President Biden walks to talk to reporters as he returns to the White House on Friday.
Alex Brandon / AP
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Alex Brandon / AP
President Biden walks to talk to reporters as he returns to the White House on Friday.
Alex Brandon / AP
When a party has a problem, that party often says that the problem is the message, not the product.
In the case of the Biden agenda, that doesn’t quite pivot. As the details of Biden’s plan were described to voters, majority approve.
But polls also show voters don’t know much about what Democrats are overcoming. This week, Biden tried to change that.
“The bill that I’m about to sign into law is proof that despite skeptics, Democrats and Republicans can get results together,” Biden said at the bill’s signing earlier Monday. . on the road to offer the plan.
First stop: New Hampshire, the nation’s first stub state and the one to compete in presidential elections. There, Biden advertised that the bill would mean cleaner water, more internet access and rebuilding roads and bridges.
“[E]The things in this bill are very important to the personal lives of real people, the president said.
The president’s efforts to sell the Democratic Party’s agenda can’t come too soon for Democrats, who are trying to avoid losing their majority in Congress next year.
Less than a year on from Election Day, the contrasts facing Democrats are fierce. Biden’s approval rating is falling; Democrats failed worse than expected in the year’s election; and there are structural obstacles, like the historical pattern of midterm voters rejecting the ruling party and Republican advantages in drawing new congressional lines.
Add to that – inflation, an unstoppable pandemic and voter apathy among their bases, and Democrats find themselves in a very deep hole.
On top of that, what’s attracted a lot of attention over the past few months has been the infighting among the Democrats, as these massive pieces of legislation have been negotiated – all too openly at times.
That’s what Democratic strategists say the party needs to fix. They say it needs to be unified, if it is to have any hope of saving large parts of it.
“We need Democrats in Congress to stop fighting each other to pass this next piece of legislation, so that competition can be more competitive,” said Guy Cecil, who runs Priorities USA, one of the largest organizations. can take place between Democrats and Republicans but not Democrats and Democrats. The Super PACs of the Democratic Party.
The importance of selling
Biden’s theory on the case is that if Democrats can come up with policies that help middle-class Americans afford childcare and prescription drugs, help them get jobs or charge electric cars, they will. vote for the Democratic Party next year.
“Delivering on those promises and talking about delivery, showing delivery, campaigning on delivery is very, very important,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake.
The months of the Democrats’ circular firing squad are in the spotlight – their battle over how to spend trillions of dollars – threatens to undercut the important things these bills do and will do, if the social safety net bill is passed by the Senate.
That fight in the process is a particular problem for white women without college degrees, says Lake, a group of Democratic voters that have lost this year in Virginia, a state Biden won. easy in 2020.
“They may be less interested in the negotiating process,” said Lake, who has specifically focused on how women vote. “They’re interested, how much is my steak for Christmas dinner? What is the price of gas for me and my husband to go to work? The price of insulin we buy for my mother-in-law- the law?”
Another group that is increasingly out of reach of the Democratic Party are rural voters. The Democrats are facing something near-collapse with them.
But Montana Senator Jon Tester still insists that the infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better plan could help turn the tide – if they’re sold correctly and Democrats are in those places. .
“I’m in the process of talking to people in Montana right now about explaining to them what’s in this bill and how it could change the way we do business in Montana for the better and actually reduce costs families and helps small businesses expand,” Tester told Punchbowl News this week. “We could also sell it to rural America. But you have to show up, and you have to talk about it.”
For Cecil, the target voters were people who couldn’t stand Trump, voted for Biden, but then voted or didn’t show up to vote, just like in the Virginia gubernatorial race.
Without these voters, Cecil said, the Democrats cannot win next year.
And it is very difficult to reach them because they are simply exhausted by COVID and by Washington.
“What Democrats have to do is, one, be clear about what’s at stake,” Cecil said. “Without their vote, we wouldn’t get the stimulus checks. We wouldn’t get the child tax credit. And second, we have to make it clear what that would mean. what to them if the Republicans take control.”
That’s easier said than done when voter turnout drops dramatically between presidential and midterm elections, and first-term midterm voters aren’t kind to sitting presidents. That’s because supporters with opposition party ranks are more agitated.
Don’t ignore the culture war
Democrats want to define midterms as “Democrats settle, Republicans get in the way.”
But it will be an uphill battle, because this year Republicans are beginning to win back suburban voters by shaping the election around culture, not policy.
They’re focusing on issues, like how race is taught in schools. Next year, Republicans say they will run as the parent party.
Radical Democrat Representative Ro Khanna of California says his party needs to confront those cultural issues head-on. The son of Indian immigrants, Khanna says the Democrats need a new message about education – one that is patriotic and aspirational.
“The question for parents is, will they have a say in our education? Will the kids who will grow up be proud to be Americans?” Khanna asked rhetorically. “And do we make an honest calculation of history? And I think all [of these] anything is possible, because that’s what great countries do. I just think we have to talk to that instead of not realizing the fear or anxiety of parents. “
Democrats, though, have seen a steady drop in the number of people who say they are proud to be American, Gallup had found. Twenty years ago, a majority of Democrats said they were “extremely proud” to be American. As of July, that number has dropped to just 31%.
On the other hand, two-thirds of Republicans say so.
Democrats believe their agenda, once it’s adopted in its entirety, can get them out of the hole they’re in.
But only if they win the debate, and that starts with the president.
