OFFICIAL 2022 Mid-Terms Polling Thread Part II

previously on Hold me, David:

With the midterm elections still a few days ahead, it’s too soon to start playing Wednesday morning quarterback. The results aren’t in yet. But at this pivotal moment in Joe Biden’s presidency, and with the Democratic Party barely clutching the reins in Congress, it’s not too early to assess what happened to the party that gained power nearly two years ago.

Biden, I wrote in December, was on the path to a one-term presidency paved by a fractious Democratic Party.

To be sure, Democrats have achieved legislative milestones since Inauguration Day: a massive infrastructure bill, the $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package, the Build Back Better Act. But from nearly Day 1, the country witnessed prolonged class warfare and clashes between House Democratic progressives and centrists.

For more than a year, Republicans sat back and watched with broad grins as the Democratic left pummeled its moderate colleagues as “corporate Democrats” stuffed in the pockets of Wall Street, Big Pharma and corrupt businesses.

Months went by as Democrats played hardball among themselves, warring over the spoils of the 2020 elections success. However, they — coaxed and beseeched by Biden — managed to paper over their ideological divides to craft bills that could be passed by their slim House and Senate majorities. But the Biden beatdown, applied by Democrats and exploited by Republicans, stuck in the minds of voters, to the point where today only about 40 percent of Americans approve of the president’s job performance.

Come what may Tuesday, Biden, and what remains of the ranks of congressional Democrats, must go on. Yes, this moment is pivotal, but it’s not conclusive. Lesson learned after the past two years? In politics, internecine warfare is the deadliest of all.

The progressive-centrist divide must take a back seat. If Republicans score well on Tuesday, there will be fallout, nasty and foul. They have already telegraphed some of their punches. Top of the Republican agenda: extend President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and scrap tax increases on corporations. Above all, look for Republicans to try to roll back economic and social programs, kill student loan forgiveness, and impose restrictions on immigration and abortion access. And the Biden administration will be showered with congressional subpoenas and investigations covering every issue imaginable. So ignore self-serving wannabe powerbrokers among the Democrats. The time for showboaters and ankle-biters is long past. At this stage, what’s needed is a well-grounded defense strategy, and nothing less than an agenda and leadership that unify and energize the Democratic spectrum, and which attract an American majority, are called for.

I voted early by mail and voted democrat all the way down the ballot. I think it’s the first time I have ever done that even for the local stuff. I am sick of the repubs and I want them out.