As we already know, things aren’t looking too good for the Democrats, who are expected to take a shellacking in about two weeks during the midterm elections.
While Republicans are wisely hammering them on crime, education, immigration, and the economy, the left has been flailing. One of the Democrats’ most pressing problems is their apparent inability to come up with a viable messaging strategy.
This has been an enormous struggle for Democratic politicians and their comrades in the activist media. They have few accomplishments to tout, having turned in an abysmal performance when they took control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in 2021.
Politico recently published an interview with Stan Greenberg, a well-known Democratic pollster, who discusses the Democrats’ messaging challenges. His suggestion is that the left stop bragging about their supposed accomplishment and pivot to what it will do if allowed to retain control of the legislature.
“It’s our worst performing message,” Greenberg says. “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 is a veteran of the polling industry, having served as President Bill Clinton’s pollster. “He famously delivered a scorcher of a post-mortem that laid blame at the feet of BARACK OBAMA and his White House for midterm losses in 2010,” according to Politico.
“I’m stunned about how much of the Democratic commentary is winging it,” Greenberg continues. “[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.”
The interviewer asks if President Joe Biden was using the right messaging strategy. His answer: “Nope.”
“I saw their visuals when they were campaigning with the West in which they were talking about helping families with high costs,” Greenberg recounts. “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 pollster advises Democrats to focus less on the legislation they passed and more on how it will help everyday Americans in the future. He suggests touting student debt relief and prescription drug price reforms, “in the context of how it is helping them with the cost of living, not as a means of boasting about your accomplishments.”
Greenberg also recommends focusing on bringing back the expanded child tax credit. “The policy, which provided $3,000 to $3,600 per child for families that made $150,000 per couple or $112,500 per single parent unit, had been a major component of Biden’s Covid-relief package. But it lapsed and talks to renew it have completely stalled,” the report noted.
“They’re elites and live in a world of college educated voters who didn’t have it as a lifeline. They think our own base responds to identity politics rather than economics,” the pollster says. “If your goal is to win an economic argument, go on ‘Morning Joe.’ If the goal is to win an election, look at the f*cking data.”
Of course, Greenberg is not wrong. With my background in sales, I know how important it is to focus less on the features of a product (legislation) and persuade by emphasizing the benefit of what you’re selling (lower cost of living).
But there are some problems here.
For starters, it is far too late for Democrats to rehabilitate their messaging strategy. Even if they were to start taking Greenberg’s advice tomorrow, they would not be able to change enough minds to avoid their impending losses. The die is pretty much cast at this point – most already know who they are voting for when they step into the booth on November 8.
Additionally, the Democrats’ policies have not created the benefit Greenberg suggests. The cost of living has not decreased despite the passage of student debt relief and dealing with prescription drug prices. People are still paying exorbitant amounts when they go to the grocery store or to fill up their gas tanks. Many are still dealing with surging crime rates that Democrats seem unable to address. Progressives insist on inculcating young children with their radical ideas on race, sexuality, and gender identity in K-12 schools. The migrant crisis is still in full swing as the Biden administration continues lying to the public about the problem.
The reality is that Democrats don’t have much to sell to the average American voter. It is why their strategy has been to demonize “MAGA extremists” and continue harping on Jan. 6. At this point, their political fate is sealed for the near future.
