Post-Election Postmortem, Democrat Edition
Democrats escaped a red wave on November 8, but most/all of their liberal agenda will be paralyzed by having lost their House majority.
Expecting worse, fearful Democrats began airing their accusations and excuses early.
In a pre-election meltdown, little-watched MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid hysterically pre-blamed the public: “It’s terrifying how many Americans will choose literal fascism, female serfdom, climate collapse and the reversal of everything from Social Security & Medicare to student loan relief bc they think giving Republicans the power to investigate Hunter Biden will bring down gas prices.”
Reid’s incoherent rant was a perfect example of the “elite” left’s juvenile narcissism. They’re never wrong, you see. By “how many Americans,” Reid simply meant, “how many who disagree with me.”
Apparently, regular people are too stupid to grasp that objections to a slumping economy, brutal inflation, open borders, oppressive COVID mandates, violent crime, abortion-on-demand, cultural degradation, and out-of-control energy prices are proxies for fascism, serfdom, and climate Armageddon – and Hunter Biden is an innocent victim of irrational thinking.
Ironically, Democrats’ media allies are receiving a measure of blame for failing to “add proper context” to their normally-biased “reporting.” How dare media cover energy prices, inflation, and supply chain problems without reassuring audiences that the Democrats responsible are genuinely virtuous – faultless – people who have America’s best interests at heart?
Democrats also pre-blamed Vladimir Putin, alleging his 2022 Ukraine invasion increased gasoline/diesel prices, even though, immediately following his January, 2021 inauguration, President(ish) Joe Biden drove up energy prices by blocking domestic oil production and transportation.
Biden implored Saudi Arabia to increase oil production to lower the high prices his policies caused while, at the same time he was attempting to cut a deal with the Saudis’ mortal Iranian enemies that would allow Iran’s ruling mullahs to become an atomic power. The Saudis retaliated by cutting production, so, they’re also catching blame for Democrats’ election failures.
Predictably, Democrats are overplaying the race card. Stacey Abrams, a “woman of color” who faced no consequences for denying the legitimacy of her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial defeat, lost convincingly this year, just one non-contest that Democrats claim “white supremacists” won through “voter suppression.”
Accusations of minority voter suppression over sensible reforms to improve/ensure election integrity in Georgia and other states are being blamed for Democrats’ losses, even though minority turnout set records following reforms.
Normally a fairly-reliable Democrat voting bloc, Hispanic voters who moved to the right this year are being blamed, too. Legal Hispanic-American citizens are among the constituencies most critical of left-liberal cultural degeneracy and the influx of illegal aliens across America’s open Southern border, so they are being incoherently maligned as “white supremacists” who “betrayed” their communities.
The brutal inflation for which Biden administration policies and a profligate Democrat-controlled Congress are largely responsible was an issue in the mid-terms. Nonetheless, guilty Democrats are also blaming their losses on the Federal Reserve’s failure to control the inflation they caused. The Fed’s only inflation-fighting tool is to raise interest rates. Voters – and the housing market – didn’t like rate increases, either.
An unpopular president-cum-running punchline will be mercilessly blamed for his party’s House loss, even though it was fellow Democrats who nominated a diminished old man who may not be able count backwards from ten anymore.
Following the mid-term election, expect more Democrats to demand that Biden leave office after one term – or sooner. The president just turned eighty, so the party’s loss of the House will increase the likelihood that ambitious younger members will call for “a new generation” to lead Democrats, and there will be a 2024 Gen X/Millennial cattle call.
But, a narrow Republican House majority – or only about one-half of one-third of the government – will give Democrats, left-wing media and their other constituencies an old, convenient target – the GOP.
“Ministry of Truth” media will attempt to shove two years of errors, malfeasance and affronts down the memory hole, and blame the lingering effects of Washington Democrats’ arrogant overreach and every presidential blunder between January, 2021 and November, 2024 on Republicans.
Republicans clearly have work to do following midterms, but relieved, complacent Democrats who think they “won” by escaping a worst case scenario, have no real incentive to improve.
A split government will cause gridlock; the fundamental issues are unlikely to change; and Democrats will remain vulnerable in 2024.
https://www.pottsmerc.com/2022/11/21/jerry-shenk-post-election-postmortem-democrat-edition/
