In the first months of Joe Biden’s presidency, the Democrats seemed to be figuring they were set up to shift their campaign bandwagons into cruise control and keep on rollin’ for years (probably decades!) of American political dominance.
They of course seemed to be getting plenty of help from the once-Grand Old Party that was The Opposition. Republicans were committing unsolicited self-sabotage no one could have predicted. GOP officeholders were mindlessly following their defeated leader, echoing his pathological lies or pretending not to notice his willingness to destroy America’s constitutional democracy to regain his presidential power.
The election of Scranton Joe, a common man with master's degrees in humility and experience, led people to think finally government might work for us all. Plus they gave Democrats narrow control of the House and Senate. Things seemed set for a long Democratic era.
But no. As we recall from the era known as the Reagan Revolution, Democrats have never had much sense of the concept known as message politics. And now, as we just saw on election night, when it comes to the arts and craft of message politics — communicating themes and sticking to them — Democrats still don’t get it.
For in Tuesday’s elections, it was clear that the basics of message politics that worked on those screens of the TV Age just worked yet again on news screens of our Cyber Age. Having covered how television news was subtly but skillfully manipulated during Ronald Reagan’s presidency (and having written a book about it in 1987, “The Great American Video Game: Presidential Politics in the Television Age”), I can see it’s time for an update.
In the 1980s, I traveled the country, covering the news, as Americans perceived it when it came gushing out of the Great News Funnels and into their living rooms. People were seeing a mix of national, international and local news — and more. They watched those late night TV comedian monologues. And of course all those campaign ads.
And it all came together as images remembered in our mind’s eye. People were sure they had seen a certain thing on the TV news — but it was actually in an ad. Today, we must add to that gush all the rest we see on our news screens. Including when we spin through Facebook, Twitter or whatever.
It all comes together to create our impressions of our news reality. We’d expected experience — and we remember the shame of the tragic mess at the Afghan airport. Here at home, we expected Democrats could make much-needed changes happen. But no. For months we saw Democratic moderates and progressives waging the pettiest political battles. The only message they communicated was “Democrats in Disarray” — in a both-or-nothing pose as they failed to enact Biden’s infrastructure or hugely desirable new social safety net plan.
Polls showed Americans were most worried about the economy — and many feared anything that seemed like our old inflationary spending. Democrats mainly managed to scare the suburban voters — especially women voters — into again voting Republican, as they did before Donald Trump drove them away from the GOP.
In Virginia, former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe torpedoed his own campaign, blurting in a September debate: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
Whoa! His Republican opponent, wealthy businessman Glenn Youngkin, a Trump loyalist, wallpapered news screens throughout the state with ads of that McAuliffe clip. And he adopted a suburbanite parent campaign costume: red fleece vest, a button-down shirt. He looked and sounded on the screen like your nicest suburban neighbor. He talked about spending for your schools. And he won.
Result: Virginia’s Republicans scored major gains in the suburbs they had been losing to Democrats. Yet Republicans also scored hugely in the solidly GOP rural areas. But it wasn’t a Virginia thing. Republicans scored huge gains in New Jersey, narrowly missing an upset win there, and also in New York’s Long Island suburbs.
What we saw Tuesday night was the bottom-line reality of message politics. The sense of Biden flailing and Democrats in disarray was everywhere. Biden’s media advisers just don’t seem to be crafting themes of competence and command he can deliver knowing they have the added virtue of being true.
Democratic moderates and progressives in the Senate and House insisted on playing the old small-think games of Capitol-chicken. Even when they knew they were making their president and themselves look inept. And even when the Democrats very much needed to look ept. Just this once.
Weeks ago, Democrats could have enacted the greatly needed infrastructure bill — a first step, before returning to redesign a great new social safety net. But the progressives refused to settle for mere progress — not even to show America they know the value of at least making government work.
