Do You Believe Current Democrats Have A "Messaging" Problem? (4/26/22 23:29 PST) (1 Viewer)

[rockaction]

Can't be any worse than what the public will see when they get a glimpse of the true right. If anything, what is worrisome is not Democrats losing elections to Republicans. That's not the worst outcome of the game. The worst outcome is what happens when the truly disaffected and disgruntled smell a system that no longer has the impetus to defend itself against all sorts of charges and allegations. That's when you see political violence come to fruition. 

 

[roadkill1292]

Kind of like how the ACA (ObamaCare) was terribly unpopular but each of its major provisions had overwhelming public support.  How Medicare for All is supported by about 55% of the population and a "public option" about 70%.  While public support for stricter gun control has slipped a bit in the past couple of years, it is still supported by the majority of the masses.   It is about 2/3 of the public that when polled said that the government should be doing more to fight climate control.  Over 60% support some form of college debt forgiveness.  Etc., etc.

So nope!

Cannabis legalization is inching towards 70% approval, gay marriage is now untouchable no matter what state and Supreme Court shenanigans ensue, college athletes have thrown off one of the last yokes of anti-trust and won the right to make money and transfer schools freely and have public support behind them, etc., etc.

There are missteps all the time but good ideas have a habit of catching on.

Oh, and the election reform movement is ever so slowly gathering steam like other progressive ideas of the recent past.

 

[rockaction]

There are missteps all the time but good ideas have a habit of catching on.

Trans women are women! 

 

[rockaction]

Abolish the police! 

 

[timschochet]

Oh and by the way @rockaction: in 2016 there was a key very public confrontation between Black Lives Matter leadership and a major Democratic politician. That politician said, “Look I agree with your slogan and I agree with your overall mission and goals. You will not achieve those goals through your current messaging or methods, only through responsible legislation which the majority of Americans can support.” 

That was Hillary Clinton. Nobody on either the left or right gave her credit for this; they only increased their criticism and ridicule. But I gave her credit and still do. I wish the Democratic Party had more Hillarys. 

 

[rockaction]

I wish the Democratic Party had more Hillarys. 

If you told me that Hillary would be a right-of-center Democrat back in 1993, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. 

 

[Stoneworker]

Anyhow, and this goes back to the theme of this thread: it doesn’t matter. The Democrats screwed this up. I say it’s because of poor messaging, @rockaction says it’s because of intrinsic problems within the Democratic Party. Truthfully we’re probably both right. 

But here’s the reality: right now there are a whole lot of voters who believe that the Democratic Party has become too leftist. Whether this is actually true, or a result of poor messaging, doesn’t really matter, because until this is fixed Democrats are going to lose elections. And IMO, the only way to fix it is for some brave moderate and centrist Democrats to stand up and say “enough with the bull####.” Will they? I don’t know. 

Hasn't Joe Manchin done this already beginning with BBB? Hasn't he gotten enormous blowback from the entire Democratic Party?

The leftist pandering within the Democratic party is systemic. They're as weak as the the GOP was with Trump.

Has absolutely nothing to do with "messaging."

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

Democrats definitely have a messaging problem. They also have policy issues they need to clean up. But on the messaging, which I believe is the point of the thread, yes they are getting their rear-ends handed to them. Don't even see how that's a debate. Why is that the case? A lot of reasons, but a main one is they don't have top down unity in the party. Joe says, "fund the police". If this was the Republican party with Trump saying that, every single one of them would fall in line, with Fox and the other conservative friendly outlets as well. So Joe says "fund the police" and you have AOC or Joy Reid out there completely out of line with the messaging. You have Joe saying "let's do stimulus" with Manchin and Sinema out there torpedoing the bills literally using conservative talking points. You had a rebuttal to the State of the Union address given by a member of the Democratic party for goodness sakes. So yes, they absolutely have a messaging problem, a unity problem, a policy problem. They're screwed. 

 

[Boston]

Sorry but this simply is not true. There was NEVER any decision by Democratic leadership to cede anything. These activists spoke up by themselves, without any planning or consultation. The Democratic leadership was horrified from the beginning, including and especially black leadership. In fact the very first prominent politician to condemn the slogan, almost immediately after it became public, was Jim Clyburn. 
So please stop with this revisionist history. That goes for @Boston too. You guys are creating a false reality here. 

Talk about revisionist history…they kept their mouth shut until they realized it was a political liability…for God’s sake violence during the riots was seen as “mostly peaceful”…that was a complete joke.

 

[timschochet]

Hasn't Joe Manchin done this already beginning with BBB? Hasn't he gotten enormous blowback from the entire Democratic Party?

The leftist pandering within the Democratic party is systemic. They're as weak as the the GOP was with Trump.

Has absolutely nothing to do with "messaging."

I knew somebody would bring up Joe Manchin. And yes I like Joe. But his opposition has been more to the centrist leadership of the party than it has to the radicals.

But yes in general we need more Joe Manchins and Liz Cheneys. 

 

[Stoneworker]

I knew somebody would bring up Joe Manchin. And yes I like Joe. But his opposition has been more to the centrist leadership of the party than it has to the radicals.

But yes in general we need more Joe Manchins and Liz Cheneys. 

While we agree in principle, IMO you are WAY off base on the bolded.

Manchin's opposition to the BBB was directly focused on Bernie Sanders, AOC, Paypal and the rest of the radicals.

The centrist-leftist divide over the price tag and content of Democrats’ sweeping social spending bill intensified in the Senate on Wednesday as socialist independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin sparred over what the West Virginian called “entitlement society.”

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I'm happy to differentiate between progressive activists and Democratic politicians.  But it's the progressive activists who are driving the bus these days, and people like Pelosi know it.  (Obviously we can tell a similar story about Republicans and MAGA activist types.)

 

[FairWarning]

TL/DNR any of your multiple back-to-back diatribes. The title question was sufficient enough for me to provide an opinion. 

Yes, the current Democrats have a messaging problem. The previous Democrats did also. It's been a problem for most of my lifetime.

The current Republicans have a messaging problem right now too. I'll leave that issue for another, yet to be started, thread.

The biggest messaging disconnect by both parties is they should use their ears more and not their mouths.

 

[Ruffrodys05]

The biggest messaging disconnect by both parties is they should use their ears more and not their mouths.

Yes, I will not argue this point as I feel most politicians only listen to what is between the ears which in turn keeps those gums a flappin.

 

[GordonGekko]

Democrats definitely have a messaging problem. They also have policy issues they need to clean up. But on the messaging, which I believe is the point of the thread, yes they are getting their rear-ends handed to them. Don't even see how that's a debate. Why is that the case? A lot of reasons, but a main one is they don't have top down unity in the party. Joe says, "fund the police". If this was the Republican party with Trump saying that, every single one of them would fall in line, with Fox and the other conservative friendly outlets as well. So Joe says "fund the police" and you have AOC or Joy Reid out there completely out of line with the messaging. You have Joe saying "let's do stimulus" with Manchin and Sinema out there torpedoing the bills literally using conservative talking points. You had a rebuttal to the State of the Union address given by a member of the Democratic party for goodness sakes. So yes, they absolutely have a messaging problem, a unity problem, a policy problem. They're screwed. 

VIDEO: ( Psaki Asked About Manchin & Sinema On Filibuster) "But they have said...they're not changing? Jan 15, 2022

https://youtu.be/PJ4YHcYDVC4?t=5

Does Your Member Of Congress Vote With Or Against Biden?

An updating tally of how often every member of the House and the Senate votes with or against the president. 117th Congress (2021-22), Democratic senator for Arizona: How often Sinema votes in line with Biden’s position 97.7%

FiveThirtyEight UPDATED Jan. 14, 2022, at 9:46 AM

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-congress-votes/kyrsten-sinema/

An updating tally of how often every member of the House and the Senate votes with or against the president. 117th Congress (2021-22), Democratic senator for West Virginia: How often Manchin votes in line with Biden’s position 95.5%

FiveThirtyEight UPDATED Jan. 14, 2022, at 9:46 AM

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-congress-votes/joe-manchin/

FACT CHECK: Don Lemon stated on September 29, 2021 in an exchange between CNN hosts: Says Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema “are Republicans … Just look at the way they vote.”

According to the latest tracking by FiveThirtyEight, they vote with President Joe Biden virtually all the time. For Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, 100% of his votes align with Biden and the Democrats. That includes razor-thin party-line votes on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution (50-49), expanding voting rights (50-50) and $1.9 trillion for COVID-19 relief (50-49)....Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona has a similar record. The one exception is that Sinema didn’t cast a vote on establishing a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol....Both of them have voted with the Democrats essentially 100% of the time...But they have broken with their party over the immediate effort to pass a multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation bill, a top Democratic priority. And so far, they have opposed changes in the Senate filibuster rule, another key roadblock to the Democratic agenda. We rate this claim Mostly False.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/sep/30/don-lemon/no-manchin-and-sinema-dont-vote-republicans/

Direct Headline: CNN labels Kyrsten Sinema a Republican in on-air graphic

During Wednesday night's installment of "Anderson Cooper: 360," an on-air graphic showed an "R" next to her name instead of a "D." 

IMAGE - SINEMA LISTED AS (R)

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/01/1862/1048/Screen-Shot-2022-01-14-at-8.11.55-PM.png?ve=1&tl=1

By Joseph A. Wulfsohn 1/15/22

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-kyrsten-sinema-republican-graphic-senate

Measure Number: H.R. 3233 (National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act )

Roll Call Vote 117th Congress - 1st Session  Vote Date: May 28, 2021, 11:24 AM

Required For Majority: 3/5 Vote Result: Cloture Motion Rejected

Manchin (D-WV), Yea

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=117&session=1&vote=00218

Direct Headline: Kyrsten Sinema Is Confounding Her Own Party. But … Why?

Sinema’s resistance to core pieces of her party’s agenda may seem puzzling from an electoral perspective.... But it’s also possible that she’s striking the ideal strategic balance between primary and general election electability....The conventional wisdom is that Sinema rushed toward the center for electoral reasons, as she moved from representing a solidly blue electorate to purpler ones. Former President Obama carried her state legislative seat by 26 percentage points in 2008... but Obama carried her congressional seat by less than 5 points in 2012....If Sinema is acting moderate for electoral reasons, she clearly disagrees with the conventional wisdom about how moderate a swing-state senator needs to be....Sinema is presumably betting that Democrats who dislike her will vote for her regardless, and that at least some Republicans who like her will vote for her, too. It’s not an outlandish notion: Those liberal Democrats, as frustrated as they are at Sinema, will probably find her Republican opponent more odious, and while there aren’t a lot of voters who can be persuaded to cross party lines, they do exist....It may be her donors. In a September report, liberal group Accountable.US found that Sinema raised at least $923,065 from business interests that opposed Biden’s budget reconciliation plan, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a longtime Sinema ally....

By Nathaniel Rakich Oct. 11, 2021, at 6:00 AM

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/kyrsten-sinema-is-confounding-her-own-party-but-why/

******

I find it completely hilarious that you are using very common Team Blue failed messaging ( i.e. the lack of "Party unity") to try to cover for bad policy and/or just plain bad logistical politics.

Sinema and Manchin have literally voted in lockstep with Joe Biden with everything. Except the opposed BBB and the filibuster. Sinema is in Arizona, there is a lot of Team Red in Arizona, she's thinking about her own personal political survival, campaign fundraising and reelection. And it's more than clear since the Southern Border was breached like a swinging gate, that Arizona will look to push hard Red in the 2022 Mid Terms and the 2024 general cycle. Why would Sinema want to slam head first into that on the wrong side at the cost of her own political career and future? Manchin is in West Virginia, which is heavy Team Red. He voted for Kavanaugh, the only Democrat to do so. Then again he voted for the J6 commission. Because it was politically expedient/good for fundraising for his political survival to do so both times despite the decisions inciting both sides of the aisle against him. BBB had problems implied with the coal industry, which hurts WV and then by proxy would hurt the support base for Manchin. Sinema took a lot of campaign dollars from local interests that opposed BBB themselves.

So what does the Biden Administration do? Send Psaki out to just run consistent hit pieces of Manchin and Sinema. Then the activist complicit left leaning woke CNN chimes in and outright lies, saying Manchin and Sinema keep voting Republican on everything. Even the cooked left leaning fact checkers can't hold this story up. How do you show Party unity when someone votes for you over 95 percent of the time and then they are smeared as a "Republican" in on air graphics and by complicit political pundits in the MSM?

Do Manchin and Sinema lack "Party unity"? Or did they just look out for their own political survival, LIKE EVERY OTHER DAMN POLITICIAN ON THE ENTIRE PLANET. What did Biden and his administration do to offer something in trade to make it worth it to Manchin and Sinema to vote his way at the cost of likely losing their Congressional seats?

You are literally repeating inept cooked leftist messaging to try to wipe out the real problem no one wants to discuss - Biden and the establishment Democrats needed to win more Congressional seats than they actually did to overcome that they could not rely on the Manchin/Sinema votes. Or they needed to flip more Republicans, by trading something of value to them, for them to change their positions. Here's a crazy thought, you won't get two people in Congress to change their minds if all you offer them is zero to eat the loss of their own careers and then proceed to relentlessly attack them in the national daily media cycle over and over again.

That Biden or his handlers could not or would not or were too incompetent to sell some kind of deal that appealed to Manchin and Sinema is not about "Party unity" It's also not about "bad messaging" about BBB or the failures of the Biden regime.

Not getting Manchin and Sinema to fall in line was the byproduct of direct incompetent political failure by Biden and his handlers. Not some purity test about "Part unity" and not over some failure to explain the total incompetence in some entirely different way to the American public.

 

[timschochet]

Manchin and Sinema both receive lots of money from drug companies. They’re not going to go along with anything that regulates drug prices. They will hide this behind a lot of rhetoric about leftist extremism but it’s really the bottom line. 
 

They are also providing cover for many other Democrats who also receive money from these companies and don’t want to have to vote against them. 

 

[Stealthycat]

I don't think so no

Democrats / Biden have and ran on a platform that can be googled and found - in most ways, Biden has done pretty much what he and Democrats promised

don't like the results? I dont' know what to say, most of what has happened in the last 18 months is what was promised

 

[Bottomfeeder Sports]

Cannabis legalization is inching towards 70% approval, gay marriage is now untouchable no matter what state and Supreme Court shenanigans ensue, college athletes have thrown off one of the last yokes of anti-trust and won the right to make money and transfer schools freely and have public support behind them, etc., etc.

There are missteps all the time but good ideas have a habit of catching on.

Oh, and the election reform movement is ever so slowly gathering steam like other progressive ideas of the recent past.

Yeah I think I should correct my previous statement.

Liberals propose policies that are supported by majorities, often large majorities of the population which unfortunately are not really the positions of the democrats.  Democrats do have policy issues in that they don't pursue these liberal policies, or when they do they  water down and compromise these positions into something else entirely.

Yes, and finally in the free market of ideas good ideas should prevail.  

 

[Bottomfeeder Sports]

I don't think so no

Democrats / Biden have and ran on a platform that can be googled and found - in most ways, Biden has done pretty much what he and Democrats promised

don't like the results? I dont' know what to say, most of what has happened in the last 18 months is what was promised

Your correct, Biden isn't very good at spreading the gospel of the successes of the past 18 months.

 

[whoknew]

I'm happy to differentiate between progressive activists and Democratic politicians.  But it's the progressive activists who are driving the bus these days, and people like Pelosi know it.  (Obviously we can tell a similar story about Republicans and MAGA activist types.)

The fact that Joe Biden is President doesn't really support this claim.

 

[Stealthycat]

Your correct, Biden isn't very good at spreading the gospel of the successes of the past 18 months.

well he doesn't want to lose votes - its a political thing

walk the line between doing all the things he promised the left without losing all the votes he got from the middle who just hated Trump ... and now that middle is getting full brunt of what the Democrats platform is and they are not happy

 

[Bottomfeeder Sports]

well he doesn't want to lose votes - its a political thing

walk the line between doing all the things he promised the left without losing all the votes he got from the middle who just hated Trump ... and now that middle is getting full brunt of what the Democrats platform is and they are not happy

Biden early on showed signs that he learned from Obama's vote costing mistake of not celebrating success and selling the virtues of their accomplishments, but since those early days and with a brief exception around the Infrastructure bill there best messaging on the success of this administration tends to come from @timschochet.

 

[Dickies]

I'm happy to differentiate between progressive activists and Democratic politicians.  But it's the progressive activists who are driving the bus these days, and people like Pelosi know it.  (Obviously we can tell a similar story about Republicans and MAGA activist types.)

Completely disagree with you on this.

 

[Stoneworker]

Your correct, Biden isn't very good at spreading the gospel of the successes of the past 18 months.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. -Barack Obama

 

[BassNBrew]

Yeah I think I should correct my previous statement.

Liberals propose policies that are supported by majorities, often large majorities of the population which unfortunately are not really the positions of the democrats.  Democrats do have policy issues in that they don't pursue these liberal policies, or when they do they  water down and compromise these positions into something else entirely.

Yes, and finally in the free market of ideas good ideas should prevail.  

Pot legalization...You control the three branches, craft a bill and pass it.  Why hasn't this been done?

 

[roadkill1292]

If progressives are really driving the Democratic bus - and I'm not convinced they are - then maybe it's because progressive policies are becoming more popular with the electorate.

 

[Herb]

Pot legalization...You control the three branches, craft a bill and pass it.  Why hasn't this been done?

Big pharma has deep pockets that house lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

 

[Dickies]

If progressives are really driving the Democratic bus - and I'm not convinced they are - then maybe it's because progressive policies are becoming more popular with the electorate.

I think progressive policies are becoming more popular with the electorate, and the reason I don't think progressives are driving the bus is because there is zero movement on any of them.

 

[Stoneworker]

If progressives are really driving the Democratic bus - and I'm not convinced they are - then maybe it's because progressive policies are becoming more popular with the electorate.

Progressives aren't driving the Democratic bus...they've just got a gun to the bus driver's head.

And free stuff from the federal gov't is always "popular with the electorate."

 

[matuski]

Pot legalization...You control the three branches, craft a bill and pass it.  Why hasn't this been done?

It is just another topic where politicians stand to gain more by not solving it... like immigration.

 

[roadkill1292]

Big pharma has deep pockets that house lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.

And Joe Biden and 90% of the US Senate are part of the last remaining generation that hasn't been able to relinquish its misperceptions.

 

[Grace Under Pressure]

Pot legalization...You control the three branches, craft a bill and pass it.  Why hasn't this been done?

1) They don't actually control the Senate. 

2) Joe Biden is not in favor of legalizing pot.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

The fact that Joe Biden is President doesn't really support this claim.

I'm thinking back to something like the "defund the police" moment.  Biden didn't come up with that.  If there is one person in America who does not want to defund the police, it is probably Joe Biden.  Yet that was the narrative that took hold during the George Floyd moment, and IMO it's the main reason why we somehow got through that era with zero movement -- as far as I can tell -- on criminal justice reform. 

This isn't a criticism of Biden at all.  I voted for the guy, in large part because he's not a progressive.  That's great from my POV.  But it does seems like the Biden administration and Democrats in general increasingly have to deal with a loud group of people to their left -- way to their left -- who keep trying to yank them further in that direction. 

To me, the parallel seems pretty obvious to where the GOP was in, say, 2012 or so.  With the benefit of hindsight, it's pretty easy to look back now and see the growth of an unhinged activist base that Republican leaders didn't realize they couldn't control until it was way too late.  The same dynamic is playing out now in Democratic circles.  Activists, media types, entertainment types, tech types, and so on are way to the left of elected Democrats, and those people have a lot more cultural power than MAGA ever did.  I don't know that they can really be kept at arms length indefinitely.  

 

[rockaction]

AI women are real women

 

[BassNBrew]

1) They don't actually control the Senate. 

2) Joe Biden is not in favor of legalizing pot.

1) That's semantics.  As point out upstream, a lot of stuff has passed 50-49, etc.

2) Well then that's a policy problem because the public supports it and the D message supports it.  Shame on Joe for not getting it done.

 

[JIslander]

Progressives aren't driving the Democratic bus...they've just got a gun to the bus driver's head.

And free stuff from the federal gov't is always "popular with the electorate."

"free stuff"?  are we going to start talking about welfare queens next?

 

[Philo Beddoe]

1) That's semantics.  As point out upstream, a lot of stuff has passed 50-49, etc.

2) Well then that's a policy problem because the public supports it and the D message supports it.  Shame on Joe for not getting it done.

It’s not even that difficult they can declassify it with the stroke of a pen. 

 

[Stoneworker]

"free stuff"?  are we going to start talking about welfare queens next?

Free college, free health care, free child care, free drugs, free housing, paid leave...the list is endless with the socialistas when it comes to feeding at the government trough.

 

[matuski]

Free college, free health care, free child care, free drugs, free housing, paid leave...the list is endless with the socialistas when it comes to feeding at the government trough.

Free is misleading.  More like freeloading.

I'm all for universal healthcare for taxpayers.  Would cost roughly what we are spending to support Ukraine.

 

[GordonGekko]

Oh there’s a messaging problem here……

Direct Headline: WaPo, NYT, CNN emphasize Democrats lack 'effective message on crime' following San Francisco recall

The New York Times, CNN and The Washington Post highlighted in their reporting that Democrats were lacking an "effective message on crime" following the recall of Chesa Boudin, a progressive district attorney, in San Francisco. ...CNN reported Wednesday in a piece titled "California voters send a stark message to Democrats on crime and homelessness" that California voters want their leaders to focus on how to beat rising crime...."For months now, the crosswinds facing Democrats nationally as they struggle to find an effective message on crime and inflation have been apparent in races across California, where Democrats currently hold all the statewide offices and dominate the congressional delegation"...The outlet noted low turnout in California and other states, which signals that Democrats are having a hard time energizing their base.

....The New York Times published a piece headlined "California Sends Democrats and the Nation a Message on Crime" after multiple West Coast elections determined that crime, law and order and the homelessness crisis were on the ballot....The New York Times reported that Boudin said in 2019 when he was chosen to be district attorney that the "tough on crime policies and rhetoric of the 1990s and early 2000s are on their way out." ...The outlet wrote that issues of crime and homelessness took center stage and that it signaled "an uphill battle" for Democrats in the midterm elections.... 

..."Leaders like Boudin have been on the defensive, as Republicans highlight some activists’ push to ‘defund the police’ and as Democrats including Biden try to recalibrate their party’s image," The Washington Post wrote.....

By Hanna Panreck Published June 8, 2022 5:19pm EDT

https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-nyt-cnn-democrats-crime-san-francisco

*********

There's more than a messaging problem.

It's just bad policy that punishes every day working class American citizens. No "message" can patch over the openly indefensible.

 

[dkp993]

It's just bad policy that punishes every day working class American citizens. No "message" can patch over the openly indefensible.

While I don’t disagree with your statement here, I think you missed the joke.   

 

[GordonGekko]

I knew somebody would bring up Joe Manchin. And yes I like Joe. But his opposition has been more to the centrist leadership of the party than it has to the radicals.

But yes in general we need more Joe Manchins and Liz Cheneys. 

Direct Headline: 11 Of The Biden Administration’s Greatest Failures So Far

1. Facilitating a Deadly Border

On June 20, an abandoned semi-truck was found to contain more than 40 dead migrants, with the death toll later rising to 51. The deceased have been confirmed to be Mexican, Guatemalan, and Honduran citizens entering the United States illegally, although 20 others’ national origins remain undetermined.

2. Shipping Illegals to a Community Near You

In addition to ignoring the border crisis, the president is secretly shipping illegal migrants across state borders and into suburban cities and family neighborhoods. In February, he planned to dump 1,000 Afghan refugees right next to Loudoun High School without contacting local law enforcement about the plan.

3. Holding Kids Hostage to Trans Radicalism

In May, the Biden administration attempted to strong arm public schools into letting males who identify as transgender use girls’ bathrooms by threatening to pull federal funding for school lunches if they didn’t. That’s 30 million lunch-program students Biden took hostage to push his party’s trans radicalism.

4. Tapping into Emergency Petroleum Reserves

Laying all blame on Putin for gas prices that are double what they were before Biden took office, Biden has commissioned the selling of 1 million barrels of oil per day for six months from our national emergency reserve. Instead of saving our stockpile for an emergency and resurrecting the Keystone pipeline and other major American energy projects Biden killed, the administration is using up the largest release from the stockpile in our history — and suggesting you buy an electric car.

5. Botching the Afghanistan Withdrawal

Pulling out of Afghanistan was always the plan — but not the disastrous way Biden did it. By leaving before Afghan forces were prepared, abandoning the Bagram Air Base before evacuating American citizens and Afghan allies, and leaving American citizens, weapons, and equipment for the Taliban to commandeer, Biden committed a tremendous strategic and humanitarian error.

6. Supporting Child Castration and Sterilization

The White House is openly championing “gender-affirming” surgeries .... targeted at young children, and Biden is not simply a moderate bystander. He has threatened “immediate action” against state governors and attorneys general who decry castration of a kid as child abuse.

7. Driving up Inflation

As Americans are reminded every time they buy groceries or fill their gas tanks, Biden’s policies have caused, or at least exacerbated, record inflation and unsustainably high consumer prices. By throwing money at problems the government largely created through the so-called American Rescue Plan, relinquishing U.S. energy independence, and printing more money, among other fiscally irresponsible policies, the president has helped make just about everything Americans need more expensive.

8. Letting Babies Go Hungry

Due to government-mandated shutdowns that slowed deliveries, burdensome regulations, and then Biden’s Food and Drug Administration’s shutdown of the largest baby formula-making plants in the country, Americans found themselves unable to find needed formula, leaving infants in hospitals and families desperate. Their desperation turned to frustration with the Biden administration when they realized the president was using their tax dollars to buy and ship formula to illegal immigrants at the border.

9. Forcing the Covid Jab

Despite his so-called “pro-choice” posture, Biden sought to force Americans to put vaccines into their bodies by issuing a rule that all workers in any business of more than 100 employees must get vaccinated or else be constantly tested. His vaccine-or-test mandate for workers was overruled by the Supreme Court and later withdrawn by his administration.

By: Beth Whitehead July 15, 2022

https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/15/11-of-the-biden-administrations-greatest-failures-so-far/

*******

You don't need more Manchin's and more Cheney's, why would you want more of that?

Manchin wants to secure his own personal coal business interests above all else. Cheney is functionally Trump-Lite in terms of how Democrats would see her in a general election. She's only useful right now since she denounces Trump, of course she was going to do that, she was never going to rise with Trump as a true contender for POTUS. Her Military Industrial Complex cronies want a pure warhawk like Cheney in office, or at least a POTUS different than Trump's stated aversion to getting into another protracted proxy war.

The only message that matters is Team Blue's policies, particularly the Biden Administration, suck. They punish the every day working class most of all. There is no "message" to cover up this kind of incompetence. Any attempt, like the flailing you see from CNN and Rachel Maddow and Late Night TV and The View, only insults Americans just trying to scrape by financially here.

No one wants to hear excuses. If you don't deliver on your promises for people who voted for you, they aren't going to keep voting for you. Lying to your base then insulting them for dissent against the betrayal is the absolute worst kind of message that can happen here, and it's happening.

 

[Rich Conway]

I'm happy to differentiate between progressive activists and Democratic politicians.  But it's the progressive activists who are driving the bus these days, and people like Pelosi know it.

I would argue the fact that even someone like you who isn't blinded by Gateway Pundit and OANN believes this is de facto evidence that Democrats do have a messaging problem.

 

[Rich Conway]

Pot legalization...You control the three branches, craft a bill and pass it.  Why hasn't this been done?

Filibuster.

 

[GordonGekko]

Oh there’s a messaging problem here……

Direct Headline: Op-Ed: Democrats don’t need ‘messaging,’ just more candidates who act like John Fetterman

A slightly newer saw is that “Democrats are bad at messaging.”..This one’s wrong too — but not because Democrats are good at messaging. It’s because messaging itself is a fool’s errand....Which is why it’s been so refreshing to see John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate for Senate in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, continue to reject Hollywood makeovers and Madison Avenue branding. And how has that worked for him? Well, in the second quarter, Fetterman managed to set a fundraising record for a Senate race in Pennsylvania: $11 million. From the start, no Photoshop or Auto-Tune has marred Fetterman’s doghair-festooned jacket, raggedy goatee or guttural voice. And something else off-message sealed his reputation as a man of the people. He had a stroke in May and, like millions of Americans, suffers with heart disease.

Since then he’s been busy improvising an offbeat campaign, largely on Twitter, which he refers to as “a dog-turd-and-motor-oil smoothie.” His social media game is as unrefined as he is — heavy on emojis, GIFs, pop memes and potshots at his posh Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz....Fetterman has been as frank about his political views as he was about his health. He’s a progressive. He’s for universal healthcare, Black Lives Matter, abortion rights, fossil fuel divestment, unions and a $15-minimum wage. Fetterman makes you think: Was that so hard? Democrats can appeal to working people by supporting labor and decarbonization, social justice and universal healthcare.

Of course he’s best known for his Rust Belt style. Currently Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor, Fetterman came to prominence when Donald Trump was bellowing about his 2020 loss in Pennsylvania — and he responded with facts and snorts on cable news....Then, during the Democratic primary, Fetterman presented a stark contrast to his opponent, Conor Lamb, a moderate with bipartisan hair — thick Kennedy locks combed into a clean Republican side part....Fetterman is very different. He stands 6-foot-8, wears gym shorts year-round and — let’s face it — looks like someone who, swayed by a different ideology....Even Pennsylvanians who don’t share his politics admire his authenticity. “Whether or not I believe in everything [Fetterman believes in], I believe he’s being honest with the people,” an antiabortion Republican voter told Bloomberg in May.

“Metallica makes anything better,” Fetterman tweeted in April 2020. (“What’s your favorite song of theirs?” someone asked. “Yes,” he replied.)... He talks off the cuff, he doesn’t do damage control, and — as he says — his views don’t change. “When you support fundamental rights, you don’t have to ‘evolve’ on issues,” he tweeted in September....Like Fetterman, these Democrats show how much better the party can do with more passion, more authenticity, more jokes, more mistakes, more courage and much, much less messaging.....

By Virginia Heffernan July 18, 2022 3 AM PT

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-07-18/fetterman-democrats-midterms

******

Sure, there's "a messaging problem here"  The bad message is that you can try to convince the every day working class American, being hammered by inflation and fearful of what the future holds for their children's safety, that what they are seeing with their own two eyes is not true. It's condescending and it's elitist and it drives voters away. It's one thing to call the rank and file as a "basket of deplorables", it's another thing to keep treating them that way.

And even more. You can't out "message" bad public policy. You can't out "message" idiots like Biden and Harris and Susan Rice running this country into the ground.

But why isn't someone like John Fetterman getting more traction in his own Party? Someone who actually has a "message" that resonates with many working class and carries the Team Blue logo?

Because, as of right now, he can't be controlled.

 

[dkp993]

The bad message is that you can try to convince the every day working class American, being hammered by inflation and fearful of what the future holds for their children's safety, that what they are seeing with their own two eyes is not true.

I’m trying to do what now?  Are you talking about my town halls for these lectures or my YouTube channel called “trying to convince the every day working class American, being hammered by inflation and fearful of what the future holds for their children's safety, that what they are seeing with their own two eyes is not true”.  Ah, I know, it must be my guest appearance on Radical Leftist TV you’re referring too.  Yeah that was a good segment.  
 

And for the record you’re still missing the joke. Now I know this whole chicken little pipe hitting alpha dog shtick is something you’re fully committed to at this point but you really should laugh and have a little fun once in a while.  This is just a fantasy football forum, the worlds not being saved here.  Lighten up a bit, you’ll find there’s some pretty good people here (some are even not conservatives, )

 

[dickey moe]

Pot legalization...You control the three branches, craft a bill and pass it.  Why hasn't this been done?

Minor pet peeve here... the Democrats currently control two branches of government: the Executive branch (President Biden) and the Legislative branch (collectively the Senate and the House). No political party controls the Judicial branch (despite what the Democrats might think at the moment). Same was true during the first couple of years of the Obama Administration.

Point taken, Democrats have had their chances and decided to blow their wad on the ACA.