WASHINGTON DC – There is an approach to politics known as “popularism”: it dictates that doing and talking about things that are popular with voters wins elections. This theory can be understood as the driving ideological force behind the first two years of Joe Biden‘s presidency – and not only for the president, but also for House and Senate Democrats. The Democrats have the White House, the House and the Senate, and so they are running in the midterm elections tomorrow (8 November) on the record of what they have done with power.
That record includes some genuine accomplishments. Democrats have indeed tried to do things that are popular with voters. There was the announcement of student loan relief. There was the move to pardon people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law, and to review how marijuana is classified. They passed a major piece of infrastructure legislation that invests in the country’s roads and rail, with (some) bipartisan support; most Americans approved of the law.
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