If Democrats get torched this election cycle—and it looks like they will—it'll be their own doing. Weird things can happen during elections, and while we may all rejoice that the abortion antics have peaked, there was a genuine concern among the GOP operative class that the left could make 2022 an abortion referendum. There is no party least equipped to handle a nationwide social issue referendum than the GOP on abortion right now. The Dobbs decision reset the clock on the issue, and both sides can now make their pitches to voters again in the long slog toward a national consensus. Still, some folks on the GOP side are pushing things ideologically consistent with the pro-life view but politically impossible. Luckily, all of this, including the August spending bill, is in the rearview, so what do Democrats do? They double down on abortion, which no one cares about, including Democratic voters. They seem more concerned about a three-hour riot in January 2021.
Should a red wave wash away Democrats in November, it will be because the left refused to build any walls that could have formed a redoubt from the onslaught. They had 18 months to pass legislation to curb inflation and create jobs. Democrats couldn't do the big stuff with a four-seat majority in the House and the split chamber in the Senate. Democrats always got bogged down ironically on some social issues, where one wing of the party, while liberal, was also realistic about legislative gains. At the same time, the other side wanted to go full-left-winger on everything.
The other blow to Democrats was solely grounded in Joe Biden being an abjectly terrible president, with appalling approval ratings that would give any Democrat running radiation poisoning. Him munching on ice cream at a Portland Baskin Robbins last week, declaring that the economy was "strong as hell" was the 21st-century equivalent of "let them eat cake." Sixty percent of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, inflation is at a 40-year high, and consumer debt is through the stratosphere. The state of the economy is so atrocious that Latino voters in crucial races, like Nevada, are staying home, threatening the re-election chances of Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the Senate.
Lastly, the stuff Democrats and their voters care about is not on the radar for most Americans. It's been discussed for years, but the glaring deficiency within the Democratic Party base is now more explicit than ever: they don't know working people. The Democratic Party is saturated with the snobby, educated, wealthy white folks who live in cities or along the Acela Corridor. Sure, loads of nonwhite voters still form part of the backbone for Democrats, but they're not in control of the messaging or agenda. It's the liberals who can write ridiculous checks to Democrats, and that's woke, rich, white kids. How else do you explain the almost obsessive fixation on January 6, abortion, and global warming? There are those who are financially comfortable enough to worry about these niche issues, but others are worried about being able to pay the mortgage, the gas bill, the energy bill, or the grocery bills. They couldn't care less about abortion—who cares about the nuances of legalized infanticide if you're homeless?
Fascinating new Harvard-Harris poll:
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 16, 2022
The 3 issues Americans are most worried about: Inflation, Economy/Jobs and Immigration.
People perceive the GOP's top priorities are also those.
But they see that Dems are most obsessed with a 3-hour riot that happened almost 2 years ago: pic.twitter.com/lAPf477hGU
That explains why Democrats are out there now pretending they supported the police all along.
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) October 15, 2022
Voters say Dems are most focused on Jan 6 which ranked as the 19th most important issue facing the country. Then women's rights which ranked 5th. Then Climate which ranked 8th.
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) October 15, 2022
Meanwhile, the three issues people see GOP as most focused on rank 1, 2, and 3
The left wasted an inestimable amount of time on messaging on issues and holding debates on societal problems that aren't real. Proper pronoun use is a meaningless issue. Wasting political capital on transgender issues and creepy gender reassignment surgery discussions for those who make up less than one percent of the population during an economic recession is a failing crisis management strategy. Biden's "let them eat ice cream moment" and the issues Democrats hold dear paint one picture to most voters: we don't care about you. Democrats had white working-class voters—they lost them when the progressive left decided to declare all white people scourges to humanity. Winning just 40 percent of that voting bloc wins you elections. Hands down.
Liberals claim that they live in areas where things matter. However, they hyper-focused on the country's most meritless, least impactful issues—whatever is below minutiae is where Democratic voter concerns rest. If that's the case, they all deserve to get wiped out, and many of them will next month.