Paige Cognetti captured the emotion of winning one of the nation’s most-watched political races with an exuberance she couldn’t hide.
“We won, guys!” the smiling Scranton mayor said triumphantly, kicking off her victory speech after ousting incumbent Republican Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. Supporters who stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the packed ballroom at the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center rejoiced.
Did she ever. And, others just like her knew the feeling.
We can’t ignore the historic scope of the Democrats’ sweeping victories nationwide in Tuesday’s midterm election.
We couldn’t calculate the results without noticing an overwhelming insistence on change in our federal government. We won’t call a rout that turned narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate into significant Democratic edges in both chambers anything but a mandate for a different kind of America than we’ve experienced the last two years.
But even in the waking hours after their convincing win, with the euphoria of victory only just setting in, it seems prudent to offer Democrats nationwide a necessary dose of reality: Your job won’t be easy.
There are challenging tasks to be accomplished.
There is a mindset to repair, and an identity to recapture.
There are bridges to rebuild, and there is no time to waste.
The thing about midterm results is that they are somewhat predictable. We may not get the waves or the tsunamis like Tuesday, where one party dominates. But these elections almost always prove a challenge to the sitting administration in the same way elections two years later bring similar trials to those who rode the midterm momentum.
The trick is not to build momentum, but to keep it. That can only be done by making headway on the issues the American people want to see resolved.
For that reason, Democrats need to make the most of being the alternative at a time when the status quo was getting untenable for so many Americans. But they won’t be able to do that if their priorities don’t measure up to what the American people believe they should be over the next year.
The temptation for so many Democrats will be to attack the executive branch while it is reeling. Rep. Robert Garcia of California, who is expected to take over as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued a two-word statement Tuesday night as the results rolled in: “Lawyer up.”
We find that to be discouraging, and a somewhat ill-advised strategy.
It’s not that the president, his closest allies and certain cabinet members shouldn’t be held to the highest standards of decorum and professionalism or that they shouldn’t be expected to operate within the Constitution and be investigated if they run afoul of it moving forward. It’s that the American people have essentially acted upon those transgressions at the ballot box.
The job of the new Congress is to set an agenda more in tune with what Americans want. Flooding the Oval Office with subpoenas is not going to advance that agenda.
Democrats are not in charge because voters want witch hunts that hassle President Donald Trump for the next two years. Voters minimized his impact already.
Democrats are in charge because average Americans can’t afford the ever-increasing cost of groceries and fuel, because healthcare costs continue to skyrocket, because they want strict border policies that still allow a fair shot at citizenship, because they are sick of ICE’s heavy-handedness and the waging of another war with no end in sight.
Parties that sweep into power like the Democrats did this week so often lose that momentum before long because they can’t convince voters that they share their priorities. Well, there isn’t an excuse this time. Those priorities now are clear and simple.
Send bills to Trump’s desk that will seek a diplomatic end to the Iran War, promote affordability in the supermarket and at the pump, increase our housing supply, improve our public education system, better our healthcare. Communicate, clearly, that the goals are shared with the public, even if Trump continually exercises his veto power.
Show effort in areas where effort is what Americans want .
As she wound down her victory speech in Scranton, Cognetti offered a commitment we found both encouraging and necessary as she heads of to Washington D.C. to represent the district.
“I promise, I will do the job the way it is supposed to be done — for you,” she said.
The American people offered a sharp, decisive repudiation of a government that didn’t work for them the last few years. We hope Cognetti, working for us, can do the job we most need her to do.
Build bridges. Shape mindsets. Don’t battle against a past that is finished. Work toward a future that is just beginning.