The current chapter of The Narrative, says Eugene Robinson, is “Democrats are doomed.” Democrats’ fate in 2022 (and beyond, perhaps) depends on being able to deliver on the Biden agenda. What The Narrative lacks, as it usually does, is perspective.
Biden is barely into his four-year term. Arbitrary deadlines for passage are just that. Robinson reminds readers that the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, a midterm election year (Washington Post):
Of course, Obamacare did produce the tea party backlash and huge midterm gains for Republicans. But here’s where The Narrative gets confusing: Is it supposed to be worse for Democrats if they actually accomplish their goals, and thereby risk energizing the opposition? Or if they get nothing done and look like failures?
The context that’s missing is that the Democratic Party, for better or worse, has to represent the entirety of the sane political spectrum, from Sens. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) on the right to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and the Squad on the left. That’s because the GOP has left the building.
Failure is far from inevitable, Robinson argues. “Thus far, on votes that really matter, Democrats have shown remarkable unity.” Painful compromise could be ahead, but not likely abject failure. Take The Narrative with a healthy grain of salt. Also when The Narrartive changes to “Biden is back.”
A wild card unaccounted for by The Narrative is how many conservatives have rejected the Trump Kool-aid but not democracy.
Max Boot, former Republican, argues that the fate of Biden’s legislative agenda won’t change how he votes (Washington Post):
I’m a single-issue voter. My issue is the fate of democracy in the United States. Simply put, I have no faith that we will remain a democracy if Republicans win power. Thus, although I’m not a Democrat, I will continue to vote exclusively for Democrats — as I have done in every election since 2016 — until the GOP ceases to pose an existential threat to our freedom.
How many non-Democrats perceive that threat may not be captured by standard polling questions about likeability or policy matters. Boot has set aside his views on those. “We agree on something more foundational — democracy,” Miles Taylor and former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman wrote on Monday on behalf of at least 100 former Republican officials. And Max Boot.
Benjamin Franklin posed the famous Liberty or Safety proposition. How many Americans would choose autocracy over democracy if polling questions managed to tease out that opinion? I have no idea. A minority, likely. But that minority seems more and more inclined to put guns before votes.