The Decisive Victory That Wasn't

Joe Biden is likely to become the 46th President of the United States.  But the great decisive win the Democrats were hoping for - a win that would put the final nail in the coffin of Reagan-Bush-Trump conservative Republicanism that was ushered in back in 1980 and has dictated policy in Washington ever since - didn't quite happen.

Biden wants to reclaim the soul of America and put the country back on a more humane footing as President after four years of Donald Trump, but he will have to do so after an election victory with a popular margin of only three points.  The results in down-ballot elections showed how skeptical many voters still are about Democrats. Several Democratic House members who got swept in in the 2018 midterms got swept out this past week, and the party came up short in its attempt to take back the Senate.  And Martin O'Malley must be kicking himself for not continuing his Win Back Your State PAC into the 2020 elections, given that Democrats failed to expand their state legislative majorities - they seem to have contracted, in fact - which means that the GOP will have the upper hand in redistricting.

The polls predicted none of this, primarily because pollsters couldn't reach enough respondents to come up with any truly representative samples.  It seems that polling firms used old-school techniques to reach voters that suggested what you'd get if General Motors were still making engines that mixed gasoline and air with carburetors instead of fuel injection - imprecise results and a failure to deliver maximum performance.

But what went wrong with the Democrats?  How did Republicans Susan Collins and the insufferable Joni Ernst get re-elected to the Senate while Democrat Max Rose lost his bid for a second term as Staten Island's representative in the House?  The answer is that, while Trump was unable to paint Joe Biden as a wild-eyed leftist, he was successful in characterizing the Democrats as being more interested in socialistic experiments with esoteric issues and elitist ideas than helping working people who feel that the elites don't care about them.  While Joe Biden was talking about rebuilding our economy and our infrastructure and was appeal to lunch-pail voters, progressives were talking about free college and a centrally planned economy.  While Biden was trying to appeal to working-class white voters, progressives dismissed their concerns.  And for all of the Democrats' policies designed to help working people, Democrats act like they would prefer not to communicate with working people.  They're too busy attending parties and discussing over wine and cheese that latest indie movie they saw the other night - or at least they were before COVID hit.  The Democratic elite can physically distance themselves while they work forrom home, but they've long been physically distanced from working people, and many working people are still physically distanced from jobs.  With friends like these in the Democratic Party, Biden doesn't need enemies. 

My advice for the Democrats, if they want to fight back against the top-down economy that Ronald Reagan initiated, which turned Donald Trump from a coarse New York real estate developer into an avatar of undeserved material wealth, is this: Improve health care without proposing something as radical or as complicated as Medicare expansion.  Rebuild our passenger rail system.  Make it more clear that banning assault weapons in Detroit does not mean you want to ban hunting rifles in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Stop talking about issues targeted at specific demographic groups and start talking about issues that everyone can relate to.  Don't denigrate Jefferson or Washington, and don't "reconsider Columbus Day" until you've reconsidered our tax code.  Try considering Veterans' Day for a change (you can't reconsider something you haven't considered before).  Don't pick on white male voters who prefer classic rock to hip-hop (that Karen Hunter influence again).  Stop looking down on people who think Tom Selleck is a better actor than Ralph Fiennes.  Stop dismissing anyone who hasn't gone vegan.  Bitch-slap any Democrat who advocates defunding the police.  And tell that show horse Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to shut the hell up!  If she doesn't, just don't listen to her when she threatens to primary "moderate" House Democrats like Mikie Sherrill or Abigail Spanberger for being "meh."  

And the most important thing of all, aside from never putting a whole box of laundry detergent in a washing machine, is this: Get this damn COVID virus under control.  Biden wants to. 

In fact, Biden wants to do a lot of things, many of which will actually help Democrats in the 2022 midterms.  Let him do them.  And for Pete's sake, have his back and stop bitching about how he's not as liberal as Bernie Sanders!        

I hope this has been helpful.