The Biden-Trump collision will get sorted out on Election Day. But at least for this voter, Trump is a settled matter, and he has been since he crashed the presidential scene in 2016. I have said as much. The past eight years, with his abuse of presidential powers and by his malignant conversion of the Republican Party into a cult of his own, have served only to reinforce what was apparent from the start.
It would be a mistake, however, to get totally distracted by Biden and Trump. The struggle for control of Congress matters enormously, too. Lose sight of Capitol Hill and say goodbye to any influence over laws that affect the life you want to lead. The House and Senate are not stately relics. They are the places where a president’s policies find life or death.
Much is being made, among the core and vital Democratic Party constituencies of Black voters and young progressives, of the fact that Biden has not delivered on issues he campaigned on. Policing, criminal justice and voting rights are at the top of the list. So are complaints that the Biden White House has not produced material changes in the lives of people of color and those left out of the system.
Those critics are myopic at best, and blind as bats at worst. They fail to look toward the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, where Congress sits and disposes of a president’s proposals. Take, for instance, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, named after the 46-year-old Black man killed by Minneapolis police in 2020. Introduced in the House and endorsed by Biden, the act died on Capitol Hill.
That’s because there weren’t enough “yea” votes for the bill in Congress. And that’s because not enough Americans showed up to vote in the House and Senate races to make sure there were.
Think congressional elections don’t matter? Just ask former president Barack Obama. He scored a historic victory in the 2008 presidential election against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and then watched as his agenda got stymied by GOP electoral successes, fueled by anti-Obama conservatives, in the 2010 midterm election. That year, Republicans recaptured the House and made strong gains in the Senate. Even after Obama was reelected in 2012, Republicans retained control of the House and had enough clout to gum up Obama’s agenda.
What’s more, after the 2014 midterm election, Republicans took back the Senate by flipping nine seats. Following the 2016 election, Republicans held the Senate and had 247 seats in the House. Had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential race, she would have run smack into a Republican phalanx on Capitol Hill.
So you’re mad at Biden for not delivering material change on your terms? The worse-case scenario is you sit on your hands, Biden’s not reelected, and Trump becomes president with Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. Ponder that.
Go ahead and check out next week’s debate. But think about what must come next after Election Day.
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