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.
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.
Read: Even The NY Times Editorial Board Thinks Democrats Are Denying Political Reality »