The Economist: “Despite the best efforts of Democrats, these midterms do not look like being a referendum on the increasingly institutionalized anti-democratic tendencies of the right. With a few exceptions, after winning their primary contests most Republicans have de-emphasized the relitigation of the last election, as they seek to widen their appeal beyond the party base. They have more or less successfully defined the race as a referendum on Mr Biden’s leadership, crime, culture-war excess, education, inflation and immigration.”
“After a hopeful summer for Democrats in the wake of the Supreme Court’s unpopular ruling on abortion, the national environment has recently soured for the party in power, which now fears it may lose even the governorships of Oregon and New York. It is normal to see a backlash in midterm years. This time, though, it would come with an unfortunate side-effect: the continuing moral rotting of a previously grand old party.”
