It was a mindset destined for failure. Democrats thought their spending bill that exacerbated the inflation crisis and abortion could bail them out of a hellacious election season that looks to sweep them from power. It's almost assured that Democrats will lose the House, as they only hold a slim four-seat majority heading into this current session of Congress. The Senate is a different animal, but there are signs that the economic recession and high inflation are taking their toll on Democrats. Undoubtedly, August produced some good news for Dems who have been starved for anything they could use for protection. That shield has all but evaporated, and Democrats now face an electorate that is not enthralled with their two years of dismal, ineffective governance.
If you look back, it was almost comical. The liberal media was touting Joe Biden's approvals creeping back into the 40s—that's still dismal, especially for a president hoping to retain his party's congressional majorities. David Shor, a liberal data scientist, was quite definitive about his midterm prediction after the 2020 presidential election: if Biden is below 50 percent heading into the midterms, Democrats are "probably f***ed." Well, that happened.
Voters aren't engrossed by abortion—they're not even supportive of it. It's a classic misreading of the polls on this issue. While most Americans are pro-choice regarding not supporting a nationwide ban on the procedure that's arguably infanticide—they're not willing to get behind abortion on demand, making it taxpayer-funded, and they favor a host of regulations that most pro-aborts find abhorrent. To the left, supporting restrictions is akin to a ban. The liberal media entered a state of euphoria when Kansas voters rejected a pro-life amendment to their state constitution over the summer, saying this was a warning that pro-choice America was roaring back with a vengeance. That narrative, like most from the liberal media, was terminated when liberals discovered that Kansas prohibits public and federal funding of abortion, has a 22-week ban and has parental consent laws.
Baby killing isn't a lifejacket—it's an anvil. Democrats' most recent legislative win last August was a bill supposedly aimed at curbing inflation. Once passed, it quickly became a climate change appropriation, with the likes of The New York Times op-ed columnists wondering if Democrats saved the world with this spending bill. No one cares because the recent consumer price index report highlighted that inflation remains at historic highs and the economy is still in a recession. The Biden White House says this is a historic economic recovery. Then why are 60 percent of Americans living paycheck to paycheck?
It doesn't take an elections genius to figure out that voters not being able to pay their bills is more pressing than abortion rights. America's mothers have seen the inflation bomb torch their home budgets. The ramshackle state of the economy isn't lost on key voter blocs that lean toward Democrats. In Nevada, Latino voters may not be flocking to the GOP banner, but they're doing something equally detrimental: staying home. Nevada has an incumbent Democratic Latina senator in Catherine Cortez Masto, but they're not thrilled with her, with some adding that Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a white man, is more Hispanic than Masto.
In Wisconsin, Mandela Barnes, the Democrat looking to knock off incumbent Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, has been hammered by his radical record, including his opposition to cash bail, which has turned New York City into a warzone. In Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, still recovering from a stroke, was running away with the race in the summer with a significant double-digit lead over Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz. Since Labor Day, he has shown more Keystone voters that he's not healthy enough to serve as a US senator rather than making a case against Oz.
Abortion was never going to save Democrats this cycle. Only Hunter Biden on crack could think this was a realistic election prediction. However, the summer months exposed the GOP deficiencies when responding to pro-abortion messaging campaigns. We're still abysmal at it. Conservatives need to trust the notions that a) Americans are not full-throated pro-abortionists and b) the laws promoted by pro-life Republicans are popular. Even heartbeat bills, which prohibit abortion after six weeks, are supported by 55 percent of Americans.
That's a battle for later. For now, conservatives must focus on Biden, the economy, inflation, and how Americans are struggling under the "most spectacular economic revival" in American history. The shoddy gauges on the economy's fundamentals shred every Biden narrative about their supposed success. Also, in the case of Fetterman, the GOP must attack him on his insane initiative to empty state prisons, including violent offenders.