by
Terry P. Rodriguez
Placer County Democratic Party Legislation Committee Chair
September 1, 2022
The Blue Wave Tides of our Democratic Party are rolling in a positive direction toward possible Democratic control of Congress in the coming November elections. President Biden’s negotiation skills were a contributing factor in this potential change. Amid difficult and challenging moments, our President worked with Congress to see more legislation enacted into law than that of past administrations. This is truly a testament proving that, by electing Democrats are a political force that works to improve our livelihoods and quality of life. Moving forward, Democrats must be united on all levels to continue this momentum working for the election of our candidates.
The California Democratic party is an organization of many levels and interests working to formulate policies for inclusion into our platform. Hopefully, many of those policies become the foundation of legislation presented by our legislatures.
Debate is part of this process and sometimes, participants take sides resulting in heated disagreements that become visible to the public. There are moments when opposite sides come to a common agreement or continue to ‘agree to disagree’. This is the strength of the Democratic process, using our First Amendment Right to the freedom of expression. But in this critical election we, as members of the Democratic Party, must not let “pursuit of the perfect be the enemy of the good”…let’s keep our eye on the long game.
The most important goal is that we stand united during the election season. Recent legislative successes in Congress have provided our party a positive reason the election of Democrats will bring progress for the people’s business. When we stand united with our message, we stand to win.
According to Domenico Montanaro, in his NPR Politics article, Biden’s Recent Wins Could Give Democrats a Boost Heading into the Midterms, the defeat of the Kansas pro-life ballot measure with bipartisan abortion rights support of the state’s electorate, was the election season’s turning point. He opined this will be the Democratic Party momentum toward holding onto power in the Senate this coming November. Furthermore, he feels Democratic special interest groups should accept whatever partial victories they receive in enacting, or not enacting, their policies into legislation. In the election process, we must advertise legislative positives we accomplished.
Since President Biden took office, recent Democratic legislative victories, have provided our party the positive messaging we Democrats can employ to ride the momentum to victory in November. Within our policy making process, establishing a party platform, or formulating legislation, we may have total or partial victory in promoting our issues. However, legitimate debates of disagreements or agreements should stay out of the election process. United as a Democratic Party utilizing positive messaging on why Democrats should be elected to office, will ensure our chances to hold onto the power of the legislative process in Congress. And, whatever the outcome, those policy making debates within our party will still have increased the chance of being heard, legislated, and possibly passed. This path is where “United We Must Stand, United We Will Win”.
Notes:
Balz, Dan. “The Washington Post.” Biden Gets a Big Victory and Democrats Get Some November Talking Points. Updated August 13, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/13/biden-gets-big-victory-democrats-get-some-november-talking-points/ (Accessed August 22, 2022).
Montanaro, Domenico. “NPR,” Biden’s Recent Wins Could Give Democrats a Boost Heading into the Midterm. Updated August 12, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/08/12/1116745451/democrats-biden-midterms (Accessed August 22 2022).