Do Democrats Think the Jan. 6th Hearings Are Going to ‘Change the Midterms?’

If that’s the strategy, they’re more dense than I thought — Here’s an idea: deliver for the people

It’s common knowledge these days that the Democrats are in for a slaughtering of epic proportions come November. All those passionate speeches in 2020 about Biden being the savvy political veteran who could ‘get things done’ seem like a sad joke. I have no idea who was buying that hot garbage, but those FDR and LBJ comparisons aged incredibly poorly and faded behind distant chants of ‘let’s go Brandon.’

As always, Democrats talked a big game and didn’t deliver. The path to the White House is always littered with bold-promise-filled pamphlets used to get out the vote that are tossed out the window as new Team Blue Administration officials snicker amongst themselves, incredulous that the dupes bought it again.

So much energy and so many promises were made in the Georgia runoff alone. It gave the Dems complete control of DC, and they turned around and served a fat nothing-burger.

Biden’s agenda was dead within months, turning him into one of the fastest lame-duck presidents in history, Kamala can’t get through an interview without a weird, cringe, word salad response to some very basic questioning, and The Squad is everyone’s favorite punching bag and right-wing fear-mongering tool despite the fact that they don’t get anything accomplished and fall in line on every single consequential vote.

Even with control of DC, Democrats are always on the backfoot and can’t get anything done. It’s the circular scapegoat of the week game they play while pretending to be trying to improve lives.

But they do want to maintain their positions. So they have to act like they’re putting up a fight.

With zero wins to run on, it appears they’re banking quite a bit of political capital into the January 6th hearings. Liberal media is jumping on board and claiming these could be as explosive and nation-altering as the Watergate Hearings of 1973.

And so Rep. Adam Schiff is doing round after round after round on mainstream television talking about ‘saving democracy’ and ‘existential threats.’ Apparently, they think this could help their electoral chances for the midterms.

To that, I say fat chance.

With zero wins to run on, it appears they’re banking quite a bit of political capital into the January 6th hearings.

Obviously, the US government has a series of checks, balances, and trap doors. Biden can’t snap his fingers and do whatever he wants. With the filibuster in the Senate and the evil turtle-in-a-suit Mitch McConnell killing any and all bills that get through the House, it’s not easy to move the needle.

But the Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves.

I love showing people and then reminding them weekly about David Dayen and The American Prospect’s list of executive orders Biden could have signed on day one.

Without signing a single new law, the next president can lower prescription drug prices, cancel student debt, break up the big banks, give everybody who wants one a bank account, counteract the dominance of monopoly power, protect farmers from price discrimination and unfair dealing, force divestment from fossil fuel projects, close a slew of tax loopholes, hold crooked CEOs accountable, mandate reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, allow the effective legalization of marijuana, make it easier for 800,000 workers to join a union, and much, much more. — David Dayen

He could have waltzed into the White House and done all of that. It would have been challenged, but deliver for the people then make Republicans try to undo those popular measures and use that against them politically. It’s not rocket science.

And Biden could have used carrot and stick influence politics to get the Manchin’s in line like LBJ would have. Would Manchin have flipped parties? Who cares, let him, then beat him next election. That’d be a more legit excuse than just bending a knee and letting one coal baron from West Virginia dictate national policy for two freaking years. It’s embarrassing.

But rather than delivering for the American people, the Dems went for ‘bipartisanship,’ like there’s some secret but massive voter group who doesn’t care how far America falls as long as the parties work together.

In short, Dems deserve to be exactly where they are, staring down the barrel of the midterms with one of the most unproductive and least popular White Houses in history.

The scary part is that Republicans are truly hell-bent on their theocratic corporate libertarian mayhem of an agenda. And they’re effective at getting things done. It’s way easier to strip the state than it is to implement actual policy for the people.

The opposing party is supposed to act as a counterweight but the Democrats are too corrupt for the task.

So they’re all but guaranteed to lose control of DC. And for whatever reason seem to think the January 6th hearings might stop the bleeding.

…deliver for the people then make Republicans try to undo those popular measures and use that against them politically. It’s not rocket science.

This New York Times headline says it all, ‘Jan. 6 Hearings Give Democrats a Chance to Recast Midterm Message.’ Democrats and their media apparatus are obviously going to try and frame the midterms as a race against Donald Trump again.

It was effective in 2020. The barbarity of the Orange Don obviously helped them gain control of Washington, but they’ve squandered it. And now Donald isn’t in office. He isn’t even on Twitter so framing the election as an existential threat to save democracy from his autocratic tweeting hands yet again won’t have nearly the same impact.

Of course, they should be investigating January 6th. They should get to the bottom of what the hell happened, find out if members of Congress were involved, and how much the White House knew. Those are important avenues to explore. Guilty parties should be held accountable.

But the mainstream media framing these hearings as possibly affecting the midterms, in my opinion, is ridiculous.

The Guardian is getting in on the mix with this piece, Congress’s January hearings aim to be TV spectacular that ‘blows the roof off.’ I think the Brits will care even less than the Yanks at this point. They’ve got their own economic mayhem to deal with and a floundering prime minister.

CNN had a large write-up on the hearings and their historical nature but snuck in this nugget of truth halfway through, “Many Americans are now more preoccupied with current crises, including record gasoline prices, a soaring cost of living and a pandemic that never seems to end, so the chances of the hearings stirring a new political awakening seem low.”

Props to them for putting that amongst the adjectives like prime time, historic, extraordinary breadth, and big television showpiece.

I’ll be very curious to see if viewers care that much. With those aforementioned insane gas prices, inflation at a forty-year high, and shortages in essentials like baby formula, I don’t think TV drama hearings about an event from eighteen months ago are going to strike a chord with typical Americans.

Suburban professional John Oliver fans will surely lean on the massive island in the middle of their professional-sized kitchen in front of double-Nancy-Pelosi-fridges with a glass of Merlot nail-bitingly excited about every detail being shown on the flat screen that’s hidden in the wall.

But regular people are freaking struggling. Almost half of American families with children aren’t able to consistently put food on the table, and Dems think relitigating the QAnon shaman case is going to turn the tide?

Even with the full backing of the mainstream media, I don’t see that happening.

If the Supreme Court overturns Roe, that’ll motivate voters, but I don’t think it’ll be to the degree necessary to hold on to either chamber.

If Democrats really wanted to win, they’d deliver for the American people.

Joe Biden would be smashing out executive orders, forgiving student debt, protecting farmers from monopolies, lowering prescription drug prices, allowing people to more easily unionize, breaking up the big banks, holding CEOs accountable, and showing those hearings on primetime TV. Make freaking Jamie Dimon sweat and answer tough questions about tax avoidance and how little value JP Morgan really brings to the world as the anti-trust division breaks that and all other ‘too big to fail’ banks into smaller regional pieces. That’s primetime TV I’d tune into and would drive more voter interest.

In short, deliver for the people and the media circus isn’t necessary.

But it’s important to remember that’s not the role of the Democratic Party. Their role is to take that revolutionary left-wing energy — that BLM, Bernie Sanders, DSA, AOC energy — absorb it into their party, speak the language of justice and equality, and then make sure those movements cannot effectively change the status quo.

The party is not promoting or fighting for progress; it’s a progress blocking mechanism.

That’s why they get the big checks from Wall Street.

But voters are done with that game. Without a decent third option, most will probably check out.

And that’s why Democrats will get hosed this November and in 2024.

And that’s why 2025 might be the last for the US of A.