One of The Washington Post’s most prominent political columnists told a Kansas City audience today that, given the results of the Nov. 3 election, Democrats should not expect an overly ambitious and progressive Democratic agenda over the next few years.
David Von Drehle, a Kansas City area resident who writes a twice-weekly column for The Post, spoke via Zoom to about 45 people at a meeting of the 40 Years Ago Column Club.
Monday marked the second time in the last two years Von Drehle, who resides in Mission Hills, has spoken to the club, which draws its members from the ranks of people named in The Kansas City Star at least 40 years ago.
David von Drehle
Von Drehle said that while the Nov. 3 election results could be interpreted as “anti-Trump,” they should not be read as pro-Democratic Party.
In fact, he said, the election marked a good day for the Republican Party, given that it gained seats in the U.S. House, in state legislatures and in one gubernatorial race. (In January, 27 states will have Republican governors, to 23 for Democrats.)
Von Drehle said he thought a majority of voters were saying while they wanted a new President, “they don’t necessarily want everything we heard about in the Democratic primaries.”
Many Democrats who voted for Joe Biden, then, probably will not see as ambitious an agenda as they would like on issues like climate change, single-payer medical insurance and guarantees of jobs and minimum basic incomes.
Although Democrats have high hopes to gain control of the U.S. Senate with the two runoff races in Georgia, Von Drehle in inclined to believe Democrats will end up disappointed.
“Frankly,” he said, “I’ll be surprised if Democrats take win either one.”
Part of his reasoning on that is he believes a majority of voters prefer divided government to unified government, where one party controls the executive and legislative branches. As an example, he pointed to the 2018 “offset,” where Democrats took control of the House two years after Trump was elected President.
“People like to have opposition to a powerful person in the White House,” he said.
Besides the Georgia races, Von Drehle sees the prospect of more Democratic storm clouds on the horizon: History, he said, suggests Republicans will gain control of the House in 2022. He qualified that prediction, however, by saying it might not come to pass if Biden can do three things:
— Restore calm to the country
— Make significant strides toward unifying the nation
— Get the Covid-19 pandemic under control.
If Biden can succeed in those key areas, he said, “Democrats will have a real agenda to run on in two years.”
Trump might have lost but make no mistakes, November 3 was a better day for the Republicans than it was the Democrats. Republicans gained more House seats and are likely to keep their majority in the Senate. They kept their state house majorities thus allowing them to draw their congressional districts. And they picked up more black and Latino voters. Trump should have been the demise of the Republican Party but it is stronger than ever. Personally, I find that scary but half the nation doesn’t.
Good analysis, Mike. While I doubt there will be enough evidence of election fraud available to reverse the election results, I do think there will be enough embarrassing information coming out that Biden’s presidency will be severely delegitimized from the outset. Add to that the fact that MeWe, Gab and Parler are picking up steam and making Facebook’s outrageously biased censorship even more embarrassing you can also expect an even more polarized nation as people retreat even further into their echo chambers.
If there is to be any reconciliation at all it is going to have to occur on the interpersonal level between small groups of friends willing to dialogue with one another and unfortunately that will be inhibited by the pandemic.