Racists, Sexists, Insurrectionists ‘Favored’ to Take House and Senate

Every time I hear some talking TV head mouthing, “Republicans are favored to take the House and Senate this election cycle,” I have to resist the temptation to throw something at the TV. This season, that bland dry statistical talking point implies propaganda for a mob of racists, sexists and insurrectionists seizing control of a major branch of American government, and our mainstream media is failing to report the whole picture.

When the talking heads attempt to explain why they so blandly mouth this talking point, they trot out another talking point, about how the party in power typically loses seats during midterm elections. They often drag up 1994 and 2010, the last two times a Republican “red wave” swept over the United States Congress, as if the corporate media is eager to jest at the wounds Democrats suffered those years.

To blithely base predictions about what’s going to happen in 2022 on numbers from 1994 and 2010 appears to be perhaps a prime example of that old saying about lies and statistics. American politics in 2022 bear little resemblance to American politics in 1994 or 2010.

To base election-season reporting on a “Republicans favored” talking point in 2022 is about as “balanced” as taking some Republican Party press release and putting it into the mouths of whoever’s deemed worthy enough to mouth election-year analysis on TV.

A less biased framing would entail discussing how patterns from Democrats’ worst midterm performances in recent history cannot be used to predict that Republicans will be “favored” in 2022. Today’s tens of millions of Republican vot