One week after the election, and despite months of hype from pollsters and the mainstream media, there was no Democratic 'wave.' Joe Biden may have won a narrow victory (President Trump is still challenging the results in court), and Democrats have a small chance of claiming control of a 50-50 Senate, but they lost several seats in the House, failed to flip several competitive Senate seats, lost two state legislatures, and lost governorships.
Already, some post-election soul searching has begun in the Democratic Party. Some moderates are questioning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and blaming the disappointing results on left-wing rhetoric about socialism and defunding police. "They underperformed for the U.S. House, they underperformed for the U.S. Senate, they underperformed for governor races, they underperformed for state legislative races," says Matt Mackowiack, Texas-based Republican consultant. "So if they don't examine why this happened and what they did to contribute to it, they risk making the same mistake again."
Mackowiak sees a clear split forming in the Democratic Party between the left wing and the moderate wing. "Democrats are going to go through a period similar to what Republicans went through at the outset of the Tea Party movement," he tells KTRH. "They're going to be sort of at war with themselves, fighting over ideology, personnel, priorities."
And even if Joe Biden survives all the legal challenges and recounts and makes it into the White House, the far left that supported him is likely to grow frustrated. "Progressives are going to want these big items like Medicare-for-all, the Green New Deal, and reparations," says Mackowiak. "They're going to want to make real progress on those things, and I think Biden is going to be very limited legislatively."
"They were unified about beating Trump, but they are not unified about their legislative agenda going forward," adds Mackowiak. "And that's why I think a civil war is about to begin in the Democratic Party."