With the Effects of Redistricting in Full Effect, is it even Possible for Democrats to get a Supermajority in Congress again?
A think piece...
It has been a while since the Obama era super majority. Since said time, a lot of redistricting has been implemented nationwide. The only threat that a lot of the GOP cares about is getting primaried from the right. Democrats seem to be drowning as they attempt to maintain any hold they have in Congress. A lot of voters are losing sight of how exactly the Democrats plan to gain a massive amount of seats.
One heavily mentioned issue is that Democrats spent their time focusing on the cultural battleground while Republicans were focusing on the political battleground. There were protests set up and awareness campaigns set up by the Democrats. Republicans on the other hand set up grassroots fundraising networks and targeted (heavily) school boards.
We are undoubtedly seeing the results of this now. Democrats are ineffective yet angered while the Republicans are accomplishing the change they are pushing for. Democrats can still obtain a majority in the House. Midterms tend to swing towards the opposition anyway, so the whole “red wave” was coming with or without redistricting.
Another topic of discussion moving forward is that nothing has changed in how the Senate nor the President is elected. A supermajority of the Presidency, House, and 60+ seats (a filibuster-proof 60+ seats) Senate are just as hard or just as easy as it was in 2008. The issue is that they just aren’t as common.
Even if Democrats attempted to push for a supermajority, specifically in the current climate, the Republicans would still accuse them of whatever made-up scare tactic they choose to associate with the far left that day. Just like how even though most of the Democrats saw Biden as a centrist compromise, the Republicans still paint him as some form of a socialist boogeyman.
With polarization, where it is at now, anything right of Bernie is being seen by many on the left as having crap-like beliefs that hint Democrats are purposefully helping the GOP when there is literally no way possible to do anything under the circumstances. On the Republican side, anybody left of Trump or DeSantis is being seen as a RINO communist.
The only way to achieve a supermajority would be to make sure there are enough rural voters that don’t align with either side to be influenced by those types of thinking. At that, it might be a little too optimistic given the timing and circumstances surrounding Midterms and the eventual 2024 Presidential Election.