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CNN
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In the late 1980s, strategists at the US Army War College popularized the acronym “VUCA” as a lens for viewing a world in turmoil. It stands for “volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.” Or, as professors Nate Bennett and G. James Lemoine wrote years later, “Hey, it’s crazy out there!”
The Ukraine war is a classic VUCA moment. So is Tuesday’s midterm election in the US. The vote for all the seats in the House and more than a third in the Senate is volatile, uncertain, complex and potentially, ambiguous.
Will it be a verdict on the leadership of President Joe Biden and the Democrats who control Congress? Will it strengthen or weaken the election denialism many Republicans adopted after former President Donald Trump refused to accept his 2020 election loss? How would GOP control of one or both chambers of Congress shape America’s future and the final two years of Biden’s term?
It’s clear that the two parties differ even on the issues the election is being fought over. Republicans are stressing inflation, crime and immigration in their campaigns, while many Democrats see threats to democracy and the overturning of Roe v. Wade as key reasons to elect their candidates.
Republicans think they have the momentum in their effort to recapture control of the House and Senate, argued Alice Stewart, “because they have listened to voters, heard their concerns, and offered solutions. Democrats have been tone deaf when it comes to the real issues impacting Americans, choosing to focus on threats to democracy over everyday concerns about the cost of groceries and gas. This election is about the basic need to feed families, rather than fanning fears of a fallen democracy.”
Democrats think their warnings about the future of democracy are amply justified. “We all understand inflation is temporary but losing our democracy could be permanent,” wrote Dean Obeidallah. He cited the “Washington Post’s recent reporting that a majority of the GOP nominees on the ballot his year for the House, Senate and statewide office have denied or questioned the results of the 2020 election. We have never seen anything like this in…
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