Voters are turned off by Joe Biden and the Democrats bragging about their so-called “accomplishments” this year, and I can’t stop laughing.
Traditionally, the best way to make the case to voters to keep you in power is to talk about your record. This isn’t exactly rocket science, as it makes sense that when voters are reminded about what you’ve done, they’ll want to keep you in office. When Biden has made the case for keeping Democrats in the majority, he’s often cited the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act as examples of his party’s accomplishments. He also rambles on with his talking points about how great the economy is doing on his watch.
Stan Greenberg, a veteran pollster for the Democratic Party, claims that this messaging from Biden and Democrats is actually alienating voters.
“In memos, private communications and interviews, Greenberg has been imploring the party to — let’s put this bluntly — shut the hell up about all the work it’s done,” reports Politico. “It’s not that voters don’t care. He says voters actively turn against Democrats when they hear it.”
“It’s our worst performing message,” Greenberg told Politico‘s West Wing Playbook. “I’ve tested it. I did Biden’s exact words, his exact speech. And that’s the test where we lost all of our leads. … It said to the voters that this election is about my accomplishments as a leader and not about the challenges you’re experiencing.”
Greenberg’s credibility on the issue of ineffective messaging isn’t up for debate. He was Bill Clinton’s pollster back in 1994 when the GOP crushed the Democratic Party in the midterm elections, and in 2010 he blasted Barack Obama, on whom he blamed the Democrats’ devastating midterm losses.
Today, he’s offering a “pre-postmortem,” and he isn’t pulling punches.
“I’m stunned about how much of the Democratic commentary is winging it,” Greenberg said. “[Republicans are] hitting us on crime and border and inflation. … That has huge power. And we have the self-satisfied message of how much we’ve accomplished rather than being focused on what is happening to people.”
Greenberg didn’t hold back in criticizing Barack Obama for being out of touch with the problems Americans were facing, and he isn’t sugarcoating anything for Biden either.
“I saw their visuals when they were campaigning with the West in which they were talking about helping families with high costs. So they’ve made a turn with addressing it but they’re also combining it with a message of how great a job they’re doing.”
The legislation the Democrats have passed, Greenberg argues, should be promoted as solutions to future problems rather than ignored. Promote measures such as lowering student loan interest rates and lowering drug prices, but only “in the context of how it is helping them with the cost of living, not as a means of boasting about your accomplishments.”
Greenberg still tries to find a silver lining for Democrats, but it’s hard to see whether one exists. Joe Biden and his party have tried all kinds of messaging this year, and it all seems to backfire. Biden’s fascistic speech at Independence Hall in Pennsylvania last month was spectacularly counterproductive, and various attempts to make the midterm elections an abortion referendum have failed to stop the GOP’s momentum in recent weeks.
Also for our VIPs: Joe Biden Is Shrinking the Democratic Party
Midterm elections are historically bad for the party in power, and with Democrats in one-party control of Washington, there’s only one party to blame for the nation’s problems right now. Inflation, gas prices, crime, the border crisis, etc. are all problems that were either nonexistent when Trump was in office or have been severely exacerbated under Biden. When Democrats brag about what they’ve done, it makes them look completely disconnected from the realities of the mess they’ve made. But in the end, there’s little they can do to disconnect themselves from the fact they’re responsible for that mess.
