The 2021 Election Results - Garden City News

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The voters have now spoken, in most places for the first significant time since President Biden was elected. While the results were not completely uniform, they pretty clearly should serve as a wakeup call to both the Democratic Party and to President Biden.

The marquee race of this cycle was the gubernatorial election in Virginia, a state that has been trending Democratic for the last decade.  Nevertheless, the winner was Republican Glenn Youngkin, who ran on a platform of lower taxes, but also parental control of children’s education,  a message that  clearly resonated with suburban voters.  In heavily Democratic New Jersey,  the incumbent Democratic governor, Phil Murphy, was barely reelected, with a strong Republican vote in the suburbs for his GOP challenger Jack Ciatarrelli. In Minneapolis, voters rejected a defund the police proposal.  And not least of all, voters in Nassau and Suffolk County, angered by rising crime and bail reform, voted to oust Democratic district attorneys.  Nassau has also apparently elected a Republican county executive.

Although some of the results around the country mainly were local in nature, the voters seem to be saying that government needs to be more competent and to focus on issues that are of importance to ordinary people.

As for competence, on the national level, the Biden Administration’s botched evacuation from Afghanistan, its loss of control of immigration along the Southern border, the lack of much of an effective response to shortages, and (at least until last Friday) its general lack of success in moving its legislative program on Capitol Hill does not inspire confidence in Mr. Biden’s leadership, and reinforces perceptions (perhaps unfair) of a detached and out of touch President.

On the local level, the continuing inability of many local governments to keep crime and homelessness under control, and taxes in check, makes voters look for new leadership. There is also continuing unhappiness about the quality and tenor of public education, with many parents believing that their opinions and values are not taken into account by school boards and administrators.

As for focusing on issues important to voters, one obvious example is inflation.  There seem to be rising prices pretty much across the board, with a particularly notable spike in the price of gas at the pump and a likely surge this winter in home heating oil.  The inflation is being exacerbated by shortages and supply chain disruptions.

The Biden Administration, however, despite occasional lip service about inflation (which it blames on the recovery from the pandemic), is focusing on passage of another huge spending bill, in the face of  a widespread belief that it will exacerbate debt and deficit problems and further spike inflation. Despite a surge in energy prices, it focuses on climate change issues while seemingly hostile to domestic production of fossil fuels and  energy independence.  While Mr. Biden seeks to be a transformational president, he might heed the advice of Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democratic Congresswoman from a marginal district.  Ms. Spanberger said this week that for many voters, Mr. Biden’s mandate was quite limited: to remove Donald J. Trump from their television screens and make American life normal again.  “Nobody elected him to be F.D.R., they elected him to be normal”.

Obviously, the 2021 election is more predictive than important in itself, and this is certainly not to say that the path is hopeless for Team Biden.  An obvious example of success is the infrastructure legislation that passed this week and will be signed by the President. While you could quibble with individual provisions of the legislation, it least had some bipartisan support and will result in tangible results like better bridges and tunnels.  Mr. Biden can also take solace that his two Democratic predecessors, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, were reelected despite significant off year election setbacks.  And Republicans are very divided over the future of Mr. Trump. Still, now seems like the time for Mr. Biden to reevaluate his Presidency and make some course corrections.

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November 12, 2021 at 10:04AM
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The 2021 Election Results - Garden City News
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