We elect our leaders for change, and all we get is complacency. We actively go out of our way to vote, support and even campaign for those we believe in. Yet, we continue with the status quo. This tolerance for inaction is what plagues modern politics and especially this current administration.

Unbeknownst to most, Texarkana is having a mayoral election. This along with upcoming midterms calls into question the successes and failures of our elected officials. 

This is a topic with mixed opinions; however, something is glaringly clear. The infighting between Democrats may be causing them to lose sight of doing what they were elected to do: make change.

One of the core policies Joe Biden ran on in his 2020 presidential bid was canceling student loans. According to an article from Forbes, he reiterated the fact that he planned on canceling $10,000 worth of student loans per student during and even after his campaign.

Joe Biden has canceled only approximately $9.5 billion in debt according to the U.S Department of Education. Let me put this into perspective; loan borrowers collectively owe $1.7 trillion of student loans, and Biden has only canceled 0.56% of all student loans.

This is a far cry from the $450 billion he proposed canceling on the first days of his presidency. This factoid is not even the reason I find this so interesting. It is that members of the Democratic Party are actively fighting against this policy and progressive change as a whole.

In a press conference on July 28, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated that, “The president can’t do it,” and, “That’s not even a discussion,” referring to the president’s ability to cancel student loan debt. This statement is false.

The president has the executive power to forgive these debts without any need for the process to go through the House or Senate. Doing so would be a huge win for Democrats since the people who it would affect would remember this for the rest of their lives, and why the speaker would lie about something that could be crucial to their reelection is beyond me.

Akin to these actions are the actions of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. These two senators are both Democrats who have blocked the implementation of the $3.5 trillion infrastructure deal, another platform Biden ran on.

Although they were elected for change, they have shown a preference for their corporate donors and personal branding projects instead of helping the people they were elected by.

Even Republicans in meetings praised them for not getting along with their party. This sense of infighting is what has infected the Democratic Party and what troubles me for the fate of the midterms.

Time after time, the Democratic Party has won a branch of government but hasn’t delivered on certain promises. However, this isn’t just a problem for Democrats but a problem for all Americans to hold their officials accountable.

The past two elections have been some of the most controversial in American history. Therefore, we must do more research on the officials we want and hold them responsible for their actions with the votes they hold so dear.