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Democrat runoff Senate win can’t hide fact of divided Congress

Thursday, 08 December 2022 3:09 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 08 December 2022 3:16 AM ]

Ramin Mazaheri

Press TV, Chicago

A month after going to the polls the results of the United States midterms are finally known: The Democratic Party has narrowly won a runoff vote in the state of Georgia, meaning they will retain control of the upper house of Congress but with a mere 51-49 edge over Republicans.

However, over the past two years a small faction of right-leaning Democrats was enough to consistently torpedo the legislation of President Joe Biden. Celebrations are further tempered by the fact that Republicans won control of the lower House of Representatives, meaning Congress is now divided.

A divided Congress means that the United States is facing two years of political gridlock, with each party voting down the other’s legislation, and then capped by another extremely tense presidential election in 2024.

Just like in the years 2000, 2004, 2016 and 2020 there have been widespread complaints about the integrity of the nation’s elections.

Much of the Democrats' loss can be traced to disillusionment and disinterest from African-American and youth voters, whose turnout dropped to an estimated 35% and 27% respectively.

Many are lamenting that the Democrats didn’t do enough to win over the average voter during the two years they controlled both the White House and Congress, as they remained focused on the era of ex-president Donald Trump instead. Now that they have the subpoena power Republicans are looking for payback, meaning an even worse era of partisanship will likely be inaugurated on January 3.

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