It Looks Like Biden Is Going To Win. Why Aren't Dems Happy?
The top of the ticket tells only half the story
While we are still awaiting final results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina the general feeling is that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. That feeling, however, has not translated into the kind of joy you’d expect see among Democrats. I will grant that Democrats may be working with an abundance of caution here - after 2016 nobody wants to count their chickens before they officially hatch - but there is also plenty for Democrats to be angry about. As of this writing, it seems that Republicans will retain control of the Senate and that the Democrats will lose House seats.
Big caveat here - it looks like both of Georgia’s Senate races will be going to a runoff and the result of those races will be the determining factor in who controls the Senate. Sorry guys, you’re going to have to deal with Georgia politics until January.
This was, to put it mildly, now how things were supposed to work. According to the polling conducted before the election Biden was supposed to win handly and Democrats were to take control of the Senate, giving them full control of the White House and Congress. A slimmed down majority in the House, a Republican led Senate and Biden as President is obviously not an optimal situation for getting a progressive agenda pished through. Hence the dampened enthusiasm seen among Democrats and the progressive wing in particular.
Let’s be honest; having Biden as President without having a Democratic Congress means nothing for the progressive wing of the party. In fact, it’s likely worse than nothing because (gasp!) Biden is not a progressive who (double gasp!) might work with Senate Republicans to (triple gasp!) pass more centrist policy that can gain bipartisan support. If that happens it will be a step backward for progressives in advancing their policy goals.
About that down ticket disappointment; there’s mounting evidence that the progressive wing of the party actively hurt Democrats running for election and re-election. The pro-socialist stance taken by both the elected members of the progressive wing and the social media famous who boost them have allowed the party as a whole to be presented as pro-socialist. That image cost Biden the Cuban vote in Florida, which cost him the 29 electoral votes he needed to end this election either late Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. On an internal Democrat caucus call reported on by Erica Werner, Virginia Hose Representative Abigail Spanberger screamed at Nancy Pelosi that an attack ad based around “defund the police” almost cost her re-election and told Pelosi to “don’t say socialism ever again.”
To be sure there has been plenty of blame narrative going around Progressive Bluecheck Twitter casting aspersions on anyone who is not a white male yet voted for Trump (more on that in an upcoming larger piece) but there is a lot of anger pointed in their direction right now. It’s one thing for the progressive wing to be the Democratic punching bag on social media, it’s another thing entirely to have actively harmed the chances of Democratic candidates running for office.