Tuesday was not a good day for Democrats. And now many pundits are scrambling to come up with a reason for it. Some are even calling it a preview of the 2022 elections. That sounds too defeatist for me. I think Democrats need to adjust, and do a better job of turning out their vote, but I'm not ready to write 2022 off yet.One of the better reactions to the Tuesday elections came from veteran journalist Dan Rather. Here is part of what he had to say:
In the wake of yesterday’s elections, the prospects around the electoral strength of the Democratic Party appear, at least for this moment in time, bleak. I caution you to beware of any simplistic accounting for what took place in Virginia and even New Jersey, as well as in many examples of local races in other parts of the country. That there was a broad uniformity to the bad news for Democrats is certainly a message. But of what exactly?
Was this a natural swing in electoral fortunes against a sitting president, especially one with low approval numbers?
Was it an example of the potency of racist rhetoric around such topics as education?
Should senators Manchin and Sinema bear blame for holding up a popular agenda in Congress and denying Biden a win?
Are many Americans just frustrated and tired as we continue to stagger through the pandemic?
Was this a turnout election, where it wasn’t so much that the Democrats didn’t turn out a lot of voters, but the Republicans just turned out more?
Are we seeing more evidence of the perniciousness of the lies and divisions promulgated by social media?
Have Democrats lost even more working class white voters?
Is the media culpable for covering extremism in the Republican Party as politics as usual?
Does this mark a further erosion of our democracy?
Is America still cleaved and weakened by its racist history?
Are there more voters in play than many might have believed?
Will the next election cycle look different just as governor’s races in both blue and red states in the recent past have not predicted well what often comes next?
Do many people in this country not pay close attention to the inner workings of our political system and make decisions at the ballot box that seem inscrutable to those who are much more informed?
As I write out this list, and know I could add many entries, my answer is simply, in some form,All of the above. . . .
There are millions who will have woken this morning and are already hard at work to help make this world better. I suspect that includes many of you. Nonetheless, I will not diminish what we face. There should be recriminations and post mortems. . . .
I have seen the road to progress in my lifetime take many detours. Sometimes new chasms emerge that seem uncrossable. But the reason why progress often gets back on track is because people refuse to give up. They regroup, rethink, reorganize, but not retreat. They maybe were weary and needed a break, but they ultimately keep pushing forward. I have no way of predicting where we will go. I do know, however, that fatalism has never been a winning strategy. And I firmly believe, with my life’s experience as my guide, that what we sometimes see in the moment looks very different in retrospect. But to change that fate requires energy and perseverance. Recovery is not inevitable but it is not impossible - not by a long shot.
