Recently, I posted the following on Threads (which I love btw), and got a little blowback:
I’m a ride-or-die Democrat, but I gotta say, we suck at politics and have to get better at it NOW! Sure we can preach to an all agreeable choir, but they are not who we need to convince. It’s to no party/independents who think that the economy sucks (as defined by grocery prices and gas prices) and that it is “Biden’s fault.” They also blame both sides for government dysfunction, oblivious to the fact that the Republicans are totally incapable of governing. We need a major effort to clue them in!
Some people incorrectly concluded that I was blaming the Democrats for the clown show in the House in which the Republicans booted Kevin McCarthy. I was not saying that. At all. I was saying that there are people out there (mainly non-Democrats) being told by Republicans that the Democrats are to blame for the government calamity, and oh, by the way, for everything else not perfect in America today too.
I am a proud Democrat. We are people of principle. We honor the Constitution. We support and follow the rule of law. We actually govern and try to make the country and world a better place. Republicans today just are about tearing things down and being cruel. Why? So they can blame Democrats for things being bad and get themselves back into the White House. Because power is all Republicans want. They want power for the tax cuts it brings. For the government contracts that they can grift. In short, they want political power for money. They don’t care about helping people, preserving the environment, preserving peace, or preserving democracy in America. It is all about greed and vanity.
So, no, I don’t blame Democrats for government dysfunction and calamity. I think we’re really good at governing. I think though, that we need to get better — quickly — at messaging. Because the Republicans are outflanking us.
Things in the country aren’t perfect. Never have been, never will be. But compared to where we’ve been, things ARE a whole lot better. Compared to a couple of years ago, inflation and unemployment are way down. But Republicans don’t focus on those things. They focus on the things that are nagging carryovers from the Covid years: High grocery prices, stubbornly high gas prices, and historically high-interest rates, and cry, “See the economy is terrible under Biden!”
In the face of incredibly difficult odds, President Biden has done an amazing job. He came in during the pandemic and worked to get it under control, then got to work rebuilding the infrastructure, encouraging semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., and hundreds of other initiatives that help everyday Americans such as lowering health care expenses for seniors. But yet the average non-Democrat thinks things are really bad with the economy. I realize we’ll never change the minds of people in the MAGA base, so we shouldn’t even try. But we NEED to change some minds among Independents.
We Democrats have some work to do. Number one, President Biden needs to address the cost of food in stores and restaurants directly with manufacturers and the largest retailers, much akin to how FDR directly challenged Henry Ford and William Knudsen (President of GM at the time) to step up armaments production during World War Two. He must do the same with oil companies. With mortgage rates being the highest they have been in over 20 years, he must remind Fed Chairman Powell that inflation HAS come down and that prices being so high in the first place were mainly driven by record corporate profits once the supply-chain backlog cleared. Continuously raising interest rates is hurting young people struggling to afford a mortgage the most.
Look, I’m not naive enough to believe that President Biden can succeed single-handedly in reducing food prices, gas prices, and mortgage rates, but he needs to try very hard along those lines with great determination, and equally important he needs to SHOW AND TELL how much is trying. Saying in commercials that inflation has been brought under control, while technically correct, does not ring true to people looking at their receipts from the grocery store and gas station, and at their mortgage statements or mortgage loan rejection letters.
Yes, I am a proud Democrat, and I am proud of what we stand for. And while it is true that the Republicans are in massive disarray, there are still millions of Independent voters who buy into the bullshit they are being fed that the economy is terrible (re groceries, gas, and mortgage rates) and only Trump can make it right again. President Biden needs to take this head-on. Now.