I've had this argument before....it's a red herring just like CRT. Another failure of dems was not seizing on the cons' constant push of the fucking slogan and explaining it away instead of not touching the issue like it was some 3rd rail and letting republicans form the narrative. The voters that moved the last election was the youth vote. The voters that can move the upcoming election is the youth vote and every minority that's felt the brunt of the economic turmoil these last 2 yrs, have abandoned cable TV and are getting their news online. Tell me how much the dems are in touch there when reaching for the elusive "swing voter"?
In politics, if you are explaining then you are losing. Also this is not about the youth or minority vote, this is about your old and moderate voters who swing House elections, the ones that would rather vote for the Democrat over some clown like George Santos. If every election was only about the base, why would there be swings in seats at all? Congressional seats will be fixed even before the elections.
I saw the first link you posted. It's not that the issue wasn't marginally reported (so never heard of it), it's that the WH isn't blasting Republicans every day on every stuck bill they're holding. That they're not putting Manchin and Sinema on the spot or at least faking carrot negotiations to sway/fracture Republican legislators. We heard fuck all on Republicans holding the debt ceiling hostage. Compare that to last time the dems had this issue and were running anti-con ads weeks on end.
And I'm telling you the swing voter is now the youth who grew up w/black/hispanic/gay classmates and partners and are now hypervigilant and involved thanks to Herr Cheeto. Sitting your ass down and not voting is as much a swing vote as not bumping the budget with high inflation....(shitty analogy, i tried).
"I really believe that that's what cost Joe Cunningham his seat," Clyburn said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" as to why the freshman Democratic congressman lost his bid for reelection. Cunningham's Republican challenger, Nancy Mace, ran Facebook ads calling to "defend, not defund the police," attempting to tie Cunningham to the phrase. "Jaime Harrison started to plateau when 'defund the police' showed up with a caption on TV, ran across his head. That stuff hurt Jaime," Clyburn also said of the South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate, who was a former aide and mentee of Clyburn's. Despite record campaign donations, Harrison lost his bid to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham by more than 10 percentage points. Clyburn's comments also come alongside a broader Democratic reckoning about why the party underperformed expectations in races across the country. The anger among House Democrats came to a boil during a private caucus call on Thursday where some members insisted that calls to "defund the police" and attacks tying Democrats to "socialism" cost several members their seats in Congress.
Running on police reform,medicare option for all,free state college,15 minimum wage,raising taxes on the rich,teasing support for expanding The SC,banning fracking etc got them The WH,House and Senate in 2020.If they want something to blame for under performing in 2022 they should blame walking away from what they promised in 2020.
Clyburn is a real piece of shit who shouldn't be speaking on this subject https://www.thestate.com/opinion/article275134071.html https://www.propublica.org/article/...ted-his-district-at-a-cost-to-black-democrats
This is the truth....candidates have to pander to the base to get out of the primaries but then do a magic contortion to slide to the middle to get the general election vote. Voters are so stupid on both sides they buy it in the primaries. Not sure what biden's strategy is but the GOP has to see who panders harder than trump to the base because trumps pandering has been successful so far....
Establishment dems have been scapegoating progs w/prog adjacent issues for losing w/dog shit candidates for years now and the press is happy to run with it. What else is new?