The NY Times editorial board doesn’t actually think Democrats will listen, do they? It won’t happen as a political party overall. There will be some who will listen and understand
Democrats Deny Political Reality at Their Own Peril
Tuesday’s election result trend lines were a political nightmare for the Democratic Party, and no Democrat who cares about winning elections in 2022 and the presidential race in 2024 should see them as anything less.
Familiar takeaways like “wake-up call” and “warning shot” don’t do justice here because the danger of ignoring those trends is too great. What would do justice, and what is badly needed, is an honest conversation in the Democratic Party about how to return to the moderate policies and values that fueled the blue-wave victories in 2018 and won Joe Biden the presidency in 2020.
Except, 2018 saw lots of nutters, like Alexandria O’Casio-Cortez, elected, and Biden “won” because he was Anybody But Trump. Regardless, the NYTEB makes a good point about returning to moderation, which would look more like the Clinton admin, which, no matter what you say about Bill Clinton personally, understood how to read the nation’s mood, and to pivot and back off when necessary. But, that’s where this whole thing breaks down
Given the stakes for the country, from urgent climate and social spending needs to the future of democracy, Americans badly need a rolling conversation today and in the coming weeks and months about how moderate voters of all affiliations can coalesce behind and guide the only party right now that shows an interest in governing and preserving democratic norms.
Do they think these things, which require dictatorial and authoritarian government, are moderate? Yes, they do, and this kind of yammering emboldens the Democrats to not take away the right lessons from the election. Including that paragraph blows the EB’s narrative
Bill Clinton’s mantra from 1992 of “it’s the economy, stupid” is rarely out of vogue, and it certainly isn’t now. But Democrats, looking left on so many priorities and so much messaging, have lost sight of what can unite the largest number of Americans. A national Democratic Party that talks up progressive policies at the expense of bipartisan ideas, and that dwells on Donald Trump at the expense of forward-looking ideas, is at risk of becoming a marginal Democratic Party appealing only to the left.
Pushing ‘climate change’ and a Nanny State won’t help the economy. Democrats have pretty much abandoned all bipartisan ideas.
Many in the president’s party point to Tuesday as proof that congressional Democrats need to stop their left-center squabbling and clock some legislative wins ASAP by passing both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and a robust version of the Build Back Better plan, the larger social spending and environmental proposal. They believe this will give their candidates concrete achievements to run on next year and help re-energize their base.
But Tuesday’s results are a sign that significant parts of the electorate are feeling leery of a sharp leftward push in the party, including on priorities like Build Back Better, which have some strong provisions and some discretionary ones driving up the price tag. The concerns of more centrist Americans about a rush to spend taxpayer money, a rush to grow the government, should not be dismissed.
The lesson the Democrat leadership, along with the crazy Progressive base, is that they need to jam through their agenda before the 2022 mid-terms. They know that, even if they do lose the House and Senate in 2022, Republicans can do nothing to get rid of the Crazy the Democrats pass, not with Joe in the White House. Clinton might have gone along with killing the Crazy off. Not Joe. And, even if they keep Congress and get a Republican to win in 2024, it might be too late to kill some stuff off, and Senate Democrats will then use that filibuster they’ve been raging about.
Thing is, most Dems can read the room, and they don't care. They'll jam through their agenda, consequences be damned, because they know they'll get back in power at some point and do it again https://t.co/5wZyzs2grA
— William Teach2 ??????? #refuseresist (@WTeach2) November 5, 2021
Jesse Waters said
“Right now, AOC is in this little Queens bubble, the Met Gala bubble, the Washington, D.C., social media bubble,” he said. “She doesn’t have a clue what the rest of the country wants. [Sen.] Manchin knows, Manchin can read the room, so Manchin wants to give us what we want, and AOC is not going to let us have it.”
Yes, AOC is clueless, as are many of her Comrades. But, if if they weren’t, they don’t care. Their lesson says to jam stuff through. The question now becomes “will more than just Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema block the Dems agenda in the Senate?” What about Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H.? They’re both up for re-election in 2022. And Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont, Chris Coons, D-Del., Tom Carper, D-Del., and Angus King, I-Maine? What about moderate Dems in the House? There are still some, who just tend to mostly vote party first, but, might rethink that.
I don’t know if Senator Manchin can read the room, but he knows the voters of West Virginia. He is doing what his constituents want! Mr Manchin is the only Democrat elected to statewide or congressional office in the Mountain State, a state in which President Trump thumped Joe Biden nearly 69% to 29%, was Mr Trump’s second strongest state, behind Wyoming, and in which he carried every county, most with at least 70% of the votes, and nine with over 80% of the votes.
The left will never admit it, but the 2021 elections were a victory for normal people! People don’t have to lack sympathy for the
mentally ill‘transgendered’ to still want biological males out of the bathrooms and locker rooms of their daughters, and people don’t have to lack sympathy for minorities to not want their, and other, children taught that, if they are born white, that everything is their fault and they should be discriminated against. People don’t have to be white supremacists to not want to see their children somehow held accountable to the sins of their great-great-great grandparents.“…returning to moderation, which would look more like the Clinton admin.”
Democratic party rhetoric aside, Trump was every bit as moderate as the Clinton administration. It wasn’t good enough for them then. It won’t be good enough now. Democrats had their chance at moderation and they chose party loyalty and ultra-loon instead.
531,000 new jobs this month! Stock market soaring! Unemployment dropping! Wages increasing! Covid on the run! America once more admired by the world!
Thank you, Brandon!!
Problems? For sure. Aren’t there always? Prices are rising (which is different from runaway inflation!). Gasoline is expensive. Covid is declining but not dead. Hot tubs, treadmills, Chinese toys are on backorder! The horror.
The Dems need to address critical race theory in schools – true, it is not formally taught – but there are enough examples around the edges to give whites and Hispanics pause. They need to talk about the needs of everyday Americans not 1.5 vs 3 vs 5 trillion dollars. Our Dem and GOP elites have let our infrastructure rot. Even the obtuse Mr tRump recognized that but did little. Human infrastructure, or as conservatives call it, NOT infrastructure!, is education from preschool through college, is healthcare from cradle to grave, childcare, mental health care (including addictions, especially addictions), a more fare tax code unburdening working class Americans. We need a fair and humane immigration system that respects our laws but that supports
Yep, the dems certainly need to double down on what they’ve been pushing.
#LetsGoBrandon
#FJB
Bwaha! Lolgf
Nan certainly took it quite well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLvJbyJuL30
#LetsGoBrandon
#FJB
Bwaha! Lolgf