The Dem party has decided of recent to sell the "progressive" brand of government. Is there anyone in the party leadership that can deviate from that? Nope? Can you toss aside Kamila who's now tethered to this brand like a ball and chain? Nope again.
The question isn't whether Trump will win, it's whether he'll deliver both houses and whether the GOP can deliver some results once in power...else they'll be shown the door.
The Biden Problem Is Policy
He’s indispensable at 81 because the rest of the party has moved too far left for voters.
By Kimberley A. Strassel. WSJ
July 11, 2024 5:24 pm ET
Democrats are finally beginning to admit that the declining Joe Biden is a problem. If they think he is their only one, or even their biggest, they are as confused as their leader.
That’s the glaring yet unspoken truth amid the battle over Mr. Biden’s future. The left and the media are keeping this discussion focused on individual prospective candidates and the liberal base. Who gives them the best shot in November? Is Mr. Biden too big a liability? Will black voters defect if the party kicks Kamala Harris to the curb? How does California’s Gavin Newsom rate next to Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer among unions, or Hispanics, or pro-choice women?
Absent is any discussion of the root cause of this dilemma: the Democratic Party’s sharp move to the left, with policies and power grabs that are deeply unpopular with the electorate. Mr. Biden is a product of this pendulum shift, and his obvious successors are a continuation of it. If Democrats truly want to improve their prospects, they might consider having a debate about ideas.
Don’t forget how a man pushing 80 came to office. The 2020 Democratic primary was dominated by candidates vying to curry favor with a rising progressive left. Worried that Bernie Sanders would kill a chance at the White House, voters turned to the only fixture who claimed to be moderate. He was a two-time presidential primary loser, as old as Methuselah, and slipping even then, but whatever. He was deemed the only candidate able to beat Donald Trump, which was probably true. Even four years ago, the party understood pure progressivism to be a political liability.
That self-preservation went out the window when Mr. Biden gave full rein to the Sanders platform. Blowout spending fueled the worst inflation in 40 years. Open borders caused a migrant flood that is overwhelming cities in red and blue states alike. A climate agenda fed higher energy prices and grid instability and squelched consumer choice. Washington made common cause with progressive prosecutors who enabled a crime wave in major cities. A “foreign policy for the middle class”—whatever that means—emboldened America’s adversaries.
The president who ran on uniting the country and restoring “standards and norms” also bowed to the far left’s worldview that the ends justify the means. The Justice Department signed on to the progressive lawfare campaign, unleashing criminal prosecutions against Mr. Trump and fueling fury among Republicans. Independents and moderates look with unease on actions the courts found unlawful—Covid mandates, student-loan forgiveness, environmental policy—and Democratic promises to pack the Supreme Court and federalize election law.
These policies and actions are the real source of Mr. Biden’s trouble—as evidenced by soaring unpopularity numbers that long preceded his debate meltdown. The debate flop was as much a consequence of a failed agenda as of Mr. Biden’s incoherence. Demosthenes would have struggled to put a rosy shine on today’s grocery bills, border invasion, crime and global disorder. Americans were concerned by Mr. Biden’s debate performance, but does anyone think Democrats would be jettisoning him if his “bad night” came amid a thriving economy, low prices and interest rates, or polls showing Mr. Biden winning the race?
For that matter, does anyone think Mr. Biden would still be in contention if Democrats felt they had a better bet? For all the hype of a “strong” bench, the top contenders poll as badly or worse against Mr. Trump. Democrats are frantically weighing individual strengths and weaknesses, blithely ignoring their one commonality: All are unrepentant progressives, promising to double down on a deeply unpopular agenda. The party remains unwilling to believe that voters—even many of their own—are looking for change, or that warnings about “threats” to democracy and abortion are losing their punch.
The Republican Party has problems too—and doesn’t it know it. How could it not after eight years of a media fixated on Mr. Trump and “MAGA,” drilling in on every proposal, internal battle and Truth Social post? But Democrats have been given a ridiculous pass, their policy failures justified, their weaknesses swept under the carpet. See the 16 “Nobel-prize winning economists” who last month pronounced the Biden agenda “vastly superior” to anything Republicans might offer. Really? See the 51 former intelligence officials who disappeared Mr. Biden’s Hunter liability before the 2020 election. See the press corps, which noticed Mr. Biden’s problems only two weeks ago—and still aren’t noticing anything else.
The current Democratic soul-searching is way too limited. Mr. Biden’s age is a problem. But his age isn’t the source of the party’s dismal approval ratings on the economy, the border, or crime. It’s not the cause of striking demographic shifts—under way for years—that show the working class, including minority voters, fleeing the party. Progressive policies will be on the ballot this fall as much as any one person’s name. If the party cared for its future—not just Nov. 5—it’d be having that debate.
Write to kim@wsj.com.
Kommentare