Although the Virginia governors race upset of Democratic favorite Terry McAuliffe was viewed as a harbinger of what is to come next year, it’s important to remember that it was only decided by a couple of percentage points. Only in the United States are elections decided by single digits considered to represent seismic political shifts.
Democrats oppose Republican schemes to make it harder to vote. No one can argue with that. But what’s the point of voting if it doesn’t lead to meaningful change?
In many respects, Joe Biden is continuing the Donald Trump immigration policies that he campaigned against. He is deporting more immigrants. He is even re-launching the previous administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy that exposes applicants for political asylum to retaliation by drug cartels.
Democrats had to give up a few things to get a vote from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. One of them was planet earth. Because he is from a major coal-producing state, they had to water the climate change initiative down to nothing.
Politics is all about framing. Part of why the the ambitious Democratic $3.5 trillion spending bill is down to $1.9 trillion and might go even smaller is because nobody, even in the media, knows what’s in it. How can you ask the public to support something nebulous?
Liberal Democrats urge vaccine resistant Americans, particularly Republicans, to follow science and get vaccinated against COVID-19. Solid advice. But the very same liberal Democrats are willing to grant religious exceptions to vaccine mandates even though religion runs entirely contrary to science.
Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is one of two right-wing Democrats who hold liberal priorities hostage. The Democratic Party likes to blame him for their inability to get major accomplishments done, but he also serves a useful purpose as an excuse for inaction.
Democrats often ask progressives: how can you say that there’s no difference between Democrats and the Republican party? While there are differences of tone, on the most important issues there is little to no difference in policy. And Congressional votes reflect that.
The Wall Street Journal has published “the Facebook papers,” which revealed that Facebook and other big technology companies have been more than willing to monetize disinformation and misinformation, even when it needs to people’s deaths. Legacy media is laughing, but they should look at themselves too.
American employers spent decades treating employees like crap. They slashed salaries, eliminated training, disrespected them, increased their working hours and then, when they were done with them, unceremoniously fired them in mass layoffs. Now they need more workers but people have moved onto their own businesses or family obligations instead.
