Democrats Are Dreadful At Messaging
The majority of Americans think:
crime is up when it has fallen year after year, and violent crime is now at a 50-year low
inflation is high when it was non-existent the last two months and has been at the US historical average for over a year
prices are rising when they’ve been falling for months
the economy is weak when it is the strongest in the world
the southern border is “open” when crossings are now at the lowest level in Biden’s presidency and are below where they were at this time in 2019
there has been a “war” on US energy when US energy production is the highest it has ever been
President Biden has had the most legislatively successful presidency in modern times. The economy is so good that it is outpacing China’s for the first time in almost 50 years and has improved the entire global economic outlook.
So why don’t Americans know this? Because Democrats haven’t successfully told them.
It is easy to blame the misinformation and lies told by Republicans daily for the doom and gloom felt by millions of Americans, but of course, they’re lying about it all. Republicans have not accomplished anything since Biden took office. The strategy that serves them best is to erase all of the successes achieved by Biden and Democrats to convince voters that the country is worse off today than it was years ago.
Unlike almost everything else Republicans have touched in the last several years, their lies have been successful. Americans are significantly misinformed about what is happening in their own country.
The job of Democrats is to counter these lies, to get the truth out. Not only does knowing how well the country is doing under Biden help Democrats in the upcoming election, but proving that Republicans do nothing but lie would help Democrats even more. Democrats are not achieving any of that. Instead, they are sitting on defense, dealing with whatever narrative Republicans create.
With the economy, Democrats tried to say how well it was doing until Republicans said people were still struggling. The Democrats’ response should be explaining that Republicans blocked extending the child tax credit, which had reduced poverty rates by over 40% and voted against bills that would have stopped oil companies from price-gouging Americans.
Democrats did better for a while when it came to the southern border. Once Donald Trump told Republicans in Congress to kill the bipartisan border bill, which they eagerly did, Democrats pointed out how Republicans were the ones complaining about the border while refusing to fix it. When the GOP pivoted to pointing out all crimes committed by migrants within the US, Democrats gave up and let them run with it.
Democrats should have pointed out that Republicans blocked Biden’s request for increased ICE funding, more border patrol agents, better border technology, and a bill that would have given the President the ability to shut down the border whenever crossings were too high.
Democrats could then have dovetailed additional facts by pointing out how far crime rates have fallen in America during Biden’s presidency thanks to increased police funding and better gun control measures. Trump had the largest increase in homicides in US history, and Biden has violent crime down to a 50-year low. The inability to manage this talking point is a massive failure for Democrats.
Even now that border crossings have dropped to their lowest level since Biden took office, and they are lower than in March, April, May, and June of 2019 when Trump was President, Democrats aren’t pushing that information out to the public. The improvements at the border should be a huge win for Democrats because Republicans can’t take any credit for the success. They obstructed all efforts to address the border. Biden worked directly with Mexico and enacted executive orders to solve the problem.
Manufacturing is booming, with high-tech manufacturing returning to the US. Construction is booming thanks to infrastructure projects happening across the country. Unions are the strongest they’ve been in decades. Biden created over 15 million jobs, and unemployment has remained low. Only 13% of Americans earn less than $15 an hour today. Two years ago, 32% of Americans earned below that.
The Biden presidency is full of wins. Significant wins that voters genuinely care about. But Democrats are doing a miserable job of informing the country, while Republicans are doing a great job spreading lies about the state of our nation.
Worst of all, Democrats are now attacking themselves. They’re undermining Biden’s campaign, which is creating a narrative that is drowning out all other positive news while giving unlimited ammunition to the GOP.
Democrats need to become unified and spend the next few months discussing everything Biden and their party have achieved and will achieve over the next four years. Anything less, and Democrats will have thrown away an election they should have easily won.