The US Midterm elections in most cases is a losing affair for the incumbent party even during normal times. People are not better off during the first half of the Biden administration. In some cases, they are even worse off than during the Trump administration.
The Democrats went to the voting centers with a nightmarish scenario to follow. And the Republicans were expecting a red wave all over the country. Most election pundits made forecasts of a sweeping victory for them. The actual results shattered their hopes. Yes, they took the House of Representatives but with a very slender margin – far below their expectations.
It was not supposed to be the case. The economy is in bad shape. True, employment is increasing but ironically it adversely affects the control of inflation. Before election date, the share market was bearish for a long time. Ordinary investors lost billions of dollars since they could not hold on to their shares for the bull market to return. The few big investors in stock exchanges took the advantage of the situation and consolidated their position by buying at cheaper rates. Most of the ordinary shareholders had to incur huge losses.
Under such circumstances, the GOP (the Republicans) was supposed to capture both the chambers i.e., the Senate and the House of Representatives easily and with considerable margins. To the utter surprise of the election analysts, the Democrats have not only retained the Senate, but it appears that it will increase its number by one seat when a run-off is held in Georgia soon.
The Republican Party is to blame itself for its below-expectation results. They could not capitalize on the failures of the Democrats because they did not distance themselves from their past anti-democratic and anarchic policies and activities adopted by Trump and his blind supporters. Trumpism has become Republicanism. They surrendered to Donald Trump’s money, power, and unreasonable stubbornness. They thought people would forget Trump´s misdeeds, mismanagements, etc., and vote for them because of the Biden administration’s mistakes, failures, and bad shape of the present US economy. People did not approve of the Biden administration’s mistakes but at the same time, they did not endorse the Republican party’s backward turn. Through the Midterm elections, U.S. voters can keep the two parties in check and under control. The 2022 mid-terms have expressed the verdict of the people loud and clear.
This Midterm elections have made the 80 year old Joe Biden a lame duck president, notwithstanding the Democrats’ gain in the Senate. They have lost the House, making Biden’s legislative agenda difficult to implement. The recent adventurous maneuvers of Speaker Nancy Pelosi might be restrained to some extent due to the debacle of the Democrats in the House. On the other hand, the Republicans will face more difficulties where the Senate has prerogatives. Above all, this election will make the road toward 2024 more bumpy and uncertain both for Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
The impact and implications of the U.S. Midterm elections on the international scene will not be very extensive. This is so because both the Democrats and the Republicans have the same glass through which they see the so-called “vital national interest” of the United States. Wars and the oil industries have a similar influence on both parties.
*The writer is a senior Bangladeshi journalist and author living in Sweden.
November 24, 2022
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
