… In recent years, the parties’ focus—even obsession—over the wants and needs of their bases, to the exclusion of swing voters, has now become the norm. Republicans walk on eggshells trying not to offend a base that wants to fight culture wars and, notwithstanding the evidence, believes that former President Trump was actually reelected. Progressive Democrats, meanwhile, effectively hung President Biden out to dry, insisting on an enormous package that hasn’t earned the support of swing voters.
What many progressive Democrats did not seem to realize is that while they were busy holding Biden’s spending package hostage—one that would have addressed badly needed infrastructure needs that have gone unaddressed for three decades—public concern about the direction of the economy surged, putting Democratic House and Senate majorities in real danger, and putting the Virginia governorship in considerably more danger than it should have been. If Democrats lose that governorship, it will feel like an earthquake just hit at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. CONTINUED
Charlie Cook
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