The dictionary’s second definition of “landslide” is a torrent of votes for one party over its competition. But the original, more to-the-point definition is a destructive mass of rocks, mud, trees and debris hurtling down a mountain. There must be a New Yorker cartoon somewhere of a politician standing below a landslide’s leading edge and remarking, “They’re predicting sunshine tomorrow.” Say hello to the Democrats—while they’re still standing.
Congress came back to the Washington mother ship this week, and the buzz was that the Democrats will move heaven and earth to give the American public a reason to vote for them in November’s midterm elections. Maybe enact another $10 billion in Covid relief or wave a wand that erases student-loan debt. Normally I’d say good luck with that, but the party is beyond luck.
It’s time for a premortem on the Democrats’ House debacle and very possible loss of Senate control.
Barack Obama,
now the party’s main oracle, said during his recent visit to the Biden White House: “You’ve got a story to tell—just got to tell it.” No, their story is the problem.
From the day
Joe Biden
entered office, the Democrats have displayed a misreading of how the Covid-19 pandemic had altered the country’s normal political and social alignments.
Obvious to everyone now, the pandemic forced millions to rethink everything in their lives—their jobs, children, schools, where they lived, care for elderly relatives, the routines of daily life.
This was a complex political and cultural event to which the Democratic response was Pavlovian: Throw money and expect gratitude.
What the Democrats did—first the $2 trillion 2021 Covid relief bill followed by the attempt to pass $4.6 trillion more with Build Back Better—was an exercise in political grandiosity…