Post-Election Reflections

Post-Election Reflections

 Given the recent election, it is clear the US remains politically divided. While Biden won the popular vote by six million and will win the electoral college with 306 votes, the Democrats underperformed in the House and Senatorial races. The number of lost seats in the House currently hovers around ten. While anticipating a Democratic majority in the Senate, the Party only picked up one seat. The Dems could garner a one-point majority, with VP Harris as the tie breaker if they take both seats in the Georgia run-off race in January. If not, the Republicans will maintain their slim majority. It is too early to offer a thorough analysis of the demographic and geographical breakdown of the congressional races. Among other things, it seems Biden garnered votes from significant number of Republicans who split their ticket down ballot. It is also obvious that Trump mobilized his base, which made it extremely difficult for Democrats to gain seats in districts that supported him by substantial majorities. At least two things seem clear: both political parties have serious work to do and that, at the national level, power will swing back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans for the foreseeable future. 

 As I see it, the Democrats have two challenges: the need to work out a durable coalition between its moderate liberal and progressive wings and to gain sufficient political credibility to sustain the policy direction it seeks over a significant period of time. Major Democratic areas for sustainable long-term policy development include environmental reform, an equitable healthcare system, immigration reform, a vigorous civil rights program, and a dynamic job development plan linked to meeting the needs of an environmentally friendly economy. I would also add a well-crafted foreign policy orientation that mirrors the nation’s strengths, influence, and values as a major, international source of realistically enlightened power. Given the increase in authoritarian tendencies in the US and around the world, the preservation and expansion of this nation’s democratic traditions and sound governance, rooted in a strong public service ethos, are also high priorities of the Democratic Party.

 Some of these goals, if appropriately framed, have the potential of garnering needed bi-partisan support.  However, the Republican Party, as currently constituted, is not equipped to engage in such efforts at political dialogue that can rise to the challenge of responding to the complex set of issues this nation needs to address as it enters the third decade of the 21^st century. The problem is the ideological captivity of the GOP by an obsessive win-lose zero sum game worldview in their disparaging identification of the “Democrat” Party with the “radical” or “socialist left.” To move beyond this would require an expansion of its exclusively conservative orientation to include the many moderate perspectives within and outside the party’s governing orbit, which would have the added benefit of better equipping the GOP to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population.

In this emerging, post-Trump era, such a policy redesign for both parties, as sketched out here, calls for statesmanship of a high order, as exemplified in our own member, Rep. John Larson, and rooted in the very fabric of President-elect Joe Biden’s heart, mind, and soul at this time in his career when linked to the challenging times in which we live. The GOP has it within its own tradition the capacity to similarly rise. One thinks of Lincoln, TR, Eisenhower, Nixon in his better moments, as well as GHW Bush, along with many others below the presidential level. Clearly, the Goldwater-Reagan conservative influence represents an important strain in contemporary Republican ideology, but, particularly in its increasing radicalization and dominance in the GOP, it is an ungovernable source of power that needs to be tempered by other influences.

 While the long-term challenges this nation faces are monumental, the legislative agenda within the next year may require a much tighter focus within a framework that can bring at least a modicum of concord to our body politic if the Republicans can act in a reasonable bi-partisan manner. Two primary interrelated areas for the next year are obvious: an effective policy approach to the health crisis provoked by the pandemic, including a reasonable level of financial support to small businesses and individuals who have been adversely affected, and revitalizing the nation’s economy, including an effective jobs program, possibly linked to a broad-based infrastructure initiative.

 As a life-long liberal Democrat, I would like to see a more expansive legislative program, which Biden, in his administrative capacity can partly address. However, at the legislative level, both parties will be highly constrained on what they can accomplish, even with the granting that the outcome of the upcoming senatorial races in Georgia will have some impact.  The reality, thus, remains that legislative options will be highly constrained, which, nonetheless, can open some new political spaces that may seem to be foreclosed given the manner in which politics are currently played out at the national level. Such a shift would require informed discussions within and outside of government across this nation’s body politic in the probing of issues and public values, including imaginative redefinitions of what is truly important. In the meantime, each party, as well as the various institutions of public journalism, I might add, have their own long-term work to accomplish, which if well executed has the potential of significantly enhancing the quality of this nation’s political discourse.

 However improbable it may seem, constructive work toward changing the current conversation in Washington and throughout the country has much to offer, which, I believe, a Biden presidency opens up. To move such a project forward, I encourage the Republican members of Congress to unequivocally acknowledge Joe Biden as the president elect. I also implore them to insist that the Trump administration accept the election results and participate in the peaceful transfer of power, a hallmark of US democracy since the election of 1800.