Democrats are in “reset” mode heading into the November midterms elections, the New York Times admitted Friday.
“Bracing for big losses” due to being “buffeted by rising gas prices, soaring inflation and sagging approval ratings,” Democrats are looking to President Joe Biden for rejuvenation during their yearly party retreat in Philadelphia, the Times acknowledged:
One year to the day after the enactment of Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, a law that remains broadly popular even if the president, at the moment, is not, Democrats are toiling to retool their message and refocus their agenda. They are worried that the accomplishments they helped deliver to Mr. Biden are being drowned out by concern over the rising price of gas and a focus on their legislative failures.
And they are looking to Mr. Biden, who is to address them at the retreat on Friday, to help them reframe the conversation.
Gone is the talk of a transformative agenda to remake the country’s social safety net that was once going to be the centerpiece of Democrats’ sales pitch to voters. The words “Build Back Better” were all but forbidden among the groggy lawmakers who arrived after only a few hours of sleep.
But Biden is not confident he can save his party from losing big in November. On Thursday, the president issued a warning at the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting.
“It’s going to be a sad, sad two years. Think about Republicans if they controlled the Congress these last two years,” Biden said.
“I believe we have a record to be incredibly proud of, ” Biden added. “Now what we have to do is we have to sell it with confidence, clarity, conviction, and repetition.”
Though Biden claimed Democrats can proudly run on his record, the record is a litany of failures. Such low points include coronavirus mismanagement, surging crime, empty shelves, a southern border invasion, disastrous foreign policy, record-high gas prices, and 40-year record inflation.
According to polling, the biggest issue for Americans is the economy, which is reeling from increased prices, pinching American workers’ wages.
The Democrats’ counter-inflationary strategy has been to deflect blame. For instance, what was once called “transitory” inflation is now “Putin’s price hike.” Before that shift, inflation was labeled “good” by CNN but quickly reframed by the Washington Post as “corporate greed.”
Nevertheless, some Democrat leaders are patting each other on the back.
“We have passed two major pieces of legislation that, in any other Congress, would have been historic in and of themselves,” Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD told the Times about the “American Rescue Plan” and the infrastructure bill.
“The polls don’t look particularly good now, but that’s happened in the past,” he added.
Yet more radical Democrats are frustrated with Biden’s presidency.
“People say the speech was unifying — unifying because it brought white moderates and white independents back,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) referenced Biden’s State of the Union address. “I was sitting there, like, ‘Damn, again?’”
“It’s lazy and unacceptable for the president of the United States to only keep the conversation at that shallow level,” he added about his radical ideas “It’s deeper than that.”
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