By now, you know that, while the Democrats seem to have won the presidential election, that is about the only win they appeared to have received this year. In both the House of Representatives and the Senate, leading Democrats have forecast for months that there would be a massive “blue wave,” adding to their majority in the House and finally giving them back control of the Senate.
However, that didn’t happen. In fact, in the House, the Democrats have barely managed to keep their majority. The party has lost a total of eight seats in the lower chamber so far, giving party members everywhere reason to point the finger ask who is to blame.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was thought to have taken much of that blame, as she is their leader. In fact, some even suggested that she be replaced by a younger and more capable House member. However, due to her weasley ways and the Dems penchant for sticking to things that don’t work, she has managed to hold on to her position. She even ran unopposed this year.
In the Senate, things are much the same. As I mentioned, the Dems had hoped to regain control of the upper house this year, giving Senator and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a new title. However, here too, the party experienced unforeseen losses.
Now, with several races still underway, the totals have not been confirmed or the most amount of damage realized. But suffice it to say that things are not exactly as they had hoped. At this point, there is no way the leftward party can achieve the majority, although they could come close.
Like it did with Pelosi, Schumer is receiving quite a bit of grief over the losses.
According to The Hill, Schumer has taken not one, but two large conference calls to let his party members vent about the loss and place blame where they think it belongs.
“Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is in listening mode as colleagues are venting their disappointment over falling short once again of winning back the Senate majority. Schumer has presided over two conference calls in which his fellow Democratic senators analyzed the disappointing results of races in Iowa, Maine, Montana and North Carolina, where they thought they had a chance to knock off GOP incumbents.”
The Hill noted that “So many Democratic senators wanted to speak out during last week’s call that Schumer scheduled a rare Sunday conference call to given them a second chance to unburden themselves.”
Most of those needing to vent kept to anonymity for obvious reasons. However, one wasn’t afraid to let everyone know who he was and what he was thinking.
Jon Tester of Montana made sure to appraise the rest of his party of their failure to “reach out” and take hold of the vote in areas like his rural Montana. He said that this and the Republicans’ tendency of “beating the hell out of government” were primarily to blame for why Schumer did not have a “Majority” in front of his name.
However, it was also suggested, not by Tester, mind you, that perhaps Schumer shouldn’t be the one to get such a title, in the odd chance that something should change in the next few weeks.
After all, you would think that in a year when a Democrat won the presidency, as mainstream media has implied has happened, wins in both the Senate and the House would be more than probable. And yet, that didn’t happen.
So did their leaders fail them?
For now, no one’s really saying as much. And Schumer, like his House counterpart, did run unopposed. But things are far from over yet either.
Currently, most are sticking to less confrontational talking points, such as the implication that the word “socialism” has been thrown about far too much this year and has tarnished the Democratic name. Centrist senators such as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin suggest that it is far-left ideology and policies like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and others that have swayed the American people against the Democratic Party, which may hold significant truths.
However, as more congressional races end and Democrat losses are put into perspective, party members may not continue to stay quiet about their leader’s perceived failures. In the very near future, we could see the ousting of longtime leaders like Schumer and Pelosi if the party continues to sink into oblivion in Congress.