What JMM Said

It is true that Democrats need to create room for candidates to depart from party orthodoxies in parts of the country dominated by Republicans. But the big and overwhelming issue that Democrats face right now has very little to do with this. The overriding problem Democrats have today is a general belief that they’re not effective at fighting for what they believe in or what the country needs to be protected from. There’s a related, but secondary issue that they worry that Dems are most focused on issues that are obscure or not connected to the lives of the great majority of people struggling to make ends meet. That lack of fight is shattering for self-identified Democrats as well as highly damaging for genuine independents and low-information voters who genuinely flip from party to party from election to election. That is overwhelmingly the challenge Democrats have right now.

The idea that up-for-grabs voters are waiting for important signals out of a bizarre intra-party score settling over Joe Biden’s age is just such unreal bubble thinking that it beggars belief. Democrats may have gotten ahead of the public on the language they used about trans issues or DEI. But the idea that voters are waiting for signals about that rather than wanting to see people stand up for the country against the current onslaught is again just some bizarre insider/consultant circle jerk.

For those of us who are never privy to the insider-think, we should be looking for Democrats who are willing to drive attention and find creative ways to cast even more light on things the White House is doing that are wildly, wildly unpopular.