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The
upcoming 2022 Democratic midterms look to be a repeat of their 2016
political failures. In both instances, strategic-singlemindedness
caused the Democrats to drive their campaigns off a political cliff.
Unlike the central characters in the movie, Thelma
and Louise,
who intentionally drove to their deaths, Democrats believe they will
prevail.
Several
Democratic campaign operatives see the looming political clouds on
the horizon, but progressive Democrats led by Congresswoman Pramila
Jayapal (D-WA 7th District), chair of the House Progressive Caucus,
is resolute in her belief that her rigid stance on the House
reconciliation bill is a winner for the Biden presidency and the
Democratic Party, despite bright signs to the contrary.
Jayapal’s
approach is to blame and attack the two Senate Democratic
moderates/centrists, Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ),
who have questioned the costs of the legislation, even though she
will need both of their votes if the bill has any chance of passing
in a 50-50 Senate. She also faults the print and broadcast media for
not promoting the positive aspects of the proposed law. Jayapal and
her cohorts are unyielding.
In
attempting to break the stalemate, President Biden has met with
Jayapal, Manchin, and Sinema frequently in recent weeks to push the
reconciliation and bipartisan infrastructure bills forward. Since the
progressives have joined the two together: one does not move forward
without the other.
We
have all seen this movie before. In 2016, Hillary Clinton, the first
female nominated for
president of the U.S. by a major political party, and widely expected
to win the election over her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, spent
tens of millions of dollars in TV ads criticizing Trump’s
broadly heralded womanizing and sexual peccadillos. She failed to
recognize that the public did not care enough about them to make a
difference in the election.
Trump
responded by bringing four women, who accused Bill Clinton of
sexually assaulting and/or harassing them while serving as President
and as Governor of Arkansas, to one of the presidential debates.
Trump’s response checkmated Hillary’s political ad
tactic. She never recovered from this political mistake as it
increasingly appears that neither Rep. Jayapal nor her party, will
recover from her flawed political plan.
That
these political wounds are being self-inflicted by Democrats is
extremely puzzling and may be written up as a political case study as
to what not to do in future political campaigns. The most critical
part of this emerging Democratic disaster is the lack of effective
messaging. The Democrats seem to feel no need to tell their own
story.
National
Democrats could take a lesson from Terry McAuliffe, who is in the
last weeks of running for governor of Virginia against a Trump
Republican and has created a clear, succinct message for each element
of his Democratic base: ethnic minorities, women, the LGBTQ+
community, Whites, young people, and the elderly with strong
outreach.
Although
the polls have narrowed between him and Glen Youngkin, his Republican
opponent, McAuliffe is pounding his message home with significant
positive effect and has also deployed credible, well-known
representatives of each component of the Democratic coalition to
help. Doug Wilder, the first elected African American and Democratic
Governor of Virginia, implemented this messaging scheme in 1989.
A
snowball poll of Virginia citizens (conducted by this writer) during
the past week shows that enthusiasm for McAuliffe is rising, and he
has a solid chance of winning and is being aided by having served an
earlier 4-year term (VA governors are not permitted to serve
successive terms), and his previous record is viewed favorably by a
majority of citizens.
Congressional
Democrats could learn much from the McAuliffe race that they could
put to good use in their current internal political debates. They are
at a crossroads in their struggle to hold on to power and function as
a governing majority with incredibly slim margins in the House and
Senate. They appear naïve to this political reality.
The
Republicans, for the moment, are still in lockstep in countering
Democrats at every turn. Their messaging is consistent and reinforced
in their caucus meetings and by state party leaders. What is rapidly
emerging on the Republican political horizon is the view that
anything Democrats propose is too costly and anti-personal freedom.
Presently,
Democrats appear headed toward a political redux
of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential race debacle. By
dithering on a political time bomb, Democrats are abetting their own
political demise. However, Katherine Clark, Assistant Speaker of the
House, falsely insists that the Democrats are united behind each
other and the legislative items they have proposed, which is an
observable LIE!
They
need to speak to their voters and come to a joint consensus on a
collective agenda sooner rather than later.
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