It does not matter how many offices Democrats lost on Tuesday — they remain incapable of introspection.
Instead of admitting that leftist extremism in education and the Biden administration’s repeated attempts to cripple the economy likely cost them the governorship in Virginia and possibly New Jersey, Democrats have decided to blame Tuesday’s electoral losses on Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
“I hope every Democrat in the White House is ringing Manchin and Sinema and giving them an earful tonight,” said MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson. “Their obstruction helped drag down Democratic enthusiasm.”
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine agreed, though he didn’t mention his colleagues by name:
Kaine: “Look, congressional Dems hurt Terry McAuliffe. I mean, I’m gonna be blunt, it’s humbling to say it. But if we had been able to deliver infrastructure & reconciliation in mid October, he could have sold universal pre K, affordable childcare, infrastructure, creating jobs.”
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) November 3, 2021
The Democratic political action committee created to oust Sinema even blamed the two centrists for President Joe Biden’s sinking approval ratings, saying they “[robbed] the Democratic Party of critical political wins” and “hurt Democrats’ chances of winning races in states like Virginia.”
None of this is true. There is absolutely no evidence Biden’s $1.75 trillion reconciliation framework or his $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill — the effects of which would not be felt for years — would have helped Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe or any of the other Democrats on the ballot. Also, not one of them had any role in writing or passing the bills.
Perhaps voters would have felt more confident about Democrats governing, in general, had the bills passed before Tuesday. But various polls show that most voters were unaware of Biden’s trillion-dollar spending bills and that there were more localized issues, such as education, on their minds. Voters were much more worried about Virginia’s public school system than they were about long-term infrastructure spending.
If anything, there’s a good chance Biden’s agenda, had it passed, would have hurt Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey rather than helped. As I wrote earlier, a CNN exit poll found 52% of Virginia voters believe the Democratic Party is “too liberal.” Nationally, Biden’s agenda netted less than 25% support in an ABC News/Ipsos poll released last week. Yet, we’re to believe independents in Virginia would have been swayed by a leftist slush fund? Doubtful.
Democrats need to take a long and hard look at their priorities if they hope to stave off an even bigger political defeat in 2022. Or they can keep trying to pass a multitrillion-dollar package most people don’t want or need or know anything about — and find themselves out of a job next year while Manchin and Sinema are left to hold down the fort.
