By Mecca Fowler
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV.
As the US midterms loom in the shadows, the Democratic party seems desperate to change its key policies and messaging.
This could not be more apparent than in President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address on March 1. As The Hill pointed out, Biden sounded much like Trump during his speech, “Take off the masks! Fund the police! Make our cities safe again! Bring back American manufacturing!”
He also announced a new COVID-19 effort during his address, aiming to return Americans to “more regular habits.” One year ago, almost to the date, Biden called the lifting of mask mandates “Neanderthal thinking.” Now, even with COVID-19 cases still up, Biden is moving towards a maskless nation.
What is the cause of this change in messaging and narrative? If you’re still living in the Democrat bubble, you may give an answer such as “the science has changed.” But the real reasons could not be more glaring.
People are fed up with the Democratic party, their hypocrisy, and ever-changing logic on COVID-19, safety, inflation, and a host of other issues. The country has pandemic fatigue. People are tired of the ever-changing “science” by the CDC and other institutions we once relied on. People are ready to move on and get on with their lives.
Gallup polls have shown that Democrats have a reason to be worried ahead of the midterm elections. “Democrats’ approval of Congress fell as infighting among Democratic legislators held up passage of Biden’s climate change and social spending bill. With Biden’s legislative agenda still stalled, Democrats’ latest 26% approval of the legislative branch is the lowest it has been in a year,” the poll said.
Thus, Democrats in cities and states across the country are suddenly loosening pandemic restrictions such as vaccine mandates and masks. Their tunes have changed significantly from pointing their fingers at their opponents. They’re now coming into the reality most of us in the real world have experienced for some time.
Curfews and lockdowns have been ineffective at stopping COVID-19. Cloth masks do not slow the spread of the virus. Vaccines can only do so much. The nonsensical vaccine mandates are discriminatory, divisive, and unhelpful. It is time to remove these useless restrictions and get back to pre-pandemic life.
Crime is also another area the Democrats are struggling with, especially in blue cities. What was once the party of “Defund the Police” has now turned into the party of “fund the police” with Biden at the helm.
At his State of the Union address, Biden heard applause and criticism from both parties about his comments on funding the police. From a GOP perspective, it’s a little too late as crime is already rampant and, in their opinion, he should’ve been “tougher on crime.”
“Is the entire Democrat Party going to act like they didn’t just defund and demonize the police for the last two years?” Congresswoman Lauren Boebert questioned on Twitter.
From a Democrat’s perspective, it is a huge U-turn in messaging that the party ran on to win the White House. A part of the Democrats’ most loyal voter base, Black Lives Matter, took to Twitter to make fun of the statement.
Congresswoman Cori Bush followed up with her own rebuttal, “With all due respect, Mr. President. You didn’t mention saving Black lives once in this speech. All our country has done is given more funding to police. The result? 2021 set a record for fatal police shootings. Defund the police. Invest in our communities.”
With the noted in-fighting as well as political offensives from the Republicans, it’s no wonder polls are looking unfavorable for Democrats in the midterms. Voters have watched over the last two years how the economy has turned upside down and inflation has soared while we remain divided.
in 2021, an interesting analysis by Mr. Bryan Striker of ALG Research described qualitative research on how and why Democrats are missing the mark with their voters.
The research was the result of a focus group to understand how Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin won in a state that Biden had carried by 10 points during the presidential election. He identified four key national issues with the Democrats messaging and then honed in on Youngkin’s state-level specific strategy.
One particular point says, “Voters are unhappy with the direction of the country and don’t think we get it. They aren’t hearing solutions from us, they don’t think we’re doing anything to address the big issues (lack of workers + rising prices), and in general they just aren’t seeing the smoother ride they thought they’d get after having voted out Trump.” This is what Biden voters are probably overwhelmingly feeling.
That is another problem. Trump can no longer be seen as the boogeyman. Long gone are the days where Biden and the Democrats can evoke his name to put fear into their voter base. He is out of sight out of mind. They need to come up with a new strategy. This leads to the next point.
Maybe they should take the advice of Van Jones who correctly pointed out how annoying their brand comes off as and get outside of their echo chambers. “I think that the Democrats are coming across in ways that we don’t recognize that are annoying and offensive and seem out of touch in ways that I don’t think show up in our feeds when we’re looking at our kind of echo chamber, and I think it’s a message here,” he said.
That pretty much sums up the political landscape for Democrats right now and the polls are showing it. They seem so disconnected from their constituents that you’d hardly think any polls were being conducted at all.
People care about the middle-of- the-road issues and the economy more than the “wokeness” wave that the Democrats try to elicit 24/7. It’s condescending and people are tired of it. In the midterms, we’ll see exactly that.
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