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Tom Rinaldo

(22,911 posts)
Sun Dec 19, 2021, 11:50 PM Dec 2021

The path for Democrats holding onto Congress has now narrowed to a single option.

Six months ago there were other options. At one point it appeared that a simple return to seeming normality after all the drama of the Trump years could carry Democrats to victory in the midterms. But the electorate is restless now, if nothing else a continuing Covid-19 pandemic has stripped any veneer of normality from our daily lives, replacing any hope for stability with non focused but seething dissatisfaction. The other major card that Biden and the Democrats started out his Administration with was competency, with expertise, and solid judgement paving the way to inevitable progress. By and large the Biden Administration remains rooted in competency, but that glow no longer permeates it in the public mind. Too much seems to be uncertain if not downright out of control for competency to be associated with Democrats at this point in time. Finally, the ace in the hold that Democrats were counting on was "deliverables." Biden's core legislative agenda was crafted to make a real and measurable difference in the lives of average Americans. People who would have benefited greatly from the original Build Back Better agenda, or even the scaled back compromise version that Joe Manchin just blew up, would have had compelling life altering reasons to support Democrats in 2022. Improved roads and bridges, much of that work not slated to begin until after next November's election, do not carry a similar punch.

Through all of the factors noted above, Democrats started out this year with the capacity to seize the center of American politics, unifying our traditional base with sensible moderates and Independents and even some Republicans for a solid and winning coalition., but it hasn't played out that way. The total unraveling of Build Back Better, on top of the continuing pandemic and highly charged ideological flash points, has redrawn every political equation for 2022. Unless something changes dramatically, Democrats will not enter the mid terms with anything resembling an aura of strength, unless we manage to generate that aura ourselves. Fairly or not, we start out this election cycle with the political label "impotent" hanging around our necks.

Build Back Better, the core of President Biden's political agenda, has been brutally shot down. Housing continues to grow more unaffordable weekly, as does the cost of a college education. Women remain locked out of the work place with affordable daycare virtually impossible to find. Drawn out national police reform efforts led to a long and winding dead end street. Attempts to deliver even minimal immigration reform to stabilize the lives of millions of long term American residents living in the shadows, without any clear path forward, to a legal status have gone nowhere. Congress, under Democratic control, has failed to counter on a national level the wholesale assault on voting rights and fair elections being orchestrated by Republicans at the State level in dozens of states unimpeded. Extreme weather events continue to proliferate as the world races towards an environmental tipping point from which there is no return, and the United States has no viable plan left on board to counter that.

What will motivate the core elements of the Democratic base to turn out in record numbers for the 3022 midterms in light of that political track record? It seems each and every essential strand of Democratic core constituencies can find reason to be disappointed, if not utterly disillusioned by the fate of the Democratic agenda to date. That does not bode well for avoiding a potentially fatal "enthusiasm gap" in November. We can not campaign on "Two More Years", let alone "Four More Years" based on our current accomplishments in the current political climate. Instead we must radically alter the current political climate. Democrats have to go on war footing. We have to become passionately aspirational, exhibiting a fierce resolve and fighting spirit to deliver for the American people all of the life affirming policies and priorities that our opposition (from either side of the aisle) have currently prevented us from delivering to date. We need to openly and fervently call for larger Democratic majorities in both houses, so that we can save our climate, and restore the foundations of our American democracy, and provide the economic foundation that so many million Americans require to finally prosper in this life. Those who stand against us must be condemned as the true obstructionists of the American Dream.

The message is we will not be denied again, that we will deliver for the American people with the support of a mobilized electorate. Democrats must be seen as fighting for a cause, and heading up a movement for change that this time will be unstoppable. Doom and gloom has no place in that movement. Instead we must go on the offensive fighting for what we believe in, rather than blurring the lines that separate Democrats from Republicans. Income inequality must be back on the table front and center, no longer shoved off to a small corner in order to appease a Krysten Sinema. We should make no apologies for falling short this legislative session, instead it should be the centerpiece of our argument that the lesson to be drawn from this ti that the legislature itself must be changed through the election of more strong Democrats, who are willing to fight for what the American people need, want, and finally deserve.

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The path for Democrats holding onto Congress has now narrowed to a single option. (Original Post) Tom Rinaldo Dec 2021 OP
Dick Durbin's really coming out swinging: leftstreet Dec 2021 #1
I Agree, Sir The Magistrate Dec 2021 #2
Well said. Thanks for posting. jalan48 Dec 2021 #3
Thanks. My emotions get the best of me sometimes... Tom Rinaldo Dec 2021 #4
I agree. Running on Trump is worse and Republican's are racists and misogynists won't work. jalan48 Dec 2021 #5

leftstreet

(36,081 posts)
1. Dick Durbin's really coming out swinging:
Sun Dec 19, 2021, 11:54 PM
Dec 2021
Senator Dick Durbin
@SenatorDurbin
·
7h
In the spirit of the season, I hope the Senator from West Virginia will at least give kids in the lowest income families a helping hand and millions of Americans suffering from diabetes affordable insulin.




?s=20

Tom Rinaldo

(22,911 posts)
4. Thanks. My emotions get the best of me sometimes...
Mon Dec 20, 2021, 09:53 AM
Dec 2021

But this is no time for politics as usual. Democrats need a sharply defined equivalent of a national platform to run on in 2022. It isn't a tactic that is suitable for every midterm election, but some times the times literally call for it. Republicans capitalized on a nationalized "Contract for America" in a famous previous cycle. Democrats have to approach 2022 on the offensive with a clarion call to sweep away the resistance to Building Back America Better. Biden needs a Congress that he can work with, we came so close in 2020 but now it is time to finish the work we only managed to start. Voters must to be clear on what Democrats will deliver for them if we emerge from 2022 with a strengthened majority. Politics will not be local in 2022.

jalan48

(13,798 posts)
5. I agree. Running on Trump is worse and Republican's are racists and misogynists won't work.
Mon Dec 20, 2021, 02:58 PM
Dec 2021

I thought your post was right on and I think Democrat's need more passion and emotion if we want to get voters to the polls in 2022.

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