The following are a few of my reflections and predictions on the outcome of the 2022 midterm elections coming up I shared with my Twitter followers.
My prediction #1: Dems lose 2-4 net Senate seats: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, New Hampshire. Repubs gain 8-12 US House seats at minimum. After election, Repubs policy turns to ‘austerity’, cutting social spending (slowing Ukraine wear spending but raising China war prepraration spending). PA Senate race 50-50. If Repubs win, Dems lose 3-5 seats.
Dem strategy = focus on women’s repro & voting rights & Jan. 6. Ignore inflation & blame high prices on world events (which Biden helped create). They hope to turn out base this way. But inflation & crime will keep independents from turning out or will vote Republican
I predict youth voter turnout also to be very low (along with independent voters). Think it may have something to do with Biden’s ‘too little, too late’ student debt relief? (still not implemented, stuck in bureaucratic wrangling & getting reduced every day)
Key for Democrats will be turnout, especially from suburbanites and independent voters. Polls show main issues for them is inflation and crime. Not good for Democrats. Pollsters say 44 Dem House seats are ‘tossups’; 20 Republican seats. Not good odds for Dems
Biden’s approval rating is down to 44%. When Obama’s hit 45% in 2010, Democrats lost the US House by 40 seats. Ditto Bill Clinton in 1994
Fact: only twice in past 100 yrs has the US House not shifted parties in midterm elections. In 2022 there’s the narrowest 5 seat Dem majority of all the past mid-election years. 2nd Fact: this time 81% voters in polls say issue is inflation and economy
Just released Reuters poll shows Biden approval rating now at just 40%. That 5%-6% less than both Obama (2010) and Clinton (1994) when Dems lost more than 40 House seats in each case.
Biden hypes his reducing US budget by > $1 trillion, but ignores how he did it: by early cutoff of Covid aid to households in his March 2021 Covid Relief Act. His proposal to raise $3T in corp-wealthy taxes over decade cut to $309B-mostly on corps with $1B revenue
Biden & Dems trying to ‘talk up’ his recent ‘Chips & Science Act’ ($280B slush fund to bribe semiconductor corps to relocate to US) and ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ ($518B that reduced inflation in name only and had virtually no effect on prices)
Biden publicly ‘threatens’ US oil corps for price gouging. Says he may ‘consider’ windfall profits tax. Just election talk. He hasn’t even discussed a meeting with his aides to begin considering it. No action after election. Repub Congress won’t even consider it
My prediction #2: Biden will go along with Repub. Congress 2023-24 cutting social program spending. Spins it saying he reduced their cuts. Inflation + recession in 2023. Biden doesn’t run again in 2024, saying he has a ‘health’ issue. Trump announces 2024 this week.
Biden’s release of oil from US Petroleum Reserve has proved totally ineffective. Why? US oil corps’ using refinery capacity as way to create bottleneck & keep supply short and prices high for gasoline; now diesel, home heating oil & natural gas + Oil corps exporting
Biden & Dems say inflation is global (supply side caused) & they aren’t responsible & can’t do anything about it. Not true. Biden sanctions primarily responsible for oil, energy, commodities inflation + he did nothing about corp price gouging + no tax on oil corps
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Biden & Dems say inflation is global (supply side caused) & they aren’t responsible & can’t do anything about it. Not true. Biden sanctions primarily responsible for oil, energy, commodities inflation . . .
All true. But if your networked media presenters scream Donald Trump 30 times in 10 minutes and Vlad Putin 10 times in 3 minutes, it might just work enough to confuse enough to miss enough realities. Elevating foreign threats has always worked. Domestic threats ascribed to foreign ones too.
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The Democrats have conceded. Their media ran that shot across the bow – Russian Bots will steal our election.
Basically, very little change in the “balance of power” between the two capitalist parties. No “wave”, red or blue. And very low turnout for this, the 14th consecutive most-important-election-in-history. There was no enthusiasm for what these parties offer except in the very narrow ranks of the most partisan. Fatigue seemed to be the more common reaction. Best meme of the day was a cat with one of those “I voted” stickers photoshopped to say “I vomited”. Amen.
The endemic voter suppression by the Democrats pays huge dividends for the Fortune 500. The Democrats suppress voter participation by simple fraud. That is the Democrat Oligarchs, choose groom and sustain candidates like Biden who promise everything such as raising minimum wage or expunging student debt and then betray each and every promise that has any economic content. This suppresses voter participation since it betrays the votes obvious needs and leads to the endless downward spiral of either not voting at all or voting for right wing fanatics out of anger.