent. If voting were restricted to only taxpayers there might be a completely different vote. The system avoids the tyranny of the majority who may not have anything at risk in policy.
Yes, that is the problem.
There are too many people in government and local government jobs (i.e. taxpayers founded) who obviously vote for more of the same.
If you look at just pension liabilities for these useless lot, it clearly not sustainable long term.
I agree, there should be no representation without taxation….
Read about the gerrymandering in NY which led to the loss of Sean Patrick Maloney his seat. You think the GOP is the king of gerrymandering….think again.
“Former was nowhere to be seen during the campaign yet managed to garner 10m more votes than Obama.”
That is a completely baseless assertion. Biden received more BALLOTS, but given the violation of election laws in every Swing State and many others, there is literally no evidence to prove those ballots came from legitimate eligible voters, and a LOT of evidence to suggest they didn’t.
I don’t expect the Dems to investigate the cheating whilst they are winning.
Naah. Even if you take away enough Biden “ballots” to make it a tie election – seven million of them – Biden got way more than Hillary did four years earlier. Why? The population grew during that period. Kind of obvious.
Doesn’t sound fair to me. Maybe he lets mass immigrants in so he can give them ballots?
Spot on. Awful Gore won, but genocidal Bush got in thanks to Jeb’s dodgy voting machines. Biden got in through a very dubious election and then called anyone who pointed out things such as the statistical discrepancies, the dodgy CCP and Cuba linked voting machines and the mystery ballot boxes being wheeling in – terrorists and the MSM went along with him. Democrats who claimed electoral discrepancies when Bush and Trump were elected were encouraged, but any Republican who brings to light voter fraud is now labelled as a dangerous extremist or as an insurrectionist in language parroting the leadership in the scifi film – the Hunger Games.
The more they fail, the more unthinkable the alternative is. That was the experience in Democrat controlled cities which have been run into the ground. It is the experience in Blue coastal states, and it is becoming the experience in the US as a whole. It’s what happened in Labour controlled cities in the UK too. These parties reshape the electorate in their own image.
End result = societal collapse.
The British Labour Party haven’t really given up the hard left agenda, you know.
Says you. Define “hard left”. Then point us to the “hard left” policies that are current labour party policy.
Basically their hard left is marxism like the state owns everything. They are popular to the ones who like the rich and wealth creators to be robbed and it given to the poor. Much less incentive to get on and do business as those who don’t try will still be rewarded.
As far as I can tell, Frank, Labour hasn’t got any policies. It does, though, have a hard Left mindset and Starmer’s apparent rebirth as a patriotic centrist is a charade.
It is hard to imagine movements more fascist in nature than those championed by the Democrats….BLM for example.
“Trump’s supporters have become, as the President suggested, “semi-fascist”, while his political mentor, South Carolina’s James Clyburn, goes further, decrying the GOP as the architects of a Nazi state.”
Good idea, Dems. Keep libeling as Nazis ordinary, decent people who oppose racist classroom education, drag-queen story hour, and elementary school gender swapping. That’s going to work great for you.
Godwin’s Law remains alive and well in South Carolina.
Excuse me?
And me
Donald Trump is not an ordinary decent person, nor is anyone who votes for him or his chosen ones.
I believe a lot of decent people (I know dozens) voted for Trump because they thought he was the lesser of two evils or would enact a conventional Republican agenda. I did not vote for the S.O.B., but I understand the motivations of those who did.
Part of why Republicans lost the Red wave opportunities of 2022 was that Democrats were able to put Trump on the ballot in various ways. The raid on Mar-A-Lago, election denial and the threat to “our democracy” were all ways to put Trump on the ballot when he wasn’t really there. I think the results show that it worked. After 6 years of vilifying Trump, the left has succeeded in making people really fear him, based almost entirely on lies. Voters vote their fears.
The left has a tremendous investment in vilifying Trump. Republicans can nullify that investment by nominating somebody else, like DeSantis. I know it ain’t fair, but it is reality. It’s time to deal with it.
If you think they’ll lay off DeSantis, you’re dreaming. Any GOP contender is now considered vile by the left and the media who do all of their bidding.
Democrats have little reason to change, and indeed their policies at local levels are designed to drive out those who might vote against them. Why live in Illinois, for example, with it’s tax climate and crime problem (even before the SAFE-T Act kicks in), when you can Skype into work from 75-and-sunny Florida? We’re already seeing somewhat of a balkanization among the states which, one might think, should motivate said states to reject increasing federal overreach, though Democratic administrative areas are in a feedback loop with the federal government and are basically captured.
Bill Maher quipped, during the Trump admin, that he wanted a recession to jar the country therefrom. China responded with the COVID pandemic, which did the job. The forthcoming recession may do a similar job to the Biden admin, however the apparent support for certain candidates who in other times would have been pushed off a bridge for what they did during the last two years makes me doubtful. Things need to get substantially worse.
I know what you mean. The Dobbs decision and abortion on the ballot may have given the democrats what they needed to hold on, but my biggest disappointment over the whole thing was none of the Covid authoritarians were punished in the slightest for what they did. Granted many of the Covid rational were rewarded last night, but that is not the same as there being consequences.
That’s what upset me too.
There was no clear repudiation of the utter tyranny imposed on the nation during Covid, and if anything those dangerous authoritarians will take this result as confirmation that they have public approval. Total disaster.
Without a strong red team victory (which we did not get) there is no chance that Fauci / CDC / all the downstream authoritarianism that cascaded through state institutions and agencies will be brought to heel.
I think this bodes very badly, and sets us up for a much worse repeat of the whole sh*tshow in future. In many countries there is ‘overhang’ of the legal aspects of govt ’emergency’ overreach, and there is now precedent and process embedded in all the institutions. If they are not confronted and repudiated — and it looks now like that chance has been dashed — I can see things only trending in the direction of a double-down in future. Scary times.
If we stand, mouth agape, beholding whole masses of people who seem to come from some other planet, is that not because in fact they come from some other planet? On that other planet, the fact that a leader is a vegetable may not be so disqualifying, as it once was on the planet earth. What disqualifies is not to “get it.” What did God know about creating worlds anyway? “God himself probably preferred to speak of His world in the subjunctive of possibility, for God creates the world and thinks while He is at it that it could just as well be done differently.”
Speaking of Covid, have you noticed that we haven’t seen or heard from The Fauch’ lately? Not sure if that means COVID is now yesterday’s news or that he has been muzzled.
He’s made his money off of the pandemic – no need to suppress folks further
Suppress –
Pampered fool. You know absolutely nothing about suppression. Hysterical drivel
Or just retired on a comfortable pension.
Agreed. I’m still trying to understand lockdown authoritarian Whitmer winning by 10% while Free State DeSantis wins by 20%. Apparently MI residents care more about Whitmer’s opponent’s link to Trump and pro-life stance than harmful CV19 government policies. It’s also possible that the MI residents don’t realize that MI’s CV19 policies were unnecessarily harmful whereas those of us in FL know first hand about the MSM lies regarding covid policies.
Yes, MI was one that seemed (from polling) like Tudor Dixon had a real shot. Having said that the Dems have excellent ground game in MI and control a lot of the state’s infrastructure/institutions/unions.
Whitmer massively outspent Dixon, and the blanket attack ads would have been hard to overcome. The Reps should have funded that race more aggressively to help Dixon get her message out, polls and rally turnout (and the debate bumps) showed that when they actually got to hear from her, people liked her.
The abortion thing was the one weak aspect of her campaign messaging.
— Whitmer presented Dixon’s position as: Anti-abortion Christian throwback crazy lady
— Dixon’s actual position is: “My personal view and my stance in government are 2 different things; whilst I don’t support abortion, I would respect and implement the laws allowing it if that’s what voters choose…”
…one of those is clearly pithier and easier to ‘message’. Dixon’s team should have refined that down to something shorter and clearer, because she got caught in the weeds a bit trying to explain it (and was facing an opponent & a media that tried to bring it up as much as possible). Unforced error, but otherwise I actually think her campaign was well run, it just lacked funding to compete with Whitmer’s advantages.
Election 2022 assures pregnant men, lesbians and post menopausal women that they can get an abortion, on demand, even 9 months into their pregnancies. That’s much more important than free speech or anything else in the Bill of Rights. It’s certainly more important than being able to afford food or gasoline. How do we know this? Because Democrats who identify as journalists in censored news and social media tell us so.
These same journos told everyone that Dobbs outlawed abortions in the US. If you believe that Dobbs made abortion illegal, you haven’t read and don’t understand the decision. It changed nothing in state law anywhere. In places like Illinois, where I live, New York and California, where abortion laws are very permissive, legislators are extremely unlikely to change the laws.
Ain’t no way that a nationwide law forbidding abortion for rape and incest victims can pass. It might in one or two states at most. The idea, which ignorant Democrats and foreigners seem to miss, is that you can travel to states where abortion is legal to have one. Charities can raise money to ship rape victims to other states.
Again, fear mongering lies triumph over reality.
It also didn’t help that there was an proposal which would ‘restore Roe’ which actually goes way beyond Roe. Both Dixon and the anti Prop 3 campaigns were underfunded. The Republican Party was MIA on the issue. And severely divided over Dixon.
it was always going to be an uphill battle for Dixon because Michigan doesn’t elect conservative Republicans, but more moderate Republicans statewide. John James is finally going to Congress as a Rep because he just couldn’t win statewide running for Senate – even though he was a great candidate. The party needs to stop fighting itself and spend more time fighting democrats. I really liked Dixon, but it was always Whitmer’s race to lose. A lot of Republicans really didn’t like that Dixon was the nominee and they didn’t donate. Trump was also just sitting on a lot of money which could have helped these candidates, but he’s not just a great strategist. Good talker, weird sometimes, but he gets in his own way and damages Republicans because of it.
Trump complaining about 2020 is a big deal here and People have moved on. Dixon didn’t have a cult big enough to overcome those hurdles. She’s amazing, but amazing with money is so much better.
so many people hate Whitmer here, but they painted Dixon as worse. Our state legislature turned Dem for the first time in 40 years. It’s was a huge sweep because the state party is such a flop. I know I’m not the only Michigander looking at moving after this disaster.
It’s quite shocking watching this from WI. We are very purple. Evers, the Gov, is staying (God help us) but Ron Johnson beat out Barnes—but only by 40,000 votes. Crazy!
I do think the abortion prop brought Whitmer over the votes…especially from the students who were wrapped around the building in voting lines at UMich and Mich State.
“the utter tyranny imposed on the nation during Covid”
Melodramatic drivel. You know absolutely nothing about real tyranny.
Pritzker is already talking about possibly requiring masking again. No joke! Thank God I moved from that hell hole.
A big part of America’s problem is the outsized influence of millionaire slebs like Maher who, being entirely unaccountable, can afford to polish their halos at the expense of people who work for a living.
Thats v interesting to this Brit. Always struck back in 90s when in US that young people actively chose to move thousands miles to yr cities of certain flavour for their desired lifestyle and opportunities . I thought great, UK so much smaller and people more rooted and with generally less initiative so whereas young fled eg Baltimore they stayed put in eg Liverpool. However I see now how this leads in US in time to yr v apt phrase ” balkanisation” reonforcing the political divide.
Very good points! Unfortunately, many would be Zeldin voters who could have changed the outcome here in NY departed for greener pastures elsewhere.
Yes – we left as of Covid. It was clear that it would take at least 5 years for NYC to come back and now with the people in charge, Mayor Addams and Gov Hochul (“Why do you care about crime anyway?” – she actually asked Zeldin, her opponent that!) who knows when crime & trash will be addressed. Our accountant is suggesting we sell our apartment and pull out entirely. Let the federal government cough up the money needed – $21 billion in taxes left NYC because of the city’s disastrous management of covid. Florida’s DeSantis is the beneficiary for the most part. The working young who’ve moved in will also foot the bill.
Am I becoming a conspiracy theorist, but did the Democrats do better than expected or was there a clever narrative beforehand implying that there would be a rout?
No conspiracy. Historically 1st term Presidents lose Midterm seats and given Biden’s historic incompetence, historic inflation, negative real wage growth, soaring crime and illegal immigration, it was very reasonable to expect a red wave.
I still don’t call Ds not doing as poorly as expected “a win”. Disappointing yes. But, if Rs had commanding leads in both chambers, citizens would (wrongly) expect them to get legislation enacted – that wouldn’t happen because Joe wouldn’t sign any R priorities.
As it is, Rs have a big enough House majority that they can block any more spending bills, packing the SCOTUS, etc, but can’t be blamed for the FUBAR state of the US.
Good observation. The rhetoric of the Democrats and their supporters in the media, which warned of a “red wave,” has had the effect of making a moderate Democrat loss look to many like a victory.
Still – the Republicans should have done better given that the President has dementia and the economy is in a shambles.
Democrats had a national message, even if it was all lies. Republicans are a threat to “our democracy.” Dobbs is a threat to all abortions, even rape, incest victims and to save the life of the mother. Neither point was true, but everyone knew what Democrats were running on.
Republicans had no national message. Every candidate saying, “Are you better off now than you were two years ago?” would have been enough, but nobody said it. Nobody believes a Republican Congress has the guts to stop Biden. Our candidates didn’t promise to undo the mess using reconciliation bills, the same way the mess was made. Nobody said they would try to force Biden to see that the laws were faithfully executed. We just promised a stop to bad stuff in very general terms. That ain’t good enough.
If Rinos (Republicans in name only) can’t agree to fight Slow Joe on anything specific, what’s the point? If Republican Congressional Leadership is mush, without a single agreed policy that they can get most Republicans to talk about, where’s the motivation? Even the slogan “Drill, baby, drill!” repeated by almost every Republican would have been a start. “Fund the police” and “Put criminals in jail and keep them there” would cover the crime issue. “Secure the border” could have been the closer. Repeated over and over and over, until voters could hear them in their sleep, these slogans would have given voters a reason to vote Republican. None were used.
If Rinos can’t agree on any one or more of these points, it’s time for party leadership to demand the type of party unity Democrats have. They can shut up for the good of the party, or they can switch parties. The above mentioned slogans are basic now. If you don’t support them, you are basically a Democrat.
I dislike conjuring up scenarios of good and evil as this muddies the water as there is no absolute good on either side of the isle.
That stated, I am hard pressed as to why the ‘Democrats’ are behaving as they are. Their moderate base is null and void and either they have finally capitulated to the false narrative of their MSM and/or the communists have done exactly what they said they would do and destroy America from within.
I have invested far too much energy on America over the past several decades and if the Democrats win the Senate (which seems to be on the cards), I will retire from the ‘political arena’ and start reading purely for personal enjoyment – banishing all ‘politically related’ books to a dark cupboard then delete political websites.
I surrender – too old to really care anymore as I don’t have a horse in the future of mankind, (no kids).
I, too, am tempted to “check out” of the endless dominance of the political arena in discourse….it’s as if there’s nothing else in the world. I feel compelled to “stay informed”, but I’m not even sure what “informed” is anymore given all the spin and the Follow the Science…the “post truth” culture is discouraging, to say the least.
What Communists? What on earth are you talking about?
Haha
Much as it pains me to say it, the Democrats’ combination of irresponsible spending, large-scale wealth redistribution and extreme demonization of anyone who disagrees with them has– with the assistance of an unethical media– struck a chord with young people today. I’m not optimistic.
No- we just hate Donald Trump and want his influence to go away. I know many Dems ( including myself) who have never voted Republican, but would jump at the chance of voting for a moderate.
And the demonization goes both ways for sure.
Of course you hate Trump.
You hate people and your own country.
That is what being a Democrat is all about.
The fact that you fools voted for Biden and now John Fetterman says it all.
You people are pathetic children.
I do not know molly donohue, so I would not deem myself to know if she (I’m assuming ‘she’ as the name molly points that way, sorry if i’m wrong) hates her own country or people, or if she is a fool. Unless you know better, please desist from the ad hominem “arguments”.
This is a public forum and I will say exactly what I think.
There is no ad hominem argument in my post.
You don’t get to tell people how they should think.
Remember, only a government of experts can protect pregnant men from climate catastrophe. Every right thinking person prefers diverse street gangs to excessively white police. Open our jails, open our borders and close our schools! Vote progressive!
Is this what you believe or is this what you think I believe?
Well Put!!
Professing hatred of another human being is surely as ad hominem as it gets? Wee Stoater is correct in his analysis of the new left.
Don’t know you, but will go out on a limb and say you are precisely the problem. This isn’t entertainment, or fashion.
Donald Trump is poison for the Republicans but the ideological strain he has identified will be the future – especially if Republican party can manage to transition to be a multi-racial working class party uniting the white working class and Latino vote.
This article misses the main point. Trump supported candidates did poorly while DeSantis did extremely well. I can’t remember a politician not already a VP looking more like the next President than DeSantis. The Republican primaries will be messy as an ego-driven Trump fights for his legacy. If DeSantis plays his cards well, he will emerge all the stronger for standing up to a bully.
Let us pray that we Republicans can find the stamina to allow the Dump Trump movement to play out: he has become a menace to Republican hopes of retaining power before Biden/Sanders wrecks the place further.
Totally agree! Trump served an important moment in history to shake up politics which was desperately needed, but he can only hold America back now. As things are currently, I think anyone from the centre left rightwards would do well to support DeSantis.
Some Republicans think we owe Trump personal loyalty. I think that’s organic fertilizer of bovine origin with toxic masculinity. It ain’t 1745 and Trump is hardly Bonnie Prince Charlie. Besides, look what happened to the Bonnie Prince’s loyal followers at Colloden. They got slaughtered.
We need to win in 2024, not go down valiantly for a personal cause already lost. Trump can get personal revenge on Truth Social.
If the GOP do not adapt, as the Democrats have, then it will repeat because their vote garnering machine will only be more efficient in two years. Forget the collapsing economy, crime through the roof southern “invasion” etc.
Unless the GOP address (forgive the pun) mail-in ballots etc they will keep losing. e.g. (still have seen all numbers yet so apologies if wrong!) Dr.Oz slaughtered Fetterman with actual on-the-day votes but lost.
Perhaps requiring “debates” before mail in ballots are mailed out is a start.
Have a look at these two factoids:
— One
— Two
I was very dubious about the idea that RvW made much difference to people when voting, as compared to say, gas prices (as you don’t need an abortion regularly, but you do fill your car weekly…) but I was clearly wrong. Or maybe I was half-right. It didn’t matter that much to most people, but it mattered LIKE CRAZY to women under 40, and they turned out in massive numbers, breaking hard left. This delta offset the breaking rightwards that increases as you move up the age cohorts.
Additionally, seeing in black and white those astonishing numbers for the Dems in the 18-29s age bracket, it actually looks like the ‘red team’ have misunderstood the long game that’s in play. It’s actually far more important for them to somehow wrestle education back out of the iron-gripped hands of the left, than it is to win seats in the House….
The red tsunami in Florida should show the GOP how to do it right. Good candidates, strong messaging, excellent ground work all culminated in demolishing the Democratic Party at the state level for the foreseeable future. Nationally, the GOP seems stuck on stupid. Honestly, Oz? Bolduc? The Dems ran rings around the GOP by pouring millions into weak GOP candidates in the primaries, resulting in astonishingly weak candidates. Ron DeSantis needs to elbow Trump out and lead the GOP into 2024.
The Democrats have the ‘fair share’ of dummies and ne’er-do wells – Swalwell, Ilhan Omar, Tlaib, AOC – and that’s just the tip the crazies.
Good candidates, strong messaging, excellent ground work, and actually governing as a conservative instead of just claiming to be one.
Exactly – I noted in DeSantis’s post-victory speech to his supporters he underlined that he did what he said he was going to do. He governed for the people of Florida as a conservative. Also, he took the time to thank all the people who put in serious legwork to move voters toward the GOP. Marco Rubio (who I think would have been great 2016) made a real outreach effort to Hispanic voters and made the case for voting Republican.
The Democrats are very good at getting voters to the polls (or to fill in ballots and mail them). Republicans need to up their game.
Unfortunately, I think this article might be a bit too optimistic based upon the election results. Very good question, why would Dems change anything at this point? They have the legacy media, federal government and most of the cultural institutions locked up. Biden just mocked the idea of his son being investigated and what the implications could be! Tragically, he can afford to be so glib!
So true and so sad. Way too much power – I can’t believe hoards of highly educated people have no problem with consuming one-sided information. And I say this for either side. One wonders about all these millennia of evolution and we are all simply tribal savages at heart. Like with 8% of the vote, California governor Newsom declared as the winner .. why even bother wasting money voting. Come on humans! Sheesh
Progressives have run the Party since 1968 or 1912, pick one. They have had temporary setbacks, particularly those inflicted by Ronald Reagan.
Bill Clinton was far more progressive than is thought. It was during his presidency that progressives took control of the national police and surveillance agencies. The results were seen in 2016 when they sprung the Russia collusion hoax to depose or at least hobble the Republican administration.
Since 2000, the Republicans won the popular vote in a presidential election only once: George W. Bush in 2004, when he painted opponents to his invasion of Iraq as traitors and his party managed to get gay marriage on the ballot in several key states (Gay marriage was very unpopular then and stimulated opponents to turn out.)
In the meantime demographics have moved towards progressives too, as the immigration policies they got Kennedy to adopt bore fruit. Some of their media outlets have even debated abandoning pursuit of the working class in favor of the emerging diverse majority.
Desantis’s success with Miami’s Cuban community is not an indicator of anything. Of all the people trying to enter the US illegally, the only ones being turned back are Cubans and Venezuelans, i.e., those fleeing progressive regimes.
Progressives will never lack money. Much of it is tax money sifted through public employee unions, NGO’s, or direct expenditures. These sources are inexhaustible, available on demand. It is judiciously supplemented by Wall St. wheeler/dealers, Hollywood moguls, and tech IPO billionaires.
Neither are progressives distracted by transient issues like climate, abortion, or gender identity. And, if this were 1950, Bernie Sanders would be a Stalinist. The only reason he talks about pensions, health care, and wages is because Stalin has not yet been rehabilitated.
Do you think the progressives truly believe everything they talk about? I wonder about the puppet shows for the masses versus the true machinations behind the scenes. When a thing is a job, people often just do it .. somewhere in the momentum are ideas and beliefs but how often are they recalled…
As a Republican I hope the dems go further and further left. They will destroy themselves that way. It is true that we (Republicans) must get rid of massive mail-in voting and ridiculous early voting of many weeks.
You mean cheat the democratic vote of course. That’s what post the Trump GOP has come to – cheaters.
No the Democrats won’t destroy themselves, they are destroying the country.
Their best chance was Tulsi Gabbard but they rejected her and now she has left the party.
I can’t believe America voted Democrat while their country is being destroyed. The corruption is so clear. Maybe the Dems like living in corruption and crime?
Whatever will create a class of victims who ‘need’ them, that will be the policy.
It’s simple – both parties have boiled it down to two issues. Democrats – Republicans will not allow anyone to have an abortion and drive women back to 1800 and kill everyone with their assault weapons! Republicans – Democrats will kill babies and take your guns away while forcing you into progressive servitude!
While the extreme rhetoric is alive and well, both arguments have a ring of truth. Paranoia or truth?? Your vote then is whichever ideas are drummed up by your partisan news provider and your friends.
There is an opinion developing out there in the ether that the mechanics and governance of voting in our post-COVID world explains much of the action in the 2022 midterm elections. I am inclined to align with that view myself:
The Midterm Elections X-Factor: Industrialized Mail-in VotingA revelation that the youngest voters heavily favor Democrats is not a revelation. But, making it effortless post-COVID for these low-propensity voters to vote has made a difference.
How come voters can consistently and repeatedly vote against their self interest? I have three theories…
Because it’s not about the living, breathing voters. It’s about the non-living things we call ballots. As Stalin and other authoritarians have long noted, it’s not the vote that counts, but who counts the vote–and that’s all about the ballots. Election fraud destroys a robust feedback loop, so there’s no course correction to force the ruling powers to work for the electorate.
Because the voters believe lies that they haven’t suffered long enough under to recognize as dangers. If you can massively censor real news (Hunter’s laptop, inflation is zero, etc.) and promulgate fake news (Trump is a Putin stooge, Republicans are semi-fascists who are going to take away all of your Medicare and Medicaid, etc.) then you can convince people to ignore their lying eyes. At some point this will fail, but you always have those fake ballots to save yourself.
Because the voters have been bribed to believe and support. The two groups that broke blue in a big way on Tuesday were the young Zoomers and single women, and these are the groups that were most subsidized by the Biden administration in this last election via student loan forgiveness and continued defense of welfare claims for those that marry the state rather than a husband (with the former guaranteeing continued poverty and government dependence while the latter frees them to choose who should lead us). This will soon fail, since we cannot keep printing $1.0-1.5Tn per year to feed the living-beyond-our-means beast, but again, you always have the fake ballots and the noble-lie-telling-propaganda machine.
This is an excellent post
Government mandated economic redistributive policies presuppose that the tax base is sufficiently wealthy enough to participate in such a program. In the case of CA much of that base is fleeing to AZ and points east.
Unlike The Beltway, Sacramento can’t print its own money and paper over the inevitable deficits that would follow the flight from millenarian redistributionist measures.
“Trump’s supporters have become, as the President suggested, “semi-fascist”, while his political mentor, South Carolina’s James Clyburn, goes further, decrying the GOP as the architects of a Nazi state.”
That’s rich coming from the architects of a neo – Stalinist state.
Both Britain and America have the same problem in politics, the paries of the traditional duopoly have been bought and corrupted by corporate money. We need to find some new parties to vote for, ones that understand the concept of public service as opposed to serving the interests of the biggest donors.
There is this erroneous perception that moving to the “center” is the right thing to do. But the center is always going to be a moving target and the center is not inherently the “right” place to be. Politics will always be corrupt as long as politicians believe that winning is the ultimate goal and to win you have to persuade rather than inform. We the public cannot differentiate truths from falsehoods, most people won’t take the gargantuan task of truly inform themselves, it’s too time consuming and what will be the benefit? There are only 2 parties, most people will vote for whichever is closest to their own ideology of life. Certainly we cannot expect good governance if we cannot agree about how that would look like. Hence, we are relegated to the world of opinion, this author is expressing yet another opinion of the myriad of opinions that can be expressed. The responses here are going to tell us more about our own ideological makeup than the validity of this person’s opinions. And the world keeps turning, such is the human condition. Maybe to have a better future and really learn from the past, we need to transcend our humanness, truly get a grip of what it means to think like a human, what the worst human tendencies are, and make an honest effort to turn the ship around. I’m not too optimistic that this will happen.
It’s amazing to me how for many Democratic voters, Abortion was the most salient issue. I guess when the pill is only 90% effective, abortion is a necessary part of the ongoing sexual revolution, which is more salient than even the economy to many voters.
Lordy. What a long-winded way of saying – or not saying – that at least half of the US population are so pig-ignorant and stupid that they might just as well be dead. Much like the rest of the West, but somewhat worse.
So, anyone who disagrees with you is “pig-ignorant and stupid” and “might just as well be dead”. Please make an argument pointing out why they are wrong.
Which half ?
The Democrat half ?
“What’s needed us a giant U.S. welfare state, a supercharged Sweden on steroids.”
Millions of would-be migrants in Latin America and the rest of the world couldn’t agree more!
It’s a little too early to speculate on the election since it’s not over yet. There are still something like 19 Congressional and three Senate races that are undecided. Republicans have 211 Congressional seats – they only need seven more to take control of the House. The Senate is anyone’s guess but they still may dominate and Democrats will be left out in the cold.
Trump and Dodd caused much of the damage. In 2 years both should be less important. The States will have made their abortion laws clear and DeSantis should be able to push Trump offstage
All the losing election deniers are taking refuge on Unherd, after being shellacked!
Can Elon Musk be far behind? He has a few billions remaining to fritter away on vulgar conspiracy theories, he should make an offer for Unherd.
What do Trump, MBS and Musk have in common?! We will surely find out, when the Putolev is dragged through the streets like Gaddafi.
Democrats might want to take a look at turnout – some 5% more Republican voters turned out than Democrats. That is not practically unheard of, it’s unheard of.
The left, AKA Democrats, are counting on the politically ignorant young adults who embrace the socialist-progressive agenda including a “green” economy, although both are untenable. Salvation can only come about with the collapse of college-for-everyone and the indoctrination that goes with it, forcing the under 30 crowd to face life without subsidies and “safe spaces”.
Democrats do feel that they’ve scored a great victory, and will be inclined to double-down on the progressive agenda. At the same time, it’s beginning to look as though Republican leaders have taken their losses to heart, and are finally considering the possibility of moving beyond a significantly weakened Trump. If this happens, as I hope it will, then the Republican’s mid-term losses will be well worth it. If Republicans can successfully unite behind a non-Trump candidate (most likely De Santis) for 2024, Democrats will suddenly lose their biggest vote-getter: Donald Trump. Swing voters will no longer have to vote Democratic at all costs to save themselves from the Orange Man. They will take a close look at the Democratic candidate, whoever that is (Biden, Harris, Newsom, Pritzker, Butigeg?), and at the Democratic agenda, which will most likely be crafted by the Democratic left. This is a very plausible path to victory for Repubicans in 2024. One unknown: how much damage can D.T. do to his party while going down?
The good professor is accurate about Democrats’ self-delusion. They have already learned the completely wrong lessons from this weird midterm election. Senator Elizabeth Warren is hollering for them to put the pedal to the metal on their hard left progressive lurch, as if – in spite of Biden’s awful polling – the electorate was calling for that.
Instead – and this is the really good news – American conservatives and right leaning independents have finally had enough of the Trumpian destruction and madness, and were not ready to follow that menace into the post-democracy abyss. That is what the election means: anti-Trump, not pro-Democrats.
But the problem for Republicans is that Trump is going to make himself the issue in the 2024 presidential election one way or the other, and thereby hand the nation to the Democrats. He’s about to declare for 2024 today. If he gets the nomination, he’ll be wrecked at the ballot box. If he doesn’t get the nomination, he will torpedo the candidacy of Ron DeSantis, who is far more competitive (and patriotic, sane, competent and decent).
One way or another Trump will make sure the GOP takes another national loss for him to go away.
In the long run we are all dead! The failure of the Republicans to convincingly defeat the increasingly extreme progressive Democrats is a huge missed opportunity with long term consequences for the most powerful nation in the free world.
The main blame for this lies with Donald Trump himself, and the legions of half crazed Trump zealots, who used to be so prevalent on this forum but seem rather quiet of late. Trump is even now threatening DeSantis in his usual petty and vindictive way, so much hope for a revival of National Conservatism there! Let’s be clear, whatever the voting irregularities in the 2020 election, had the US the same simple majoritarian Presidential voting system as France, Trump would have lost by millions of votes in both 2016 and 2020. The Republicans need a much better sell for sensible policies, and avoiding extreme anti-abortion positions would be high among them.
In the long run we are all dead! The failure of the Republicans to convincingly defeat the increasingly extreme progressive Democrats is a huge missed opportunity with long term consequences for the most powerful nation in the free world.
The main blame for this lies with Donald Trump himself, and the legions of half crazed Trump zealots, who used to be so prevalent on this forum but seem rather quiet of late. Trump is even now threatening DeSantis in his usual petty and vindictive way, so much hope for a revival of National Conservatism there! Let’s be clear, whatever the voting irregularities in the 2020 election, had the US the same simple majoritarian Presidential voting system as France, Trump would have lost by millions of votes in both 2016 and 2020. The Republicans need a much better sell for sensible policies, and avoiding extreme anti-abortion positions would be high among them.
I’ll bet Unherd are dismayed at this stuff…they should be.
The Republicans decry the democrats for their extreme woke stances while themselves being unwavering on their extreme stances on abortion and guns. If they had the sense to be moderate or just shut the hell up about some of this stuff, they would still keep their right-wing base but also bring in silent disgruntled liberal moderates, who are currently nervous about Republicans for their own extreme rhetoric. Unfortunately both parties have the same types of problems with propaganda and opportunism – the Republicans just look like a slightly lesser evil due to the increasing nuttiness of the left. The Republicans have an opportunity but clearly too dumb to see why the “red wave” didn’t happen – if they don’t reinvent themselves fast, they will go down with their geriatric base.
Why are the positions of Republicans on abortion or guns extreme? What propaganda has been used by the GOP on these two issues?
On abortion, the Dobbs case was predicated on two things, neither of which is very extreme actually. First, that we should not shred the Constitution by allowing unelected judges or justices to invent rights not explicitly included in the document under the squishy idea that such-and-such a right is integral to “ordered liberty.” That means that the right to abortion, like other so-called substantive due process rights such as the right to travel freely through the US or the right of parents to allow their children to grow up with the values of the parents (and note that the lefties have no trouble eroding those two rights, particularly during the pandemic), is not actually a fundamental right, but something that each state should decide upon. Second, the Dobbs case also implicitly noted that the old idea of viability as the marker for when the state has an interest in protecting the unborn–which is a legitimate concern that lefties completely ignore, falsely equating the right to contraception (which involves no other living thing already in existence) with abortion (which obviously is more than health care since it involves destroying the health of a fetus/baby/unborn-life)–is no longer workable or desirable, since it is very easy now for women to terminate pregnancies early due to technological advancement.
Given that Europe has settled on a similar standard, with each country setting its own end-date for unlimited ability to terminate that life (and the average, at 19-20 weeks, is lower than viability–commonly viewed by doctors as 24 weeks), and not enshrining abortion rights in constitutions the way they have free speech rights, then you begin to see that the GOP position is actually in line with the EU, which is not exactly a disaster for status of women, while the lefties are in line with such paragons of human rights as North Korea and the PRC.
The same general line of argument can be made for gun control. Australia and the failed assault weapons ban in the US during the 1990s together constitute highly strong proof that the so-called non-extreme position of the left is actually a failed position that doesn’t accomplish stated goals, and likely has more sinister ulterior motives. Either way, it is hardly extreme to recognize what’s in the Constitution (and upheld by Heller and subsequent cases), as well as the long-standing, proven failure of the lefty alternative position of gun bans and excessive infringement on the Second Amendment.
Reasonable people can disagree and marshal arguments at odds with what I’ve just written, but no one (except a rank propagandist) can claim that what I wrote is remotely extreme.
As a clarification, I am a classic educated immigrant, previously fully liberal city-dweller .. I can speak to how and why this happens. I have voted Republican recently for many reasons, including the encroachment by the State on parental rights. I have moderate positions on abortion and guns. Both are very squishy issues – when large numbers of people passionately espouse one side or the other, their arguments bear considering – whether or not you agree with them. Republican candidates are forced to state abortion begins at conception and Democrats are forced to say it can be done at any time for any reason. If these aren’t extreme positions, I don’t know what is. Guns are a similar issue. Country people like guns for sport and hunting and arguments against are purely normative. It’s actually quite elitist to insist on taking that away. If both sides don’t understand their own extreme rhetoric (and it’s clear they don’t), there is no hope. I’ll believe the “whaa WE are not extreme song” when a candidate on either side can openly state a moderate position on either issue (and I am certain many secretly have such a position) without having people fly off the handle.
There was never a “far left anti-semitic faction” led by Jeremy Corbyn. If Kotkin believes there was such a thing, then he clearly knows very little about the British left. As for the US, Sanders is undoubtedly right. However, liberal pundits are strongly pushing the view that it was the abortion issue that saved the Democrats from decimation. Whether or not that was true, it will certainly not work in 2024.
Hooray. Why does this article continue the peddling of the ‘Jeremy Corbyn anti-Semitic hard left’ lies. Isn’t this libel?
Compared with 6 years of Brexit, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak, Corbin and McDonnell would have been excellent.
Clearly you want the economy completely destroyed.
Some of us work and pay taxes.
There’s part of me that agrees with you; only a very ti y part though.
I don’t agree with this article at all. I’m an American Canadian (naturalized second-class citizen) who has been living in the States for the last thirty-three years, and American politics comes nowhere near Canadian or British. And most readers here are British conservatives—a different animal.
The Democrats are not “stupid.” They have an agenda and stick to it unless something pushes voters away. Then they fine-tune. This is called honesty. You know where they stand.
On the “leader” aspect, a new potential leader could pop up in a matter of a few months. Obama was one. You can never tell what will happen. For example, who would have thought the Torries to be where they are now in a relatively short time? Three prime ministers?! And Trump was utterly unheard of before he announced and ran for the presidency. Even the Republicans poo-pooed him. And who else is there for the Republicans outside of Desantis and Trump?
The point is the Democrats starved off a big RED wave. This is to their credit. And that isn’t easy to do in mid-term elections. But what if Trump does decide to run for the presidency again? What if he wins the nomination?… challenging to imagine after the poor showing this past election with his “Trump approved” candidates. He would split the party if he did run. The Dems have all to gain from it.
It is too early to decide what and who or when it will happen. One thing I do know for sure is that many stupid (irresponsible) Americans vote. The American patriot founding fathers may have been correct about their mistrust of democracy
The Democrats are one big bait and switch party. Promise unity then switch to division via extreme demonization of their opponents. Obama did it, now Biden. Biden, though, is a much bigger liar. One deflection and falsity after another.
I don’t think either party is “honest” but I agree with you that they play to these positions because they know they stand to benefit from them. In that sense, neither party is stupid. Political parties are no longer public servants – they are simply like companies that want to grow and be successful. Americans are culturally drawn to extreme rhetoric and those that aren’t of that ilk can barely even express themselves socially. When Americans vociferously stop demanding extremism, only then will it stop being doled out by the “leaders”…
Wow.
The Whack-a-Doodles and their conspiracy theories are still out in full force.
What conspiracy theories? If you cannot be specific enough to engage in rational debate, then it is likely you are an ideological closed mind that cannot actually defend your positions with proven facts and sound logic.
Looking forward to Trump and DeSantis ripping each other to shreds fighting for the GOP nomination. They are both unfit for the Presidency of course but will present an amusing spectacle.
That is not going to happen.
So you think Biden is fit to be president ?
You don’t deserve to live in a free country.
Being the best governor in America seems like it would qualify someone for president in my eyes.
I think Barry wanted to say that Kamala or Michelle Obama are a better fit to be the president. After all, why not AOC or Omar?
I will now be accused of hating women of color and of probably being a Trump supporter and a racist. Watch the comments..lol