Here We Go Again: When Will Democrats Get Their Act Together and Win This Election?

Axelrod: Biden's 'Pride' May Cost Him the Election

Let's talk.  

From any conventional political perspective, the 2024 election should be in the bag, tied up and already delivered at the feet of President Joe Biden, along with Democratic party majorities in both houses of Congress.  At this point, I don't really trust the polling data.  What used to be matter of course in that business has been missing its mark in multiple primary elections, special elections and, with 40 some odd polling sources, with a vastly different way of measuring voter intent and factoring in variables, and probably a good dose of Russian interference, I'm not really sure of exactly where things stand.  The media is content to declare this a close race, neck and neck, because that sells.  

Honestly, I think, based on everything that has transpired in the political world over the last four years, that Biden will win it, with room to spare.  I also think that issues, especially a woman's right to choose when it comes to health care and reproductive rights, are going to be a bottom up issue in producing majorities that will put Democrats in control of both houses.  I'm almost always certain in my confidence that this is how it will go.  I do have some expertise, and an educational background in American history and politics, years of observing the political process, and some discernment when it comes to reading the signs, and there are reasons for my optimism. 

President Biden could not have picked a better candidate for the opposition if he'd been told he could choose the most beatable, unelectable, despicable Republican in the party.  The man is under more than 80 federal and state indictments for multiple felonies of which a plethora of evidence proving his guilt has already been exposed and publicized.  He's served one term in office that was, from every political, economic and social perspective, an unmitigated disaster.  His inept handling of everything that came his way, and his bungling of a national crisis that had the potential to be the one thing that actually saved him, was the worst demonstration of political incompetence we've seen in the White House, including the Presidencies of John Tyler and James Buchanan.  

Not only that, but the presumptive Republican nominee is a moral degenerate who cheered on an insurrection against the United States Constitution and government that he himself instigated and launched with a speech in front of the White House.  He has denied and turned his back on the religious beliefs of his most loyal supporters and insulted their leaders by refusing to acknowledge any kind of Christian conversion experience.  He's twice divorced, re-marrying the women with whom he had affairs leading to the breakup of his marriages, has openly degraded women by identifying them as nothing more than sex objects and on top of all of it, bribed his staff to pay off a porn star he bedded in order to keep that information from the voters.  

And, of course, we know that's not all.  Who knows what he's already done with the documents he absconded from the White House?  

So this should be a shoe-in, right?  So why isn't it?  Or, why is it not appearing that way?  

Along Comes David Axelrod to Throw Cold Water on Everything

Why do Democrats do this to themselves?  

Sometimes, I wonder if, since the party's record of getting turnout when it needs it isn't all that great, the leadership doesn't do things like this to scare people into voting.  The media has trumpeted Biden's low job approval record since the end of his first year in office.  If they are as liberal as the right seems to think, then the only reason I can think of that would justify the continued pounding on that, which encouraged the Trump cult, is to make sure Democrats defy the odds and turn out in large numbers to prevent disaster.  

Is that what this is?  Is Axelrod, who obviously does know how to  win elections some people consider to be unwinnable, trying to prime the pump, get things moving, and make sure Democrats turn out like they should, along with the large segment of independent voters who have already determined they aren't going to support Trump and are demonstrating it by turning out in special elections, and in the mid-terms, to elect Democrats?  

Or, is our party leadership content to play like the political status quo on which they've always depended still exists, and, satisfied with the power and position they currently have, and let the clock keep ticking on the perception that we are precariously perched on a cliff and there's just nothing we can do about it except clench our teeth, close our eyes and hope the election comes out in our favor.  That always seems to be our approach, and I don't understand why that is always the case.  

The Democratic party, and the Biden candidacy, are being given some of the best advantages toward winning an election, in landslide fashion, that have been seen in an American Presidential election since Franklin Delano Roosevelt clobbered Herbert Hoover in 1932.  But instead of leadership that is stepping up, grabbing it and taking advantage of it, we have David Axelrod coming along, providing excuses for why the President might not win, and offering advice that seems to fall off into silence from party leadership.  

We're Too Passive, We Play the Game by Past Expectations and We Can't Seem to Grasp the Narrative

We're Democrats.  This seems to be our way.  

The President has come out swinging.  I love the rhetoric he's using to directly attack Trump on his political and economic failures, his incompetence and the inept manner in which he handled the job when he had it.  That needs to be boosted and supported by the DNC, who needs to get aggressive in its attacks on Republicans and their inability to govern.  In almost four years, no one in the Democratic party has succeeded in taking the attention off of Trump, who gets himself in the news cycle several times each day, and get President Biden in front of the cameras as much as a sitting President should be.  

Someone please explain to me why that is so, and why it is that Democrats haven't been able to change that?  

Perhaps Axelrod's remarks are aimed at helping the President.  It just doesn't appear that way.  If there ever was an election when all of the Democratic heavy hitters needed to be out on the campaign trail, this would be it.  I agree with Axelrod's assessment of the way the message needs to be delivered.  We have the single most accomplished President in six decades now in the White House, who has made all the right moves and done all the right things and has managed difficult times well.  His policies have prevented recession and brought prosperity, and his fight with inflation has worked well.  How to we grab the narrative so that it resonates with the voters? 

I've even heard talk from some of the more objective media about conceding places that Biden won last time, just to make sure he gets just enough electoral votes.  Playing by the traditional campaign rules isn't going to work because the other side doesn't play by any rules and all of that give and take, back and forth that used to define Presidential campaigns is gone.  We MUST win this one, or there will never be another one to win, at least, that's the threat.  

I don't like these insertions of doubt and uncertainty into the campaign on our side.  I think a look of confidence and assurance is the better image.  Instead of reflecting the doubts that feed the media narrative that Biden is too old, that he's not going to be progressive enough, which are the only themes the other side has to fight with, why can't Democrats grab control of the narrative and use it to beat Trump into the ground, which is what it should already be doing?  

This is a Critical Election

We must win.  We can't have doubt prevent that.  The other side is going to do everything they can to assure a win, including cheating or accusations of voter fraud again, hoping that sticks.  Democrats must be willing to fight that every step of the way.  We have advantages on our side that candidates as recently as Barack Obama, Al Gore and Bill Clinton never had given to them, wrapped up like presents from the other side.  And all of that should lead to a decisive victory.  

So let's act like it's going to.  Let's have some leadership who is capable of bringing about the undermining and downfall of Donald J. Trump, based on his total and complete inability to handle the job.  

Elections are won by turnout.  And no matter how many Americans Trump has managed to delude with all of the MAGA nonsense, there should be far more Democrats and independents who see this for what it is and turn out in large enough numbers on election day to give Trump and the GOP a beating they'll remember for generations.