Even though Democrats have dashed Republicans’ hopes to control the Senate after flipping an upper-house seat in Pennsylvania, the balance of power in the House of Representatives is complex rather than elusive as elephants are to gain a small majority in the House of Representatives, so far sealing 218 seats against donkeys’ 2211.
The US President Joe Biden may blow his own horn of having “lost fewer seats” in the House that any Democrat president over the last 40 years; he cannot get away with the fact Americans have voted Democrats out from the House for his failure to meet economic pledges and efforts to lift his global stature by representing himself as the international guardian of democracy or touching flashy subjects relating to the sovereignty of other countries.
Americans were grappling with soaring inflation, the US was sliding into polarization and the country encountered serious economic and human fallouts of the Covid-19, Biden put all energy into defining an era of great power competition, promoting the US governance system and outcompeting China in economy and technology. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan almost pushed the world into the cold-war camps.
Contrary to expectations he would moderate his view over time, Biden clung to a lose-lose proposition of a new cold war to counter economically and technologically powerful China. The approach didn’t solve the US real domestic problems or restore Americans’ trust in democracy, instead increased their cost of living, compounded the US economic anxieties and made a majority of Americans pessimistic about the state of democracy in the country.
Once failed to lure voters despite his reassuring talk on economy and inflation and realized the US democracy crisis was homegrown, the Democrat president acknowledged: the country’s governance system faced risks from within. Of late, he believed democracy was in danger from the threats of “dangerous rise of political violence and voter intimidation.”
Biden, of course, seemed worried about the reelection of hundreds of Republican lawmakers who earlier rejected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and may be joined by a new group of the Congressmen to refuel controversies and question the integrity of America’s electoral system and his win.
Just a few hours after the deadly January 6 riots on the US Capitol in Washington, some 147 Republican lawmakers (139 House Representatives and 8 Senators) would dispute the reliability of the US presidential election and sought to overturn it over remarkable allegations of voter fraud and cheating.
Democrats went into the elections with their president posing perpetual threats to international peace, stability and prosperity. In midterms, the “red wave” didn’t materialize but there are more challenges to come and test the US democracy with more than 140 Trump-backed Republican candidates winning their races. These election deniers had a big night and the number indicates “an erosion of trust” in the country’s governance system and institutions.
In 2022, the US is far more polarized and divided following the Supreme Court’s revocation of its landmark 1973 verdict that guaranteed abortion rights in all states. The widening gulf between the right and the left, amid conservative-liberal race to grab power, won’t stop post-midterm election and could spark another political crisis, raising alarms about crime surge, inflation, economic slowdown and a possible recession.
Polls revealed inflation and the economy were the top voters’ issues. Republicans read the pulse and campaigned against Democrats’ poor record on economy, blasting their rival’s economic approach to whip "individual prosperity." Biden offers nothing on the economy or other challenges and keeps portraying threats to the US democracy, if Republicans win.
Eventually, it is Biden’s approach that has allowed Republicans to hammer him on high inflation and increased crime. Given control of even one chamber would embolden Republicans to thrash Biden’s legislative measures; the US could head toward an economic and political turmoil in the coming months. Biden boasted democracy and job growth but just a fraction of Americans approved of his performance and wanted something practical to relieve them from harrowing inflation.
He considered removing some tariffs on China to tame inflation; the Federal Reserve chose to slash prices through higher interest rates, which are making Americans poorer by bringing their asset value down. Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers last month warned the recession was “almost inevitable” once inflation exceeds 5% and reducing prices would require a jobless rate of more than 6%, which likely meant millions of Americans losing their jobs.
In 2020, Biden vowed to unite America and Americans hoped he would defeat the pandemic, protect lives and communities and revitalize economy. Yet by focusing on building unholy international alliances, advocating democracy abroad and embracing his predecessor’s frame of great power competition with China, the US president soon abandoned his promises and voters and let the real US challenges dilate.
Just two years later Republicans campaigned on the economy and upended Democrats' majority in the House, though by a thin margin. But even a small lead will authorize the elephants to muck up donkeys’ legislative enactments. This makes the emerging political scenario in the Congress extraordinarily complex in which partisan politics will peak and Biden may not be able to deliver benefits to Americans as well as protect them and the US economy from the forthcoming eternal and horrific economic consequences.