Democrats’ tactics against Republicans are wholly unsatisfactory
SUMMARY: When it comes to political combat, Democrats’ tactics have been wholly insufficient. Although the media deserve ample criticism for treating politics like a spectator sport and the parties as morally equivalent, Biden’s benighted effort to curry favor with congressional Republicans and deny the ex-president attention allows the GOP’s malicious rhetoric to go unchecked. Biden must get over the notion that he can “lower the temperature” by refusing to zero in on GOP leaders’ assault on democracy and truth. ( Washington Post)
This is a summary from a Washington Post editorial that I believe is spot on.
President Biden suffers from unrealistic expectations, his party’s lack of precise coordination, and his refusal to fight GOP fire with fire. The Republicans know how to get down and dirty and fight like animals, but the Democrats’ choice of taking the high road is costing them.
First, let’s look at some facts:
1ne: President Biden is on the verge of accomplishing more in his first year than any president in recent memory despite unremitting obstruction from an unhinged opposition.
2wo: The economy on Biden’s watch has created nearly 5 million new jobs, reducing unemployment to 4.8 percent.
3hree: Despite the right wing’s effort to spread deadly disinformation about vaccinations, 80 percent of American adults — including 98 percent of those older than 65 — have had a least one coronavirus vaccination. Among those age 12 and older, 78 percent have had at least one shot.
4our: Biden, despite having only 50 Democratic votes in the Senate, passed in his first year a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (including a major increase in the child tax credit that reduced child poverty in half).
5ive: Biden is poised to pass both a $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan and a $1.75 trillion package including investments in green energy, universal prekindergarten, a generous child-care subsidy, improved senior care, expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies, an extension of refundable child tax credits, a significant housing investment, hearing benefits for Medicare and possibly even a prescription drug cost reduction for patients on Medicare.
So why are Biden’s poll numbers down?
1ne: Partisans on both sides and horserace-centric pundits in the media continually stress what Biden has not achieved. No paid family leave! Democrats didn’t get even more taxes on the rich! Apparently, getting three-quarters of an ambitious agenda is no longer a victory.
2wo: Many Americans continue to experience anxiety and uncertainty. Concern about inflation (transitory or not), coupled with job churn, ongoing worry about covid-19, stress from managing their children’s disrupted lives, and an epidemic of mental illness, makes for disagreeable voters. In a nation that increasingly associates the president with “the government” and the “government” with American life, it is hardly surprising that he bears the brunt of that angst.
3hree: The president faces the MAGA-infused hysteria that he is out to persecute Whites, “open” borders, and turn the country into a socialist hell. The right wing’s strategy to gin up fake outrage is aided by too many in the media unwilling to speak plainly (for example, refusing to explain that no K-12 schools teach critical race theory).
4our: The media’s obsession with process and unwillingness to grapple with substance mean that “Democrats in disarray” dominates the headlines and the public remains largely ignorant of legislative proposals. “Takes” on whether Biden is up or down have replaced factual explanation (e.g., what is in the president’s plan, who does it help, how does it affect the economy), threatening a critical cornerstone of democracy: an informed public.
Online new is “tabloid media”. They love negative headlines to stir emotions because that leads to more readers and more ad revenue.
I do like Mr. Biden and believe he is a good man but the Presidency requires a man of vigor to sling buckets of mud. It’s time for the Democrats to put Republicans in their place.
Originally published at https://commonsenseandpolitics.com on November 4, 2021.
