Many news organizations have now called the presidential election for Joe Biden, who has extended his leads in battleground states. This is a disappointment to many conservatives who had either loved President Trump or at least come to make their peace with him given his conservative policies.
But it is worth taking a moment to reflect on the fact that a Biden presidency is now likely to be much less bad than it could have been.
Going into the elections, polls warned of a massive blue wave coming. It was supposed to not only bring a Biden presidency, but also allow Democrats to take over the Senate, expand their House majority, and rack up gains in state legislatures.
Such a result could have been devastating. Self-styled progressives believed such huge margins would have allowed Democrats to pursue significant structural changes. They weren’t talking about tweaking marginal tax rates or raising the minimum wage by a few bucks. Instead, there was talk of nuking the filibuster and packing the courts so they could then clear the barriers to a massive legislative agenda that would reshape the economy and the American way of life.
They also wanted to pursue statehood for Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, giving them four automatic Senate seats. And they hoped that their victories in state legislatures in a census year would allow them to redraw congressional maps to lock in a House majority for the next decade.
All of this is now off the table.
As we write, the composition of the government is not fully known. But it looks like, at best, Democrats will have a 50-50 Senate and a narrower House majority. Assuming there are no other surprises, if Republicans are able to win one of the Georgia Senate runoff races, Biden will have to work with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to get any legislation passed.
Right now, House Democrats are already fighting among themselves, with those in swing districts spooked by the results, angry that leftist fantasies such as “defunding the police” and packing the courts were allowed to become the image of the party. They are in no mood to sign off on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s wish list.
We are not totally naive, however. To borrow from Winston Churchill, “We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory.”
No doubt, Biden’s win not only means conservative policies will be on hold for at least four years, but also that liberals will be able to populate agencies with their own kind and attempt to impose the progressive agenda via the administrative state. It also means a return to some of the disastrous foreign policies of the Obama administration.
But those who were worried that 2021 could bring a socialist revolution to America can now sleep a little easier.
