Blogger's Opinion: There is a way for Democrats to save themselves! The question is are they willing to?

 Will the Democrats choose to save themselves from the midterm curse?

U.S. President Joe Biden shaded in the dark.

Coming from a blog solely about the fictional world of Chawosauria, wherein the Chawosaurian world, the Chawosaurian Communist Party under Supreme Leader Shang Jong Parker may be setting themselves up for colossal failure in the 2024 Chawosaurian midterm elections as they stumble Chawosauria into the Chawo-Uralic War in hopes to preserve a very radical and very unpopular inner border meant to draw the line between two of Chawosauria's Continental Federal Republics: the Federal Republic of Europe and the Federal Republic of Asia; in the real world, the Democratic Party, now in the United States controls the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives, all two chambers of Congress, since January 20, 2021, the Democrats may be set to get the ultimate smackdown commonly suffered by the party that rules the White House. 

On November 2, 2021, there were two gubernatorial elections to elect Governors of both Virginia and New Jersey, both states voted for Joe Biden over President Donald Trump by large double digits, but the Democrats in Congress were in the middle of a time-wasting civil war between progressives and moderates over how to pass Mr. Biden's Build Back Better agenda, which includes the reconciliation package that seeks to make investments to social safety net programs, childcare, and renewable energy, and then finally, the separate bipartisan Infrastructure bill that seeks to create infrastructure jobs to revolutionize America's crumbling infrastructure. As a result of this prolonged Democrat infighting, Democrats suffered a big blow of a defeat in Virginia with Glenn Youngkin riding on a wave of discontent with the Democrats' agenda, well seemingly, and Youngkin trying to make the Virginia election all about Virginia while the Democrats waved the bloody shirt against the unpopular former President Donald Trump. It was local issues that wins the day. Meanwhile, Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat himself, won but narrowly than expected, but it is still a historic victory for the Democrats in two ways: one is that this is the first time since 1977 that a Democratic governor was reelected, and second is that this is the first time New Jersey had elected a governor who is of the same party as the President of the United States since 1985 under President Ronald Reagan, so Joe Biden has double made history in New Jersey, but since Virginia was also close, Biden would've tripled the history-making for a President because Virginia always has had the tendency of voting down a gubernatorial candidate who belongs to the President's party (well except 2013 under Obama). Biden was still able to keep two states from voting against him, something previous Presidents Donald Trump in 2017, Barack Obama in 2009, George W. Bush in both 2001 and 2005, and Bill Clinton in 1993 and 1997, were all never able to do. In fact, Biden's Virginia Democrat did better than Obama's. Virginia gave Biden a 2% defeat, while Trump and Obama had it worse. Don't think other previous Presidents were that lucky.

There is still no way in the world for Democrats to paint a rosy picture on Virginia, that state (or commonwealth, actually) had been trending towards the Democratic Party, it has voted Democratic in presidential elections and has two Democratic U.S. Senators since 2008, voted Democratic for governor four of the last six gubernatorial elections since 2001, and Democrats were able to keep elections for the Virginia state legislature (called the Virginia General Assembly) competitive since 2017 that they actually won both chambers once in 2019. Virginia is trending in favor of the Democratic Party thanks to Northern Virginia and other urban centers such as the Commonwealth's capital, Richmond, which of course urban centers are friendly territory for Democrats and suburbs are at least open-minded for Democrats depending on the political environment of each suburb or state of the country. For Democrats to lose Virginia in the way that they did was actually preventable, Glenn Youngkin, Virginia's incoming Republican governor, actually won less of the raw vote than Trump lost Virginia with, Youngkin got 1,658,644 votes to Trump losing Virginia to Biden by 10 percentage points with 1,962,430 Virginians voting for Trump all according to Wikipedia, this burns all excuses of why Democrats lost. The reality is, there is NO EXCUSE for Democrats to lose Virginia. 

The Virginia debacle is SQUARELY the Democrats' fault. Republicans didn't win because they excited their base which they kinda did in all fairness, Republicans won because the Democrats allowed the Republicans to win. Youngkin didn't win in a landslide like Bob McDonnell did in 2009 under Obama, he only won by 2% points. How did the Democrats blow this up for themselves? The Democrats in Congress had not been getting a lot done, the country is still in horrid shape thanks to the Delta variant which is no fault on Biden's part, but did fluster the recovery that vaccinations were giving us under Biden, seemingly earlier this year pushing the pandemic behind us and returning to normalcy. 

The Democrats in Congress were stuck in a stalemate war between moderates and progressives on how to pass Biden's recovery plan, spanning from late summer to November of this year with no sign of progress nor any compromises that can lead to its passage. It has become a very petty fight, all for what? Progressives in the House held hostage moderates' infrastructure bill while moderates in the Senate threaten to kill the Progressives' social spending plan, both bills endorsed by Biden. What Biden did not endorse was the embarrassing infighting between Democrats for the whole country to see while the country itself burns in inflation and is locked in a resistant pandemic and recession. 

The Democrats were elected to Washington to govern, not engage in petty fights with each other like they're the children from the early 2000s sitcom Malcolm In The Middle, Democrats have a lot of responsibility to take as a party for their preventable loss of Virginia instead of blaming each other, which would make the fight look even pettier to the average voter. 

But what Democrats can agree on is that Virginia gave them (in reality and to be honest, a badly-needed) kick in the ass to make them get things done for the people of this country AS FAST AS POSSIBLE and they do have a chance to do just that. Just because Virginia went red may not mean the Democrats are doomed unless Democrats choose to make the Virginia debacle mean they're screwed, whether Virginia foreshadows the midterm collapse of the Democratic Party is squarely up to the Democratic Party itself and it's time we start treating the Democratic Party as if they have the sole power over their own fate, not the dynamics of history, whatever fate Democrats choose to desire is the fate for the party the voters MUST DELIVER for the Democratic Party. There is a way for Democrats to save themselves and THEY CAN! The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill is a real game-changer that may help Democrats win over both swing voters and possibly blue-collar voters that the party has had trouble with since the 1960s. If this Infrastructure bill becomes law and it affects our country by fixing roads, bridges, and other things our country needs, it will make it hard for Republicans in some areas of the country to attack the Democrats as weak on the economy and jobs and could help Democrats win at least a slim majority in both chambers of Congress. An Infrastructure bill that is a law (at least scenario-wise) would give Democrats in critical districts and states a talking point hard for Republican candidates to shrug off, downplay, or even dismiss. When the 2018 midterm elections arrived, the economy did help Republicans retain at least a bulk of power while still losing the House of Representatives to the Democrats in such a big way, but Joe Biden is not Donald Trump on the personal level, he just doesn't have to say it. Trump's personality cost Republicans the House of Representatives that a good economy wasn't enough to save Republicans in swing districts that flipped the house from red to blue. COVID-19 exposed Trump for what he is and it cost Republicans the White House and the Senate though they were close to flipping back the house in 2020. 

Democrats tried to link Gleen Youngkin of Virginia to a former President who Virginians rejected not once but twice in 2016 and 2020, and it failed. Democrats need to accomplish things for the people if they want to be successful in next year's midterm elections. And Democrats need to talk about local issues as well, also why Virginia was a disaster. Democrats mishandled the local issues of education due to a surging debate about Critical Race Theory being taught in public schools has made Virginian parents feel icky, as well as COVID-19 safety protocols being enforced in public schools and Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Youngkin's opponent, had stumbled on the education issue, which turned the Virginia race around from an imminent Democrat victory to an incoming Republican upset. It doesn't help too much that Minneapolis resoundingly rejected a ballot initiative that would've disbanded the Minneapolis Police Department and replaced it with a new tender public safety department. 

Democrats need to talk more about local issues as well as a scenario accomplishment on Infrastructure. Support or opposing critical race theory and defunding the police is squarely up to each Democratic candidate running for office, and whatever their stance would be should be based on smart calculations. But if I have a suggestion on what is the smart way to address police brutality, it is Reform The Police, something that may be more popular than Defund The police or Abolish The Police. The issue of police brutality should not be ignored however, the killing of George Floyd opened a much-needed discussion on how police officers should police the country, Race-based police brutality has been a problem for all communities of color going back before the Civil Rights Movement, so yeah, police departments need serious reforms, and Democrats need to run on that in a smart way instead of chanting Defund The Police because that will not win you a swing voter.

The Democratic Party needs to get their partisan agenda done to galvanize their hardcore base to vote in 2020 level turnout and they need to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill to win trust and confidence from swing voters and maybe blue-collar voters whom both groups care more about the economy and jobs. If Democrats succeed, it will make it hard for Republicans to run on the economy and will force them to move to desperate measures to change the subject from the Democrats' infrastructure law to other matters such as Antifa, CRT, and Black Lives Matter when the Democrats got the Infrastructure law that brought new infrastructure jobs, a new American infrastructure, a competitive America on infrastructure in the world, and impact on the U.S. economy to run on as an accomplishment for the people.

A Democrat Infrastructure bill passed into law will also help Joe Biden when he runs for reelection in 2024 likely in a rematch against Donald Trump. When Trump was President of the United States, he screams for the need for Infrastructure over and over again, but no infrastructure bill was ever passed under his watch. Biden. with an infrastructure accomplishment on his side, can use this against Trump while Trump will try desperately to shift the conservation away from a key working-class populist agenda item that he himself could not deliver but the man who he called "Sleepy Joe Biden" delivered for him and now gets to have the credit from swing voters key to deciding whether Biden gets a second term or not. Biden sitting in the Oval Office signing a bill that Trump tried to get passed as part of a populist movement that Trump himself build and used to win the presidency in 2016 would be THE LAST THING Trump wants to see in the Biden era. 

Democrats have the choice right here, right now, to save their party from a midterm blowback. Glenn Youngkin's victory in Virginia actually isn't very impressive compared to past Virginian gubernatorial victors against the President's party. Under Trump in 2017, Democrat Ralph Northam was elected Governor of Virginia with 54% of the vote; under Obama in 2009, Republican Bob McDonnell was elected with 58% of the vote; and both Presidents lost the House of Representatives in a big way. You know what Glenn Youngkin won? 51% of the vote to the losing Democrat's 48%. How is it such a pathetic victory against a President of the United States from the opposing party indicates a tsunami going to happen in the midterms? That means Democrats can have a turnaround, they just need to energize their base by enacting much of the Democratic agenda and they need to win swing voters by enacting the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill, both sent to Biden's desk to sign into law.

The Democrats have the White House and both chambers of Congress. They have the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill and the social spending reconciliation bill sitting right in front of them waiting to be passed by both chambers and sent to Biden's desk for him to sign. This is their moment, a do-or-die moment for the Democratic Party. If the Democrats in Congress won't save themselves, then they've made a grim decision and they better know the voters will accept that decision. If Democrats choose not to save their party, then there is only one opinion you should have for the Democratic Party: 

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE IN POWER, THEY DESERVE TO LOSE THE MIDTERMS TO REPUBLICANS. 

For Chawosauria's Shang Jong Parker, he is locked in an unpopular Chawo-Uralic War that has so badly destabilized since April 2021. There's no saving Shang Jong Parker now as his approval rating crumbled so badly and so harder than Joe Biden's, so hard that Parker is now at 37% approval way down from 93% in four months because of the war, while Biden sits at 43% down from his own highest: 55% in the mid-summer of 2021, Biden's approval fall was quicker than Parker's though solely due to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, putting an unpleasant end to a generation-long War in Afghanistan that has denied those born just before the 21st-century a childhood of peace and made those born into the 21st century born in a time of endless war.