Biden won the popular vote in 2020 by about 7 million votes, but the GOP picked up seats in the House and almost managed to retain control of the Senate. The message from the electorate clearly was that they wanted an end to Trump’s divisiveness and chaos, but they liked the economy of 2019.
This was effectively a massive repudiation of efforts by progressives to use the pandemic to replace the dollar store economy with a more worker-friendly environment. In that sense, Joe Manchin has a decent claim to be more in tune with the voters than the mainstream of the Democratic Party.
What does this mean for 2022, particularly in light of the unpopularity of inflation? It means the progressive agenda, in the most sweeping sense, is no longer relevant. The more appropriate course of action for Democratic candidates is to attack GOP cultural extremism–particularly on abortion–and to focus on small individual measures, such as controlling prescription drug costs, that will improve the lives of voters in a manner they will note and appreciate.