The Democrats' retirement parade

 Red States:

Waves of retirements in the U.S. House prior to midterm elections are not uncommon, primarily because historically speaking, the midterms are usually not good for the president’s party as those elections are viewed as referendums on his first two years in office, and some in the majority don’t relish the idea of being in the minority. The lone exception in recent memory was President George W. Bush’s Republican party gaining seats in both the House and the Senate in the 2002 midterms, a little over a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But for Joe Biden, who during his 2020 presidential campaign falsely portrayed himself as a uniter in chief who could pull both sides together in Congress and who could also unite the country, the number of Democrats who have decided to bail on him as the 2022 midterm elections take shape surely has to be a bitter pill to swallow.

At the end of 2021, the number of retirements stood at 25. But earlier today, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) made himself the 26th House Democrat to announce he was not seeking re-election, stating it was “time to move on” and “explore other opportunities”....
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Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see what shakes down in the district come the fall elections (here are the candidates who have declared so far), but one thing for certain is that despite their whining about how the only way Republicans could win being through redistricting, it appears that it’s the retirements of over two dozen Democrats over the last several months (and with more likely to come) that have turned out to be hurting Joe Biden’s party more – that and Biden himself....
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I suspect it also says something about the Democrats leadership in the House.  Pelosi has forced many of her colleagues to have to take radical positions that probably do not sit well with them and they expect more of the same from those in line to replace her.  Biden also has been a burden on his fellow Democrats.