Democrats Are On a Roll: Now We Have to Control the Narrative

The signature legislation of the Biden administration is in position to be passed before the President finishes his first year in office.  It is popular, according to polling data, far above the mediocre approval levels reported for President Biden himself. I'm glad to see the President out, taking victory laps, making appearances and telling people what's really going on.  And I see that the Democratic party has planned a thousand such events across the country between now and the end of the year.  That's exactly what needs to happen.  Democrats need to "control the narrative" and get ahead on the benefits of these bills to the American people.  

Surely Democrats have people who can put out the kind of press responses necessary to change the doom and gloom attitude to a realistic perspective of what is a roaring economy.  Yeah, sure, there's inflation, expected in the wake of the COVID pandemic and the downturn that it caused.  As people start to get out again, businesses are trying to recoup their pandemic losses. This is still very much a capitalist, supply and demand economic system and recovery creates shortages and imbalances in places where production and service delivery slowed down when everyone was staying at home.  But the employment numbers are fantastic, unemployment claims are steadily dropping, job creation is at higher levels than it was under the former president and with the legislation that has already been passed, it's only going to get better.  

We are less than a year into what is already a much more positive and productive Presidency than we've seen since Barack Obama left office.  It's just ignorant to think someone without any political background or experience can succeed in the Presidency and we've just emerged from four years of failure that underlines that fact and provides evidence of its truthfulness.  Americans have been complaining about their government and "career politicians" since I789, when the constitution was ratified.  Well....you get the point.  But the fact of the matter is that career politicians have the kind of experience to make government work.  And Joe Biden is getting that done.  

Major Achievements Become Major Talking Points

I like lists.  They're short and to the point. 

• This administration had a distribution plan for the COVID vaccines that gave every American access to have one within six months. 
• We got out of Afghanistan, and while the collapse of the country, mainly due to the dubious diplomatic "deals" made by our previous President, required a quick exit, the logistics of which were massive, it was an absolutely remarkable feat, and the United States is finally out of what was one of the worst military and diplomatic situations it has ever been in.  
• The government is functioning according to its constitutional provisions, protecting citizens from the effects of a viral pandemic worse than anything we've seen in a hundred years.  
• The first big piece of Biden's signature legislation has been passed and signed into law.  We are anticipating the second piece after Thanksgiving.  After fussing, fighting and leaving the impression of "dissaray," it appears that pressure building on the reluctant has worked. 
• The economy, in spite of some inflation and high gas prices, is roaring.  Unemployment is diminishing far more rapidly than it did under the previous administration.  Applications for unemployment are dropping like a stone in a well.  
• The "Border Crisis" isn't.  Get away from right wing media and you will find that the United States is handling issues on its border with Mexico in exactly the manner that should be expected from a free country that has a history as a refuge from oppression.  There are large numbers of refugees from oppressive and impoverished areas of Latin America coming to the United States, but they are being processed as they should be as assylum seekers. That's how it should be done. 

Gas prices, by the way, are not under the control of the President.  It's a supply and demand issue in a capitalist economy and any conservative, right winger knows that to be true.  Gas prices were depressed during the last two years of the previous failed administration because COVID was keeping people at home and the demand for gasoline dropped by 40% during the last year.  It has come all the way back to within 5% of its previous peak, while production has not increased enough to keep pace with demand.  And so, the price goes up, as it always does in a supply and demand, free market economy. 

It's more than blatant hypocrisy for Republicans to be shrieking and flapping their lips about high gas prices when they are the direct result of the kind of economic system they think is fair and equitable. 

Everything's There For a Blue Wave Mid-Term

Eighty million Americans cast a ballot for Joe Biden in 2020.  It's only been a year since then.  I don't believe, not for a minute, that any of those eighty million people would waver in their decision and turn back to the orange menace, thinking that would now be a better way to go.  The threats posed by Trump and Trumpism are real and getting control of that narrative and making sure people know just how bad it would be for him to make another run for the Presidency is a key advantage for Democrats.  Millions voted for Biden to keep Trump from getting it and that's a fact that needs to continue to impress voters. 

But there's so much more.  The potential for the economic prosperity unseen in modern times is in the hands of the Democratic party and huge strides forward have been made.  The legislation that has already been passed, not what was originally proposed but still significant, is a major job creator.  So is the Build Back Better legislation.  They are gigantic investments in the future that are going to be paid for with money that wouldn't have been re-invested in the economy otherwise.  This is an agenda worth fighting for, and worth supporting those who are bringing it about.  

So let's get with it.  Democratic Party leadership, you need to get control of this narrative and start going head to head in combat with the extremist right wing propaganda that is out there.  We have free speech too, it's time to take advantage of it.  

The Social Agenda

Will someone please tell me why what's going on doesn't motivate you to step up and speak out?  Black lives do, indeed matter and in matters of policing and justice, African Americans are still enduring discrimination, prejudice and bias that no white American would put up with.  There's nothing socialist, communist or anti-Christian about being "woke."  Every American has free speech, freedom of conscience and has the right to believe in and practice the provisions of Critical Race Theory.  Every school district has the right to include its provisions in its social studies curriculum (even though it is not there now).  

People seeking assylum from political oppression or the oppression and deprivation of poverty should still be able to find it in the United States of America. They should be able to arrive at our border, ask for assylum, be allowed to cross and given the opportunity to support themselves while their request is processed.  They should not have to wait in Mexico, where the resources are not available to sustain their needs.  

Silenced by the Truth

Change requires understanding and the way things have developed in this country politically, pushed along by demagogues in the media like Rush Limbaugh and all his wannabees, Rupert Murdock, Christopher Ruddy, Marlon Maddoux, Steve Bannon and their ilk, who are propagandists, not journalists, is counterproductive to the will of the people.  In a constitutional democracy, where free speech is of high value, they must be discredited and bypassed, silenced by the truth, not by law.  

If you're reading this now, you are seeing a very small effort at changing the political narrative.  On any given day, this blog may get as many as I50 readers, or as few as 35 or 40, depending on how fresh the posts are and where they can be found.  I try to be factual, inspiring, gracious and understanding, and I consult multiple sources of information to make each post.  What affect that has on how people vote, I don't know.  But what if there were ten thousand other bloggers like this out there, as there very well may be?  Do we make a difference?  I hope so.  

Voting is the ultimate expression of the will of the people and Democrats, especially now, should not take that for granted.  Had the turnout in Virginia earlier this month been within a few percentage points of where it was in 2020, the legislature would still be in Democratic hands and so would the top three offices in the state, by a comfortable margin.  

And don't forget that there are Democrats in those red counties in rural areas that are big on the map but small in population.  I was looking at the Virginia results from last month, comparing them with 2020.  In one small county in Southwest Virginia, up in the mountains, Trump got I,775 votes in 2020, Biden got 766.  But in the governor's race, Youngkin brought in I,445 while McAuliffe got 335.  And that was the case in most of rural Virginia, where a lot of the Democrats just didn't turn out.  What was the difference?  Well, in 2020, the local and state Democratic party leadership ran ads on dozens of small town radio stations, including the one in that small county.  The ads were aimed at local Democrats to get turnout, not necessarily at changing minds. Combined with one short, door-to-door campaign, 85% of the Democratic voters turned out, compared to just 35% this year.  Radio ads on that particular station, still locally owned, run less than $I0 apiece when purchased in a package.  So for less than a thousand dollars, Democrats got turnout.  Multiply that across all of Virginia's rural counties and it would have netted more votes than McAuliffe would have needed to win.  

In 20I8, Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick took Arizona's congressional district 2 seat from Republican hands by running radio ads on small town stations in a largely rural county where less than 20% of the districts voters lived.  The ads, which ran as frequently as 20 times a day on three stations, cost her campaign less than $I0,000 but helped increase Democratic turnout in that area by 30%, more than enough to produce the margin of her victory.  In that same county, just a year before, a Democrat won the county attorney position by running ads on two of the same stations, including right through the Rush Limbaugh program that aired on one of them.  That's something to consider. 

There are a lot of people depending on the Democrats to win the 2022 mid-term elections and have a comfortable enough Senate majority to avoid narrowing power down to a couple of seats, like we've seen.  Now is the time to start buckling down on this and making it happen.  

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