The 2014 midterm elections could be the most important midterms in decades, setting the stage for 2016 and well beyond. But Democrats are approaching them on tip toes when they should be wearing their iron-toed boots.
Wall Street has done well under this president. Last month’s jobs report capped several months of continuous growth. Almost seven years after a near financial collapse, the US economy is on the mend. Is everyone working who wants to work? Of course not. Millions of Americans are still enduring long-term unemployment.Â
But the country’s economy is healthier than it’s been in a long time.Â
What have Republicans done? Remember this was the party that was all about creating jobs and protecting upper income Americans, the so-called job creators. They’ve launched endless investigations and all but suspended governance.
But many Democrats have continued to distance themselves from President Obama as his poll numbers slide — as is the case for most presidents at this point in their second term. Some have been outspoken about women’s reproductive health, income inequality, comprehensive immigration reform, and climate change. But few speak with the kind of conviction and confidence heard in Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Many Democrats are sitting on the sidelines instead. And it’s hard to gauge how strongly Dems will head to the polls in November. Maybe some believe that Democratic control of the US Senate is already lost, so why bother.
If that attitude prevails, Dems are in for rough times. The Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart warned in a recent column that Obama will almost certainly be impeached if the Dems lose the Senate.
But even worse than that, an era in American politics that permitted some collaboration and compromise between party leaders will end at a time when the country’s challenges at home and abroad are growing more defiant – some might even say existential. Just look at the responses from all sides to the crisis of Central American children crossing the southern border to escape violence in their own countries.
Democrats heading to the polls this November may be able to hold on to the Senate, and more importantly, give the country enough time to re-calibrate its politics of gridlock, bluster, and de-legitimizing elections.Â
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2014.
As with everything the Democrats do, bias is always ironically against them. The media is biased but against the anti-corporate side. They tend to pick the side who seems to have momentum on their side, and thusly the winners. In 2007 and 2008, the media was softer on Obama than Clinton and then on McCain. Once Obama won, everything pivoted. By July or August when the “tea party” began its odious rise, the narrative had swung against Obama and the idea that the Democrats would lose Congress became gospel; it didn’t need to be. The only reason the Senate was saved was because the Republicans nominated such extreme “not-ready-for-any-time” candidates like Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell. Then 2012, though still very critical, the narrative briefly swung back to Obama, enough to propel turnout for Democrats to keep the Senate (and elect several liberals, like Tammy Baldwin, Chris Murphy and Elizabeth Warren). Once that was over though, Obama essentially became a lame duck when the Senate refused to pass gun control legislation. Now the narrative is doom-and-gloom for Democrats. It is NOT fair but it is life.
This is typical of Democratics.
The real change– the only change–that came with the Obama presidency was malaise. Obama winning meant Democrats could go into a deep sleep. Democrats seemed oblivious to the lack of action in Obama’s first year when he wasted the Democratic majority in the House & Senate.
The exact same thing happened with the Carter presidency. Carter was not an ineffective president. The American public was ineffective as ” we the people”. With Carter, we elected him and immediately abandoned him.
I am always engaged. Those around me, not so much.