… On Friday, the New York Times published a column by liberal journalist Ezra Klein profiling the Democratic political strategist and data analyst David Shor. …
We are, of course, currently in a moment of what history tells us is a rare and temporary period of unified Democratic rule, likely to end as soon as 2022 given the narrow margins of control in Congress and the losses normally suffered by the president’s party in midterm elections. But Klein and Shor are neither congratulating Democrats for achieving an uncommon success nor cheering on the leftward policy shifts that the victories of last November have made possible for their side. Instead, they are looking into the future with terror. …
Many of the specific points made by Klein and Shor are sound and even persuasive. The current geographic distribution of the parties’ mass coalitions gives the Republicans a structural head start in winning a majority in the electoral college and especially the Senate, though (as the results of 2020 demonstrated) this advantage falls well short of guaranteed perpetual victory. But if failing to maintain unified federal control is plunging into an “abyss,” then the Democratic Party has been sunk in that abyss for all but three two-year periods since 1980. CONTINUED
David A. Hopkins (Boston College), Honest Graft
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