It's a combination of a few things. The silo'd algorithim'ified media environment does hurt. I mean even today LA remains on fire and there's a sizable number of media consumers who think that firetrucks were turned away at the CA border because they violate emissions standards or that Pete Hegseth is absolutely right about there being DEI "quotas" in the military. Zuck and Co have done far more damage with social media as "rage bait" than I think any of us are prepared to accept. I don't have all the answers on how to pull back (honestly I probably sound like old man yelling at cloud but it were up to just me given the damage social media alone does to kids, I'd outright ban all of it in the US or at least add a govt ID age-gate of 18 to everything from YouTube to Meta products) but we've got to deal with the fact that a certain subset of persuadable voters are only reachable at the moment via their algorithimic feeds.
The other piece is just a total lack of perspective and lack of willingness to acknowledge reality. As a millennial I'm well aware that the cost of living has sky rocketed in my life (especially housing). But it seems most people are too stupid to acknowledge that's largely something we've accepted thanks to local politicians (and the GOP at every level) being unwilling to act and home owners embracing the "fuck you I've got mine" attitude. So people think "well 6 years ago my rent was 1200/month, now it's 2350. The economy is terrible!" Except it's not "the economy". It's what we've all accepted from local politicians (which includes some of our Dem politicians in high COL areas) and NIMBYs. A refusal to understand how this works and throw a tantrum over this has gotten us to where we are. Any Dem who would have proposed some kind of national housing movement would have been tarred and feathered as a marxist social communist all day and all night (though Dems get called this even when they embrace conservative ideas so....)
As a millennial who graduated from college in 2008, it blows my mind that people can think the current economy is bad when so many of us lived through the great recession. THAT was a bad economy and it's not like that was 60 years ago, it was 15ish years ago. There were no jobs, you'd apply and call and network and there was just NOTHING out there for even the smartest and most connected of folks while people were losing or on the verge or losing their house left and right. The Biden economy isn't utopia but it's not anywhere near that and listening to some voters talk about the "feel" of the current economy, you'd think we were in the thick of the financial crisis. I don't know what the solution to this is but to me, this is the other big issue.
One aspect is being left out. No other president has had to deal with an immediate predecessor like Trump. No other president has had to contend with a LOUD, traitorous, criminal conman/showman like 45. Frankly, no one really knows how to deal with 45. He sucks all the oxygen out of whatever room he’s in.
When Obama took office, GW Bush’s economy was losing 800,000 jobs per month. That doesn’t sound possible, but it’s true. Obama’s team blamed Bush for the economy very effectively for three years.
Very interesting. Things have definitely changed over the past thirty years. The Internet is a huge factor but also, Republicans have played dirtier and dirtier. I would like to add that the housing market has also been profoundly affected by the tax code. Treat housing as a profit center and you'll get what we have now. This is a federal issue that can only be fixed by Congress, although the states could help.
Next time, we had better pick a talented communicator. My money's on Secty. Buttigieg or Gov. Newsom. Naming that bill Inflation Reduction Act was a cruel tactic. It set up expectations that were not met--a fatal error. I hope whoever did that has learnt their lesson. More than ever, we need to encourage young people to step up and take over the Democratic Party, so that we can move toward a future worth living into. Everybody under 30: off the bench--run for something!
Yeah, I think #4, Biden’s failure to communicate in today’s information era was the biggest driver.
We also need strong communicators to fix #3 during Trump’s term. If some of these infrastructure investments will be felt over these next four years, Democrats need to loudly take credit. Pete’s been saying that he’ll be out there talking about it. I hope AOC does too.
If you adjust for what a horrible messenger Biden was, and then for the fact that a good third of voters never heard any message except the most sensationalized and not true messages, Kamala could have cleared the 2-ish pt deficit she lost by. We are making this problem too hard. 1) Get a messenger ordinary people can understand and relate to. 2) Stick to solutions and issues that impact the most people. 3) Utilize mediums that access the widest swath of people - don't put all eggs in one basket.
Here’s an equation. Higher grocery prices plus higher gas prices plus higher housing costs plus higher borrowing costs which failed to be explained or offset by an effective communicator as President led to declining support which was amplified every damn day by the Republican and Republican adjacent media infrastructure until Biden’s approval ratings reached not going to be re-elected territory. In other words, this is not complicated. Biden passed some bills. All of which we who follow this stuff found highly consequential. But all that those who don’t follow this stuff saw was a President who didn’t have an answer for the things that most concerned them.
Why did Biden go underwater in August 2021 - because the legacy media hated the Afghan pullout. They excoriated Biden for that, and never let up after.
The Biden team was screwed from that moment on. It was the right thing to do, but from the press’s perspective, he was finished.
Your comment makes me wonder if the poison pill of Biden's Afghan pullout legacy will turn out to be an echo of Carter's Iran hostage legacy. Something to think about. Thank you.
The war in Afghanistan was entirely George Bush‘s fault. His laziness and inattention may have caused 911. Please remember that Gore was warning about all of this when the Supreme Court took the election away from him.
It was the right thing to do, but he didn't have to insist it would go smoothly.
Later he promised inflation would be "transitory". Why?
Why some politicians continue to not get the message of "under-promise then over-deliver" is beyond me. In Biden's case, it may have damaged trust in his judgment to cost him reelection.
And the fact that he still believes he would have won tells me his discernment left the barn a while ago.
Agree except that it was not just the legacy media that hated the way the US got out of Afghanistan, it was kind of *everybody.* (I remember seeing a Twitter post at the time from someone I know in the UK, a Labor MP candidate who retweeted a well-known moderate Tory criticizing the sudden retreat). Most notably, Biden told people that the Afghan army had the equipment they needed to defend themselves and, as I recall, predicted they would hold off the Taliban for a month or something like that—and the Taliban took Kabul within days. That was probably the end of Biden having credibility with a lot of people, both because he was wrong and the shock of what happened. As noted, Biden wasn’t a great communicator after that, but I also think a lot of people had just tuned out.
Why didn't voters care about Biden's accomplishments? It's because most people have the memory of a goldfish and can't see further than the tip of their own noses. Now we all get to live with the public's penchant for short-sighted, self-serving, what-have-you-done-for-me-today approach to politics.
I have to say that the Biden post-mortems are already getting old, and there's going to be another round coming after the speech. It's hard for me, at the moment, to see Biden as more than a footnote to the disaster that's coming. I will admit that I am bitter and angry. It's taking me a lot longer to get past it than I thought it would.
I share your feelings--it will take time. As a 74 year old, I remember how the publc scorned President Carter during & after his term in office. He was a saint, who did his best with challenges that up until that point were unimaginable. Additionally, we had no clue about Reagan's sabotage related to the Iran hostage situation. Now that the poor man has died, there's nothing but praise for his presidency as well as his many years of Habitat for Humanity service. His will be a hard act to follow. And yet, the public's response back then makes me skeptical about the negative assessment of Biden's presidency at this moment. Time will tell.
Blame it on voters? Hardly. That’s like a business with great product and shitty sales blaming the customer. The job is to have great products and sell them better than your competitor.
So when the company has a shitty, dangerous product but a great sales team, it's not the customer's fault for being duped? Is it the salesman's fault when the customer does not read the fine print, which in this case was writ large in bold red ink? Does caveat emptor no longer apply to our world? When do we stop shooting the messenger, an albeit deeply flawed one, and start looking at the folks who voted on vibes rather than information? There is much to complain about with the Democratic party, but I refuse to let the voters off the hook.
Eric, alas, it was not the majority of the working class who voted for tRump,having short-term memories,so to speak. Did any of you/us remember hearing or reading that the Democratic Party was doing such a “Terrible Job” of getting Biden‘s successes out there? I did, Pete Buttigieg commented on the same did ! It was pointed out to me that Bernie Sanders has continuously said this ! Some of my more liberal voting friends, were aware and terribly concerned 😧 over this fact ! It’s frightening of what is to come !
Once again, our democratic hierarchy is not “Screaming to the Rafters !!!” in a last ditch effort stating Biden‘s accomplishments ! We know the fascist, narcissistic, lying excuse of a leader will most likely take credit !!! He knows how important social media is and has greatly used it for his advantage. Did our Administration ? Not enough obviously !
To go... where? I understand how you feel but until someone figures out how to break us out of the two party system your only destinations would be the GOP or the wilderness.
I've thought about becoming a socialist. I haven't been able to do it yet though. I do like the idea of socialism but the way they approach politics is a bit too insular for me.
At some point do we need to accept that voters are responsible for their own actions and that the reason that people didn't care about Biden's accomplishments is because they didn't want to? It's easier, and it takes less thought, to believe the grievance politics being sold by Trump and Republicans. They give people a very convenient outlet for fear of a fast-changing culture and world. I'm worried that the mistake Democrats and the left made is in overestimating the decency of Americans.
Jen psaki was an excellent communicator during his first year. Promoting her assistant was a disastrous decision. Biden effectively had no skilled communicator in the house. Of course the Democrats should’ve made ads about everything they were doing and put those ads everywhere. They should’ve used people like Tammy Duckworth and Brian Schatz to blast out what the Republicans stood for. Thanks for your excellent critique Dan.
Yes to some of that, Dan. President Biden is not a great communicator, certainly not in the modern sense. His delivery is that of an earlier generation and, like your point about his belief that the work should speak for itself, it just doesn't resonate with so many of today's voters.
But the poll you cite has two weaknesses, I believe. First, it's only 1000 voters. I can't see how that's statistically sound. Secondly, and more importantly, it measures what *type* of source voters get their information from but not *which* sources. Republican voters scored (sic) highest in Don't Follow, youTube/Google, Cable news, and social media. Of the four one doesn't explain its title ("Don't Follow" = never, ever gets news, or receives it passively but knows headlines?), while the other three easily allow for voters to follow the news they choose.
Given the tsunami of b*llsh*t the GOP flings, and especially during the campaign and about Biden for years, and the penetration of Fox et al, I say it's hard to not see the flood of negative, and falsely negative, "news" about the Biden administration as the foundational cause of voters not appreciating what Biden did in fact, accomplish.
Dan, thank you for this. I am one who has been despondent since the election, as you mentioned. I swore I would swear off politics, but it’s in my blood. One of my problems has been the continual Biden bashing for the past 9 months. As I listened to Pod Save America yesterday, I kept thinking that I need these guys to let it go. I sort of get it, but Jons and Tommy are driving me nuts, and I begin to think I will only listen to Thursday’s pod as you are the most focused on the future and being constructive.
One more reason Biden doesn’t get credit or respect is the American public. We are now a nation of reality show lovers—the crasser the better. Biden doesn’t appeal to that crowd when Trump and his like are so entertaining.
Anyway, thank you. And ask your cronies to stop looking back and focus on the future instead of their anger at Biden.
I heard a lot about the team of geniuses Biden had around him. I beg to differ. The staff around an executive is supposed to take a realistic look and work hard to shore up his or her (in this case Biden’s) deficiencies and work just as hard to leverage Biden’s strengths. And there has to be one trusted advisor to whisper the truth constantly in Biden’s ear.
By any of these measures, Biden’s staff was shit.
The Afghan withdrawal? Biden should have been out there forcefully condemning the lies and failures of a succession of generals who spent $20 billion in ten years, and constantly assured the US taxpayer that it was money well spent. The Afghan Army folded in one day!
The Infrastructure bill? Who remembers Mitch Landrieu, touted as a great spokesperson, was appointed the grand pooh-bah of the Infrastructure Bill? He was supposed to get things moving and tout its accomplishments. Stayed there until he joined the Biden re-elect campaign. No, he didn’t die in office or get struck mute. What a waste! Why didn’t the Chief of Staff fire him? Was there something more pressing always going on?
Jen Psaki’s replacement was grammatically perfect but otherwise never had the chops for her role.
Whoever let Biden name the Inflation Reduction Act should win the prize in the “I Think Voters Are Stupid” contest.
Biden’s border policy for the first three years was idiocy. No staff member noticed? (Idiocy as defined as 75% of the country hates it and Fox News beats you with it daily).
I read several suggestions that Biden form a Cabinet-level team to work to lower prices. Real public pressure. Threatened legislation. To meat, dairy and grocery suppliers. To oil companies (the real throttle is refinery capacity, kept too low on purpose). To mega landlords. If it didn’t work, at least the electorate would understand who the enemy is. Go on Fox to talk about it. Name names.
To the media-introduce a bill to give a huge tax break to independent media companies. To acknowledge their slim profit margins (and special importance as the only industry mentioned in the constitution). Fight for it. I think they might have liked you for it.
I have liked Joe Biden for 35 years. But I knew he was not cut out for this office when he willingly made a pledge in 2020 to not try to expand SCOTUS. I realized then that he did not understand—at all—the value an unspoken threat could have had on the behavior of the court. He didn’t win a single vote with that pledge and gave away a lot.
So, a shitty staff of blowhards is my opinion. Perhaps, like Jimmy Carter, he had a very prickly attitude toward staff suggestions, even the Chief of Staff. Or maybe he hired staff in his image, with the same strengths and blindspots.
And then there’s the family. Who should have been taking his car keys, not urging him to run in 2024.
- 4 years constant FOX campaign for GOP's in all 50 states
From Hopium Chronicles on SubStack.
We need a robust 24/7/365 pro-democracy media but we also need a more aggressive Democratic Party-led strategy to engage Democratic voters in all 50 states to drive turnout in every election, in every state. The Democratic Party and our Presidential campaigns have to be more than just 7 battleground states.
OK, but you're leaving out a big one: A significant portion -- I'm guessing a majority -- of the U.S. electorate has at best a sketchy idea of how government works, and they're borderline clueless about the impact of Big Money, aka economic power, on what "government" does and doesn't do. It's a cliché to bemoan the demise of civics education in so many places over the last couple of generations, but it's a point worth making. If nothing else, civics education in schools would provide at least some counterweight against the dominance of Fox and other right-wing media. OTOH, "civics education" as practiced in states like Florida is worse than nothing -- but it does suggest that the right understands how useful it can be for pushing its anti-democratic agenda.
I really appreciated this article, especially the bit about the media coverage. Very useful. My only quibble would be the language. I think one reason Rs outmessage us is their comforting certainty. I think a pundit on Fox News would always say “WHEN we retake power” and never “if (god-willing) we retake power.” I know it’s a dark time and lot is uncertain, but I know the wheel will turn here.
I think the much bigger problem is that despite the recovery and gangbuster economy, the vast majority of the benefits of this expansion, and most of those over the last few decades, has been reserved for the top 10% of earners. The top cause of bankruptcy in the US? Medical expenses despite the fact that the ACA made insurance more affordable. People love private insurance until they need it. The average cost of infant daycare in the US is >20K per year. How is that affordable for working parents?
Nothing is easy, everything has secret fees/costs, and one side yells how bad things are but the congressional structure doesn't permit the other side to even try and fix these things. The child welfare benefit showed that it could be made better...and then it was taken away. Seriously, raise hope and then dash it. It makes democrats look mean because the majority of voters don't realize that there is no majority rules in the senate.
Is there more prosperity? Yes. Is it evenly distributed? No. Do dems seem able to see those problems and fix them? No That is why we lose.
As usual, Dan appropriately shifts the focus from over-blaming the media to the mysterious lack of communication by the Biden WH with the American people.
Let’s remember, please, that the 2024 election differed from all previous elections in the heavy spending by billionaires on GOTV actions in several states.
Re:Biden’s performance: he managed to fashion compromises that shifted critical policy making that improve the probability that global warming’s worst effects can be mitigated. Too many people resist recognition of the serious risks we face. We need more “media personalities” such as Bill Nye the Science Guy to make complex realities accessible.
I wonder whether many, if not most voters, expected that Biden would choose to be a one-term President and announce that choice by late 2022. What if he’d done that?
It's a combination of a few things. The silo'd algorithim'ified media environment does hurt. I mean even today LA remains on fire and there's a sizable number of media consumers who think that firetrucks were turned away at the CA border because they violate emissions standards or that Pete Hegseth is absolutely right about there being DEI "quotas" in the military. Zuck and Co have done far more damage with social media as "rage bait" than I think any of us are prepared to accept. I don't have all the answers on how to pull back (honestly I probably sound like old man yelling at cloud but it were up to just me given the damage social media alone does to kids, I'd outright ban all of it in the US or at least add a govt ID age-gate of 18 to everything from YouTube to Meta products) but we've got to deal with the fact that a certain subset of persuadable voters are only reachable at the moment via their algorithimic feeds.
The other piece is just a total lack of perspective and lack of willingness to acknowledge reality. As a millennial I'm well aware that the cost of living has sky rocketed in my life (especially housing). But it seems most people are too stupid to acknowledge that's largely something we've accepted thanks to local politicians (and the GOP at every level) being unwilling to act and home owners embracing the "fuck you I've got mine" attitude. So people think "well 6 years ago my rent was 1200/month, now it's 2350. The economy is terrible!" Except it's not "the economy". It's what we've all accepted from local politicians (which includes some of our Dem politicians in high COL areas) and NIMBYs. A refusal to understand how this works and throw a tantrum over this has gotten us to where we are. Any Dem who would have proposed some kind of national housing movement would have been tarred and feathered as a marxist social communist all day and all night (though Dems get called this even when they embrace conservative ideas so....)
As a millennial who graduated from college in 2008, it blows my mind that people can think the current economy is bad when so many of us lived through the great recession. THAT was a bad economy and it's not like that was 60 years ago, it was 15ish years ago. There were no jobs, you'd apply and call and network and there was just NOTHING out there for even the smartest and most connected of folks while people were losing or on the verge or losing their house left and right. The Biden economy isn't utopia but it's not anywhere near that and listening to some voters talk about the "feel" of the current economy, you'd think we were in the thick of the financial crisis. I don't know what the solution to this is but to me, this is the other big issue.
One aspect is being left out. No other president has had to deal with an immediate predecessor like Trump. No other president has had to contend with a LOUD, traitorous, criminal conman/showman like 45. Frankly, no one really knows how to deal with 45. He sucks all the oxygen out of whatever room he’s in.
When Obama took office, GW Bush’s economy was losing 800,000 jobs per month. That doesn’t sound possible, but it’s true. Obama’s team blamed Bush for the economy very effectively for three years.
Very interesting. Things have definitely changed over the past thirty years. The Internet is a huge factor but also, Republicans have played dirtier and dirtier. I would like to add that the housing market has also been profoundly affected by the tax code. Treat housing as a profit center and you'll get what we have now. This is a federal issue that can only be fixed by Congress, although the states could help.
Wait, building and selling houses, or building and renting apartments isn’t a for profit enterprise?
I think the problem is allowing corporations and hedge funds to buy up housing stock with no limits or regulations.
Yes, exactly. And not discouraging flipping, which raises prices exponentially. Predatory buying.
Next time, we had better pick a talented communicator. My money's on Secty. Buttigieg or Gov. Newsom. Naming that bill Inflation Reduction Act was a cruel tactic. It set up expectations that were not met--a fatal error. I hope whoever did that has learnt their lesson. More than ever, we need to encourage young people to step up and take over the Democratic Party, so that we can move toward a future worth living into. Everybody under 30: off the bench--run for something!
Yeah, I think #4, Biden’s failure to communicate in today’s information era was the biggest driver.
We also need strong communicators to fix #3 during Trump’s term. If some of these infrastructure investments will be felt over these next four years, Democrats need to loudly take credit. Pete’s been saying that he’ll be out there talking about it. I hope AOC does too.
Maybe not the biggest--but it really was a problem.
Newsom is the worst. The right and left
Both see him as a sleazy preening used car salesman. I’m not sure who his constituency would be.
I used to think the same thing. But watching how he's handling the LA fires made me take a second look.
Let’s wait on killing our own candidates at least until they declare.
I think weeding out bad ones early on is a good tactic!
Gavin is a mirage. He has many political liabilities. Pete I think would be a fantastic candidate.
If you adjust for what a horrible messenger Biden was, and then for the fact that a good third of voters never heard any message except the most sensationalized and not true messages, Kamala could have cleared the 2-ish pt deficit she lost by. We are making this problem too hard. 1) Get a messenger ordinary people can understand and relate to. 2) Stick to solutions and issues that impact the most people. 3) Utilize mediums that access the widest swath of people - don't put all eggs in one basket.
True.
Here’s an equation. Higher grocery prices plus higher gas prices plus higher housing costs plus higher borrowing costs which failed to be explained or offset by an effective communicator as President led to declining support which was amplified every damn day by the Republican and Republican adjacent media infrastructure until Biden’s approval ratings reached not going to be re-elected territory. In other words, this is not complicated. Biden passed some bills. All of which we who follow this stuff found highly consequential. But all that those who don’t follow this stuff saw was a President who didn’t have an answer for the things that most concerned them.
Why did Biden go underwater in August 2021 - because the legacy media hated the Afghan pullout. They excoriated Biden for that, and never let up after.
The Biden team was screwed from that moment on. It was the right thing to do, but from the press’s perspective, he was finished.
Your comment makes me wonder if the poison pill of Biden's Afghan pullout legacy will turn out to be an echo of Carter's Iran hostage legacy. Something to think about. Thank you.
The war in Afghanistan was entirely George Bush‘s fault. His laziness and inattention may have caused 911. Please remember that Gore was warning about all of this when the Supreme Court took the election away from him.
It was the right thing to do, but he didn't have to insist it would go smoothly.
Later he promised inflation would be "transitory". Why?
Why some politicians continue to not get the message of "under-promise then over-deliver" is beyond me. In Biden's case, it may have damaged trust in his judgment to cost him reelection.
And the fact that he still believes he would have won tells me his discernment left the barn a while ago.
Damaged trust in his judgement? Or revealed occasional horrendous judgement?
Biden never gave us or the press any reason for the failure. So everyone stayed stuck on Joe as the problem.
In truth, it was ten years of U. S. generals telling lies about the Afghan army readiness and wasting $20 billion in taxpayer money.
Biden never said it.
Agree except that it was not just the legacy media that hated the way the US got out of Afghanistan, it was kind of *everybody.* (I remember seeing a Twitter post at the time from someone I know in the UK, a Labor MP candidate who retweeted a well-known moderate Tory criticizing the sudden retreat). Most notably, Biden told people that the Afghan army had the equipment they needed to defend themselves and, as I recall, predicted they would hold off the Taliban for a month or something like that—and the Taliban took Kabul within days. That was probably the end of Biden having credibility with a lot of people, both because he was wrong and the shock of what happened. As noted, Biden wasn’t a great communicator after that, but I also think a lot of people had just tuned out.
Why didn't voters care about Biden's accomplishments? It's because most people have the memory of a goldfish and can't see further than the tip of their own noses. Now we all get to live with the public's penchant for short-sighted, self-serving, what-have-you-done-for-me-today approach to politics.
I have to say that the Biden post-mortems are already getting old, and there's going to be another round coming after the speech. It's hard for me, at the moment, to see Biden as more than a footnote to the disaster that's coming. I will admit that I am bitter and angry. It's taking me a lot longer to get past it than I thought it would.
I share your feelings--it will take time. As a 74 year old, I remember how the publc scorned President Carter during & after his term in office. He was a saint, who did his best with challenges that up until that point were unimaginable. Additionally, we had no clue about Reagan's sabotage related to the Iran hostage situation. Now that the poor man has died, there's nothing but praise for his presidency as well as his many years of Habitat for Humanity service. His will be a hard act to follow. And yet, the public's response back then makes me skeptical about the negative assessment of Biden's presidency at this moment. Time will tell.
Blame it on voters? Hardly. That’s like a business with great product and shitty sales blaming the customer. The job is to have great products and sell them better than your competitor.
So when the company has a shitty, dangerous product but a great sales team, it's not the customer's fault for being duped? Is it the salesman's fault when the customer does not read the fine print, which in this case was writ large in bold red ink? Does caveat emptor no longer apply to our world? When do we stop shooting the messenger, an albeit deeply flawed one, and start looking at the folks who voted on vibes rather than information? There is much to complain about with the Democratic party, but I refuse to let the voters off the hook.
Blaming the voters is pointless. We need some of the swing voters who voted Trump and the Dem voters who stayed home to win next time.
Your clever plan to win them back seems to start with giving them a stern talking to so that realize and meditate on their deficiencies.
Please let me know how that works out for you.
Eric, alas, it was not the majority of the working class who voted for tRump,having short-term memories,so to speak. Did any of you/us remember hearing or reading that the Democratic Party was doing such a “Terrible Job” of getting Biden‘s successes out there? I did, Pete Buttigieg commented on the same did ! It was pointed out to me that Bernie Sanders has continuously said this ! Some of my more liberal voting friends, were aware and terribly concerned 😧 over this fact ! It’s frightening of what is to come !
Once again, our democratic hierarchy is not “Screaming to the Rafters !!!” in a last ditch effort stating Biden‘s accomplishments ! We know the fascist, narcissistic, lying excuse of a leader will most likely take credit !!! He knows how important social media is and has greatly used it for his advantage. Did our Administration ? Not enough obviously !
Eric, I too, am very bitter and angry 😠. I am seriously thinking of leaving the Democratic Party.
To go... where? I understand how you feel but until someone figures out how to break us out of the two party system your only destinations would be the GOP or the wilderness.
I left it right after the election.
Until a viable third party comes along, I’m in Bernie Sanders mode … aligning with Democrats on Election Day out of pragmatic necessity.
But I hold very little hope that the Democratic Party will reform itself.
I've thought about becoming a socialist. I haven't been able to do it yet though. I do like the idea of socialism but the way they approach politics is a bit too insular for me.
So you can never have a candidate get elected? Or do you live in Vermont?
No, California. That's another reason not to do it. Third parties have no say.
At some point do we need to accept that voters are responsible for their own actions and that the reason that people didn't care about Biden's accomplishments is because they didn't want to? It's easier, and it takes less thought, to believe the grievance politics being sold by Trump and Republicans. They give people a very convenient outlet for fear of a fast-changing culture and world. I'm worried that the mistake Democrats and the left made is in overestimating the decency of Americans.
Excellent point. People love to be angry and to hate. I don't know what we do about that.
Jen psaki was an excellent communicator during his first year. Promoting her assistant was a disastrous decision. Biden effectively had no skilled communicator in the house. Of course the Democrats should’ve made ads about everything they were doing and put those ads everywhere. They should’ve used people like Tammy Duckworth and Brian Schatz to blast out what the Republicans stood for. Thanks for your excellent critique Dan.
Yes to some of that, Dan. President Biden is not a great communicator, certainly not in the modern sense. His delivery is that of an earlier generation and, like your point about his belief that the work should speak for itself, it just doesn't resonate with so many of today's voters.
But the poll you cite has two weaknesses, I believe. First, it's only 1000 voters. I can't see how that's statistically sound. Secondly, and more importantly, it measures what *type* of source voters get their information from but not *which* sources. Republican voters scored (sic) highest in Don't Follow, youTube/Google, Cable news, and social media. Of the four one doesn't explain its title ("Don't Follow" = never, ever gets news, or receives it passively but knows headlines?), while the other three easily allow for voters to follow the news they choose.
Given the tsunami of b*llsh*t the GOP flings, and especially during the campaign and about Biden for years, and the penetration of Fox et al, I say it's hard to not see the flood of negative, and falsely negative, "news" about the Biden administration as the foundational cause of voters not appreciating what Biden did in fact, accomplish.
Dan, thank you for this. I am one who has been despondent since the election, as you mentioned. I swore I would swear off politics, but it’s in my blood. One of my problems has been the continual Biden bashing for the past 9 months. As I listened to Pod Save America yesterday, I kept thinking that I need these guys to let it go. I sort of get it, but Jons and Tommy are driving me nuts, and I begin to think I will only listen to Thursday’s pod as you are the most focused on the future and being constructive.
One more reason Biden doesn’t get credit or respect is the American public. We are now a nation of reality show lovers—the crasser the better. Biden doesn’t appeal to that crowd when Trump and his like are so entertaining.
Anyway, thank you. And ask your cronies to stop looking back and focus on the future instead of their anger at Biden.
I heard a lot about the team of geniuses Biden had around him. I beg to differ. The staff around an executive is supposed to take a realistic look and work hard to shore up his or her (in this case Biden’s) deficiencies and work just as hard to leverage Biden’s strengths. And there has to be one trusted advisor to whisper the truth constantly in Biden’s ear.
By any of these measures, Biden’s staff was shit.
The Afghan withdrawal? Biden should have been out there forcefully condemning the lies and failures of a succession of generals who spent $20 billion in ten years, and constantly assured the US taxpayer that it was money well spent. The Afghan Army folded in one day!
The Infrastructure bill? Who remembers Mitch Landrieu, touted as a great spokesperson, was appointed the grand pooh-bah of the Infrastructure Bill? He was supposed to get things moving and tout its accomplishments. Stayed there until he joined the Biden re-elect campaign. No, he didn’t die in office or get struck mute. What a waste! Why didn’t the Chief of Staff fire him? Was there something more pressing always going on?
Jen Psaki’s replacement was grammatically perfect but otherwise never had the chops for her role.
Whoever let Biden name the Inflation Reduction Act should win the prize in the “I Think Voters Are Stupid” contest.
Biden’s border policy for the first three years was idiocy. No staff member noticed? (Idiocy as defined as 75% of the country hates it and Fox News beats you with it daily).
I read several suggestions that Biden form a Cabinet-level team to work to lower prices. Real public pressure. Threatened legislation. To meat, dairy and grocery suppliers. To oil companies (the real throttle is refinery capacity, kept too low on purpose). To mega landlords. If it didn’t work, at least the electorate would understand who the enemy is. Go on Fox to talk about it. Name names.
To the media-introduce a bill to give a huge tax break to independent media companies. To acknowledge their slim profit margins (and special importance as the only industry mentioned in the constitution). Fight for it. I think they might have liked you for it.
I have liked Joe Biden for 35 years. But I knew he was not cut out for this office when he willingly made a pledge in 2020 to not try to expand SCOTUS. I realized then that he did not understand—at all—the value an unspoken threat could have had on the behavior of the court. He didn’t win a single vote with that pledge and gave away a lot.
So, a shitty staff of blowhards is my opinion. Perhaps, like Jimmy Carter, he had a very prickly attitude toward staff suggestions, even the Chief of Staff. Or maybe he hired staff in his image, with the same strengths and blindspots.
And then there’s the family. Who should have been taking his car keys, not urging him to run in 2024.
The 2024 DNC Presidental Campaign
- Silence 3 years, 8 months
- Campaign 4 months in swing states
The 2024 RNC Presidential Campaign
- 4 years constant FOX campaign for GOP's in all 50 states
From Hopium Chronicles on SubStack.
We need a robust 24/7/365 pro-democracy media but we also need a more aggressive Democratic Party-led strategy to engage Democratic voters in all 50 states to drive turnout in every election, in every state. The Democratic Party and our Presidential campaigns have to be more than just 7 battleground states.
https://open.substack.com/pub/simonwdc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=280c3q
OK, but you're leaving out a big one: A significant portion -- I'm guessing a majority -- of the U.S. electorate has at best a sketchy idea of how government works, and they're borderline clueless about the impact of Big Money, aka economic power, on what "government" does and doesn't do. It's a cliché to bemoan the demise of civics education in so many places over the last couple of generations, but it's a point worth making. If nothing else, civics education in schools would provide at least some counterweight against the dominance of Fox and other right-wing media. OTOH, "civics education" as practiced in states like Florida is worse than nothing -- but it does suggest that the right understands how useful it can be for pushing its anti-democratic agenda.
I really appreciated this article, especially the bit about the media coverage. Very useful. My only quibble would be the language. I think one reason Rs outmessage us is their comforting certainty. I think a pundit on Fox News would always say “WHEN we retake power” and never “if (god-willing) we retake power.” I know it’s a dark time and lot is uncertain, but I know the wheel will turn here.
I think the much bigger problem is that despite the recovery and gangbuster economy, the vast majority of the benefits of this expansion, and most of those over the last few decades, has been reserved for the top 10% of earners. The top cause of bankruptcy in the US? Medical expenses despite the fact that the ACA made insurance more affordable. People love private insurance until they need it. The average cost of infant daycare in the US is >20K per year. How is that affordable for working parents?
Nothing is easy, everything has secret fees/costs, and one side yells how bad things are but the congressional structure doesn't permit the other side to even try and fix these things. The child welfare benefit showed that it could be made better...and then it was taken away. Seriously, raise hope and then dash it. It makes democrats look mean because the majority of voters don't realize that there is no majority rules in the senate.
Is there more prosperity? Yes. Is it evenly distributed? No. Do dems seem able to see those problems and fix them? No That is why we lose.
As usual, Dan appropriately shifts the focus from over-blaming the media to the mysterious lack of communication by the Biden WH with the American people.
Let’s remember, please, that the 2024 election differed from all previous elections in the heavy spending by billionaires on GOTV actions in several states.
Re:Biden’s performance: he managed to fashion compromises that shifted critical policy making that improve the probability that global warming’s worst effects can be mitigated. Too many people resist recognition of the serious risks we face. We need more “media personalities” such as Bill Nye the Science Guy to make complex realities accessible.
I wonder whether many, if not most voters, expected that Biden would choose to be a one-term President and announce that choice by late 2022. What if he’d done that?
Would he have been setback as a lame duck?
Bill Nye--excellent idea!