Just 70 days out from Election Day 2022 Joe Biden, the Democrats in Congress, and most importantly their policies, are deeply unpopular. So why does it look like the polls are tightening and the much ballyhooed “Red Wave” look to be slipping away?
One reason is that the establishment media’s biannual Operation Demoralize is in full swing, but the other equally important, maybe even more important, reason is that Republican “leaders” are telling GOP congressional and senate candidates to mount a sort of political “prevent defense” that requires them to avoid talking about any issues – even Joe Biden’s most unpopular policies and abject failures.
Their idea is that they will simply glide into office on Joe Biden’s unpopularity – and it isn’t working.
For example, in New York’s recent congressional special election the Republican was defeated in what should have been a pickup.
And the reason he was defeated was that about 100,000 Trump voters who voted in the District in 2020 didn’t show up on Election Day – and the reason they didn’t show up is that Republican Marc Molinaro ran a DC consultant-driven content-free campaign, while Democrat Pat Ryan pounded on the issues that mattered to his Democrat base.
However, with a mere 25 days until the first states start early voting, it is not too late to turn things around if the Republican “leadership” and Republican candidates will take the lesson of the NY-19 defeat and start pounding Democrats on their failures on the issues that matter to center-right voters.
And the only way they will be motivated to do that is if we conservatives pound them with demands to get in the fight.
And its not like there isn’t plenty of material to pound them with.
A recent McLaughlin & Associates poll (covered by our friends at NewsMax here) will give you plenty of ammunition. Here are some key takeaways:
* Voters say the direction of the country is still overwhelmingly on the wrong track: 67%.
* Only 28% believe the country is headed in the right direction.
* Forty-six percent (46%) of President Biden’s 2020 voters and 46% of Democrats say the country is on the wrong track, and so do 89% among Republicans and 69% among independents.
* The majority of voters, 57%, say the economy is in recession. Sixty-percent (60%) of all voters say the economy is getting worse.
* Only 34% say the economy is getting better.
* Among Republicans, 77%, among Independents 62% and among Democrats 43% say that the economy is getting worse.
* Economic issues, 45%, dominate the voters most important personal concerns, as a single issue 21% cite inflation vs. 7% who cite abortion.
* Nearly half of all voters, 43%, say that inflation and higher prices have them "struggling to keep up and afford basic necessities."
* Another 39% say that they are not struggling, but inflation has had "a significant impact" on their finances and spending.
* Inflation and higher prices have negatively impacted four in five voters.
* Among those who are undecided for Congress, 62% are struggling to make ends meet.
So, where are the ads showing Americans shivering in the dark under Joe Biden and the Democrats?
Where are the ads showing working families literally choosing between food and fuel under Joe Biden and the Democrats?
Where are the Republican ads empathizing with these working Americans?
Answer: They are on the cutting room floor of Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell’s DC based media consultants.
John McLaughlin observed that former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who engineered a historic Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, has advised Republican candidates to make their opponent’s first name Biden.
He’s right on.
President Biden still has a 55% national disapproval. Every vote the Republicans can get exists in that disapproval and the wrong track voter segments.
But they have to ask for the vote and then earn it by tying Biden to the disasters that are destroying the quality of life for millions of American families.
The issues are there, said John McLaughlin.
If the Republicans want to regain majorities in Congress, it’s time to follow President Trump’s example and play offense against the Biden Democrats.
To contact the Senate Republican campaign arm go here:
NRSC
425 2nd St. NE Washington, D.C. 20002
Phone: (202) 675-6000
To contact the House Republican campaign arm go here:
NRCC 320 First St SE Washington, DC, 20003
Phone: 202-479-7000