When Joe Biden won the presidency last year, it wasn’t so much because of his strengths but because of Donald Trump’s weaknesses.
The 2020 race was, first and foremost, a referendum on Trump, whose personality and divisive rhetoric spurred a massive turnout both of those who were enamored by him and even more so from those who were repulsed.
But now Biden is the incumbent, and the referendum was on him Tuesday. He got a solid thumbs-down in two closely watched states, Virginia and New Jersey, where Biden had done so well a year ago, winning both by double-digit margins.
Virginia gave Republicans a clean sweep, starting with Glenn Youngkin winning the governor’s race. And even though the incumbent Democratic governor in New Jersey, Phil Murphy, was able to hold on, there were unexpected casualties in that state for the Democratic Party, with its longtime Senate president losing reelection to an underfunded Republican newcomer.
In the aftermath of Tuesday’s results, President Biden tried to gloss over what was an obvious message to him. People, as the returns showed, aren’t happy.
They’re exhausted with COVID-19, but they also think the White House is overreaching by trying to force people to get vaccinated against their will. They are worried about rising costs, supply-chain bottlenecks and labor shortages. They believe the president botched the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. And they think his approach to America’s domestic challenges — enacting hugely expensive programs that would make even the middle class increasingly dependent on federal assistance — undermine the personal drive and initiative that have propelled this country’s economic growth throughout its history.
The president has a choice. He can double-down and try to appease the progressive faction of his party with more spending and more class warfare. That will produce a certain rout in next year’s mid-term congressional elections.
Or he can borrow a page from other politicians who received similar shellackings by proxy. He can move more to the center and, if not avoid the loss of legislative majorities, at least reduce how many seats Republicans gain in 2022.
The president appears to think he can turn his fortunes around if only he can get through Congress his two major domestic initiatives unrelated to the pandemic: the $1 trillion bill for roads, bridges and other infrastructure, and the scaled-back $1.75 trillion package for social and environmental initiatives. He has been spending months trying to make both of those happen, but the longer the negotiations have dragged out, the more ineffectual he has appeared.
The president fooled himself into thinking that his election was a mandate by voters to do big things. It wasn’t.
Most voters prefer government that moves incrementally. Big leaps make them nervous, and rightfully so.
The president has been warned. Let’s see if he listens.
- The Greenwood Commonwealth
