# 2022 US Senate Races **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 6, 2020, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327 "2020-10-06T10:26:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/462 "2022-04-13T16:43:20Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Returns to capital aren’t wages, and wages are stickier than prices. Even if it averages out in the long term, that doesn’t necessarily help in the short term. I agree. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/463 "2022-04-13T17:01:01Z")
I have a hard time believing this is a candid post. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/464 "2022-04-13T17:04:50Z")
If “inflation gets tamped down” by easing supply chain tangles, great! If it goes down because the Ukraine war is over by November, even better! But if inflation goes down because the Fed “SHUT THE DAMPERS!”\* on the economy, then unemployment will rise and the Dems will be in worse hot water than with inflation. I get frustrated by the media focus on inflation because it ignores that inflation is the lesser of two evils to recession and unemployment. Biden (and Trump to some degree, even a stopped clock is right twice a day) stimulated the economy when Covid was worse to avoid massive unemployment. But pointing out that GDP and employment would be much worse without the stimulus seems to be treated like the proverbial tiger repellent.\*\* People who have a job don’t realize or acknowledge they may well _not_ have one in an alternate reality where the fiscal conservatives had the upper hand in Congress; they take their job as a given and see only the inflation. In other words, Biden gets little or no credit for successfully stopping unemployment from running amok _because_ the worst didn’t happen. > [@SenorBeef](#): > > no working class person’s economic future has improved and no one has seriously proposed any way to do so. Except their economic future may well have been worse if Biden hadn’t won. The Great Reshuffle shows that many people _are_ improving their economic futures, but they attribute it entirely to their own initiative to apply for a better job. However, that better job may well have not been there if Covid-driven recession and unemployment hadn’t been actively tamed. \*sorry, watched _Titanic_ the other day. \*\*The tiger repellent works! How do we know? Because there’s no tigers. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/465 "2022-04-13T17:27:02Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > I agree this could work. If the Democrats start being effective and passing bills people like, they could turn this around. But if they could have done that, why didn’t they start doing it last year and keep doing it? Dey stupid. The average person wants to elect a person who is dramatic and tells them what they want to hear, not one who will break out the hard numbers, painful realities, and secondary consequences of most proposed “solutions” to everyone’s problem. That means that Congress is full of nutballs, liars, and nutball liars. It’s the evolutionary product of the forces at play. And most of the measures that would push back against Trumpism are also measures to reduce all the things that let today’s politicians be the way the people that they are, doing the things that they do. They want to protect that. Stupid or not, people understand where their paycheck comes from. The left doesn’t fix the problems because it’s how they put food on the table and they want all the holes in the system for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/466 "2022-04-13T17:30:30Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > They tried to pass lefty wet dream legislation (failing) and they ignored the issue of simply cleaning up all the glaring holes in our system that Trump exposed. What are you talking about? What’s “lefty dream legislation”, raising the pathetic minimum wage up to about 3/5ths what it would be if it kept up with inflation? And they folded on that one after a token effort in about 5 seconds. No serious effort was spent on any “left” legislation at all, let alone “lefty dream” legislation. If they had, they might actually have someone who wanted to vote for a democrat instead of just against a republican. And the idea that they spent all this effort instead of patching up the holes Trump exposed is absurd. Why would this token effort that they spent almost no time on prevent them from patching those holes? They spent almost no time and no political capital on these things. You’re trying to present this as “they could only choose one, the most communist policies ever or fix things, and they tried the communist policies!” which is an absurd take for multiple reasons. Their failure to try to bring justice to a party who threw a violent resurrection against the government of the United States is perfectly emblematic of just how useless and pathetic they are. They’ve done nothing in that regard. A few token insurrectionists got a slap on the wrist. Nothing systemic has happened. No serious court cases are pending. They haven’t even made a nice speech about how fucking insurrecting against the government of the United States is wrong. They’re basically telling the Republicans to keep trying until they succeed. It would be so fucking trivially easy for the democratic party to win me over - I am extremely motivated against the republican party - and yet they never actually do the even slightly positive things they would need to win me over. Fuck, a speech where they described that the republicans are still conducting a coup and this is unacceptable would probably be enough to win me over, and they can’t even do that. They’re pathetic. If I ask you “what did we all get by making sure the democrats won the senate?” the only thing you can tell me is “well the republicans would’ve made things worse, so we didn’t get that” That’s pathetic, that we can’t actually have point to something good that has happened. You can’t even point to something where they seriously tried to make something good happen. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/467 "2022-04-13T17:32:46Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > What are you talking about? What’s “lefty dream legislation”, raising the pathetic minimum wage up to about 3/5ths what it would be if it kept up with inflation? And they folded on that one after a token effort in about 5 seconds. No serious effort was spent on any “left” legislation at all, let alone “lefty dream” legislation. I think I could probably find a thread or two about Joe Manchin, right here on this forum, that would rebut this statement quite firmly. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/468 "2022-04-13T17:39:00Z")
Are you calling reasonable, obvious governance like “don’t let our bridges fall apart” lefty dream legislation? Is there some reason you’re working to push the overton window to where Fox News wants it? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/469 "2022-04-13T17:51:52Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Are you calling reasonable, obvious governance like “don’t let our bridges fall apart” lefty dream legislation? Pelosi had to circumvent the progressives and pass it with Republican help. It was a slam dunk, easy pass, made difficult for no reason. And no, it’s not what I’m talking about since, obviously, it’s not in the bin of tortured, fantasy legislation that failed to get passed. Law that was passed is not part of the discussion of failed legislation. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/470 "2022-04-13T18:31:20Z")
Then what are you talking about? What “lefty dream legislation” did the democrats seriously try to pass? How did it keep them from holding Trump accountable or patching holes in government? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/471 "2022-04-13T19:39:50Z")
First, I should note that you’d have had at least one name if you’d read the entire post that you replied to. But, on the off chance you really did miss nearly all political reporting from the year 2021, here you go: > **[Joe Manchin knifed progressives in the back. They won’t forgive, and won’t...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/23/joe-manchin-knifed-progressives-build-back-better)** > > The senator’s betrayal is devastating for the future of trust and cooperation within the Democratic party > **[The Immobile Colossus: Understanding the Death of Democrats' Drug Pricing...](https://harvardpolitics.com/prescription-drug-pricing/)** > > Despite high hopes of passing drug pricing reforms, the unstoppable force of HR 3 appears to have met with an immovable object: centrist opposition. > **[Voting legislation blocked in Senate as Republicans unite for filibuster](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-vote-tuesday-democrats-big-voting-bill-gop-promises-filibuster-n1271703)** > > Democrats unified in favor of debating the bill. But it failed to get 60 votes to advance. > **[Democrats reintroduce $15 minimum wage bill with unified control of Congress,...](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/26/democrats-reintroduce-15-minimum-wage-bill-with-unified-control-of-congress.html)** > > Democrats reintroduced a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, saying the need is greater than ever during the coronavirus pandemic. [https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4791/text](https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4791/text) ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/472 "2022-04-13T19:44:45Z")
We already have an active 2022 Senate elections thread in Politics and Elections. What’s the point of this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/473 "2022-04-13T19:45:31Z")
Link? I scrolled down a few pages, checking for “Senate” and there wasn’t anything. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/474 "2022-04-13T19:48:46Z")
Sorry, is the voting rights legislation an example of lefty pipe dream legislation that’s distracting from important systemic reforms or is it an important systemic reform that the democrats aren’t doing because they’re too distracted with their dream bills? ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/475 "2022-04-13T20:15:17Z")
> [@2022 US Senate Races](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327): > > I spent some time this morning wading through the [Wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_Senate_elections) on the next US Senate elections. It looks very favorable to the Democrats. Let me try to explain why. Thirty-four Seats are up this cycle. Twenty are held by Republicans. Twelve are held by Democrats. Two are vacant and will be filled by special elections next month. Two Republicans (NC Burr & PA Toomey) have said they are retiring. In addition one, (WI Johnson) had previously said he would not seek reelection. No Democrats s… ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/476 "2022-04-13T20:44:59Z")
D’oh. I’ll ask a mod to close it. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/477 "2022-04-13T21:06:27Z")
I merged them instead. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/478 "2022-04-13T21:20:26Z")
> [@DeadTreasSecretaries](#): > > Sorry, is the voting rights legislation an example of lefty pipe dream legislation that’s distracting from important systemic reforms or is it an important systemic reform that the democrats aren’t doing because they’re too distracted with their dream bills? Let’s say that it’s clear that we should solve gerrymandering. We’ll say that that’s an inarguably good thing, that removes the ability for politicians to maintain power in the face of evidence of malfeasance. No incorrupt person can argue against it. Suggestion 1 might be something like selecting a random panel from the general public to oversee the task; suggestion 2 might be something like having the majority and minority party heads use a scoring system to vote on people for a panel; suggestion 3 might be that you poll everyone in the state for race/ethnicity and then, in ascending order (smallest to largest), give each ethnic group the right to create a panel to determine the largest number of districts that their numbers in the state would allow for, choose the location for those districts, and then pass on the map to the next largest group to add to; and suggestion 4 is that the majority and minority party leads agree to something and, if they fail within 5 minutes, then the party in power chooses a map. Suggestion 3 would be a partisan wet dream, suggestion 4 is - in essence - corrupt coordination between the two parties to keep the voters out of the system. All four are “anti-gerrymandering”. You can do meat and potatoes work, anti-corruption work, anti-partisan work, etc. in completely partisan, corrupt, and ridiculous ways. You can’t just take the title of an act and say that it’s good or bad. You actually have to read the thing, before you can decide if it’s a practical and apartisan effort. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/479 "2022-04-13T21:45:09Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > You can’t just take the title of an act and say that it’s good or bad. You actually have to read the thing, before you can decide if it’s a practical and apartisan effort. Not only do you have to do that. You additionally have to support any further conclusions you’re trying to draw about whether it prevented some other reform from being possible. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/480 "2022-04-13T22:42:17Z")
> [@DeadTreasSecretaries](#): > > You additionally have to support any further conclusions you’re trying to draw about whether it prevented some other reform from being possible. If you want to discuss it, sure. First, we should note that there were two bills, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act. The first one was largely unobjectionable - but also largely useless. It clarifies a few minutiae on the laws as they exist but - given that those laws are all to do with things that would aid/harm minority participation in the vote - this is fundamentally a change with the intention of increasing Democratic voter numbers, not really changing the system. That said, Manchin has reviewed it, discussed with the moderates on the right and told the Democrats what it’s going to take to get it passed. You could have it tomorrow: > **[summary\_of\_differences\_for\_john\_lewis\_voting\_rights\_advancement\_act1.pdf](https://www.manchin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/summary_of_differences_for_john_lewis_voting_rights_advancement_act1.pdf?cb)** > > 168.57 KB The For the People Act, on the other hand, doesn’t just clarify existing law, it tries to create new law and that law - on average - will expand voter access for the poor and listless and disallows various forms of election security that have been enacted by Republican state governments (many of which any honest election security expert would tell you are probably good things to have). There’s really no reason to have anything in the law that favors either party. If it’s truly a work written with the goal of reducing corruption, holding congress people accountable, etc. then the laws should be fairly tightly focused on that topic. And, as Manchin notes, passing a voting reform law, after Trump massively popularized the idea that the Democrats are a bunch of cheating cheaters, which would advantage the Democratic party, is suicide. And I mean that in the sense that Southerners with guns would be out targeting lefty politicians. Minus Republican sign on and ensuring that the end balance of votes stayed roughly the same, you cannot pass that law, and I’m sure that’s not unclear to everyone in Congress. And, again, Manchin has outlined what that law could be: > **[Manchin memo on voting legislation](https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/manchin-memo-on-voting-legislation/7f38ab4b-3224-4dce-bf89-7e0a28d18b96/?itid=lk_inline_manual_3)** > > Memorandum on potential bipartisan voting rights legislation released by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on June 16, 2021. And, again, that is something that we could potentially have but do not because the Democrats won’t back down from laws like, “automatic voter registration, same-day registration, and at least two weeks of early voting, restore voting rights to all felons who have completed their terms of incarceration, allow registered voters lacking IDs to submit a sworn written statement instead, and attempt to limit voter roll purges.” **[source](https://www.vox.com/2021/6/8/22521563/manchin-hr1-s1-for-the-people-act)** The Supreme Court would assuredly shoot down half of that for being unconstitutional. And if somehow the Supreme Court doesn’t and, on election day, unregistered people are allowed to come in and vote that-day without showing any proof of identity, residence, etc. that’s going to be civil war, murder, and revolution. When there are perfectly reasonable acts that you could pass that remove corruption without causing a civil war, I see no argument for the version that would cause the civil war. It’s difficult to believe that the Democrats are ignoring Manchin’s proposal in favor of this, unless it’s because they prefer things the way that they are, and they’d prefer to blame the Republicans for the status quo. ---
**Author:** ![DeadTreasSecretaries](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deadtreassecretaries/32/4817_2.png) [@DeadTreasSecretaries](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadTreasSecretaries)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327/481 "2022-04-13T22:55:37Z")
The John Lewis VRA and the most significant element of the Right to Vote Act (the new bill which is part of Manchin’s attempt to build bipartisan compromise) are fixes to preclearance after the old preclearance regime was struck down by the supreme court. You’re right that it’s not politically neutral because the GOP now sees an opportunity to maintain a post-Shelby system where GOP-run states can violate constitutional election law and not face the most effective enforcement mechanism, and there aren’t 10 GOP senators who oppose this partisan power-grab. You still have not supported an idea that this dynamic would be different if it weren’t for the For The People act (or really any of the Democrats’ bills). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2022-us-senate-races/922327.md?page=25)