There’s no downplaying the damage Democrats suffered on Nov. 2. 

They got totally wiped out in Virginia, a state Joe Biden won by 10 points just one year ago: losing the race for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and control of the House of Delegates. 

And they barely won the governor’s race in New Jersey, a blue state Joe Biden won by 16 points in 2020.

Democrats should have won both states handily. And the worst part is: They can’t blame Republicans. Democrats have no one to blame but themselves. Their losses were all self-inflicted.

Granted, in Virginia particularly, there were other factors at play. Winning Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin caught a few lucky breaks. He was declared the GOP nominee without having to face a far-right extremist in a primary, which saved him from becoming too “Trumpy” in order to win the nomination. There was no Libertarian candidate on the ballot to siphon votes from Republicans. And it certainly didn’t hurt that he was able to pour $20 million of his own fortune into the race.

All of which allowed Youngkin to pull off the magic trick of staying just close enough to Trump to satisfy Trump’s base – in fact, running what Democrat Terry McAuliffe called a “racist, whistle-blowing” campaign – while staying far enough from Trump to win support from more moderate Republicans and Independents. The best thing that happened to Youngkin, and the worst break for Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe, was that Donald Trump, who desperately wanted to parachute into Virginia at the last minute, was persuaded not to.

At the same time, McAuliffe made his share of mistakes. He badly miscalculated in making Trump the centerpiece of his campaign against Youngkin, believing Trump was as bad a bogeyman in 2021 as he was in 2020. That didn’t work. And, in so doing, he let Youngkin focus on jobs and the economy, which should have been McAuliffe’s long suit.

McAuliffe also badly misread the issue of parental unrest over schools. Republicans were able to combine distrust of vaccines, opposition to mandatory masks in the classroom, general confusion over COVID-19 rules, and hysteria over “critical race theory” (which is not taught in Virginia schools), into an epochal clash over the role of parents in public schools. At times, the gubernatorial campaign seemed to morph into an overblown race for school board. But McAuliffe didn’t help his case when he artfully, but correctly, declared: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Still, in the end, McAuliffe was defeated by none of the above. He was defeated by his fellow Democrats. In casting blame, he should look no further than Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema and Pramila Jayapal.

The fact is, after four years of nothing but chaos under Donald Trump, Americans desperately wanted change. They wanted to get things done. Big things. And big things would have been done, were it not for a handful of ham-headed, ego-maniacal Democrats in Congress.

Some blame moderate Democrats. Some blame progressive Democrats. I blame them all. They were elected in 2020 on the promise of making government work again for the people. They control the House, Senate and White House. They’ve had 10 months to act. And what have they accomplished? Zero! Instead, they’ve spent the last four months, not fighting Republicans, but fighting among themselves about issues that every Democrat should be for.

Having already shrunk President Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan from $3.5 to $1.7 trillion, Senators Manchin and Sinema still won’t say they’ll vote for it. 

Meanwhile, House progressives, led by Congresswoman Jayapal, refuse to vote for the $1.75 bipartisan infrastructure bill, even though it’s already passed the Senate. It’s a huge mistake not to have already passed both.

Both moderates and progressives are guilty of bringing Congress to a standstill, driving down Biden’s poll numbers, making the Democratic Party look ineffective, and killing McAuliffe’s chances in Virginia. 

If only Democrats in Congress had passed both infrastructure bills, Terry McAuliffe could have campaigned on winning issues like new roads and bridges, child care, universal pre-K, expanded health care, and climate change. 

Instead, he was left, like all the rest of us, trying to explain why Democrats hold the power, but still can’t get anything done.