Democratic Party's Low Polling Numbers Explained

[fujiyamasan]

46. Most people claim democrats lost the election due to messaging

There’s no doubt that the messaging is terrible, but democratic policy priorities haven’t always aligned with what people prioritize. There was at least one poll post election showing that the electorate believed democrats prioritized abortion and climate change much higher than what they did.

I would argue the time and political capital Biden spent on climate change provisions in the BBB was a time suck that could have been focused on other day to day issues. Manchin was clearly a roadblock, especially on climate change but it should have been obvious.

The smarter thing would have been to address other issues that had the worst optics (to the administration’s credit they did exactly this with Covid) — the border and rising inflation. Now I’m not saying they didn’t address those issues, but especially in hindsight, I never saw the same emphasis on what the administration was doing to combat inflation as I did with climate change. The public saw Biden going to private companies producing EVs, but a delay in heading to the border.

These optics hurt. Go on the offensive on issues you know will matter like the ACA. The big problem with issues like climate change is they overwhelm voters and are not seen as immediate issues that can be addressed politically. And unless they see how it benefits them or their family financially they’re skeptical.