It was the economy, stupid

[Valin]

The Washington Examiner

Washington Examiner

November 02, 2022

Four prominent Democratic strategists wrote a memo last week in the American Prospect urging their party's candidates to ditch the election strategy they've been using up to now.

Since February, Democrats have been laser-focused on the issue of abortion. And even before that, they were constantly talking about the Jan. 6 riot and the supposed threats to democracy posed by "semifascist" Republican voters.

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And there we see the problem with this new strategy. According to the latest USA Today-Suffolk University poll, 66% of voters believe the United States is already in a recession. Biden is asking two-thirds of the public to believe Republicans are going to crash an economy they believe has already crashed.

The Democratic strategists seem to have something more subtle and intelligent in mind than Biden's speech. They want Democrats to acknowledge the increases in prices that come with inflation and to talk up obscure legislation such as the CHIPS Act and the bill Democrats cynically named the Inflation Reduction Act. They want them to show some empathy for the struggles voters are currently having because of the economy and then shift the responsibility to some other perennial Democratic bogeyman — Big Oil, large corporations, price gouging, etc.

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Dear Democrats

It appears you are