This week on The Brief: Voters can still save the country, but Democrats have to help them

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Last I checked, not a single midterm general election ballot had been cast. But one would never know it based on all the doomsday scenarios being floated for Democrats.

Don’t get me wrong—things aren’t exactly pretty out there. The enthusiasm gap doesn’t look good, with roughly two-thirds of Republicans eager to get to the polls while only about half of Democrats say the same thing. In 2018, it was two-thirds of Democrats who couldn’t wait to make their voices heard, presaging the party’s historic gains in the House.

President Joe Biden’s approvals also remain low—in the low 40s per FiveThirtyEight’s aggregate, and in the high 30s in Civiqs tracking.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story. More than a month ago, before Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden’s numbers had been slipping in Civiqs’ tracking poll for nearly a year. But the president’s stewardship of a swift and united global response has helped remind Americans why having a steady, competent commander in chief matters. Since the invasion, Biden’s job approval among Democrats and Independents improved more than a handful of points in Civiqs tracking. Even some Trump-Biden voters have been buoyed by Biden’s presence and Trump’s absence during this international crisis.

Not to be crass, but it’s a reset Washington Democrats could be capitalizing on—after all, we have to win the fight for democracy here at home in order to win it abroad. Ukraine wouldn’t be getting anywhere near the help Biden has given it if Trump was still in office. In fact, Trump dedicated his four years in office to weakening NATO, kneecapping Ukraine, and strengthening the hand of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the world stage while Republicans silently looked on.

So today on The Brief, we’re going to talk about midterm messaging and some missed opportunities for the Democrats. The fact is, a coalition of white, Black, Latino, and Asian American voters united in 2018 and 2020 to oust both Trump and Republicans from power. That cross-racial coalition of voters were the heroes of 2020, and they can come together again to cast a vote for democracy in 2022.  

But in order for that to happen, Democrats will have to continually remind Americans what a threat Republicans truly pose to American democracy. The good news is, that message is there for the taking based on headlines that present themselves on a near-daily basis. Here’s a brief sampling of eye-popping stories that fit the bill over the past couple weeks:

• Federal judge concludes in a ruling that Trump “likely” committed a felony related to the violent Jan. 6 insurrection
• Trump publicly solicits dirt on President Biden from U.S. adversary, global pariah, and likely war criminal Putin
• Trump’s White House phone logs just happen to include a 7-hour gap on Jan. 6
• Conservative activist Ginni Thomas, wife of sitting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was actively pushing Trump’s White House to overturn the 2020 election results

That doesn’t even begin to touch more localized issues that Trump is handing Democrats as Republican candidates cling to him in order to prevail in their primaries.

Washington Democrats simply cannot run on accomplishments alone. Even though they have delivered some wins, those wins are simply not enough to overpower Republicans’ steady drumbeat about inflation, which has become many voters’ top issue.

Thanks to so many activists’ work in 2018 and 2020, Americans saved the country from an inevitable slide toward fascism under Republican rule. The pundit has declared the midterms over based on historical trends. But as beloved Daily Kos alum Meteor Blades points out, the pundit class often gets it wrong.

Remember when Republicans were going to retake the House this fall through gerrymandering alone? Not exactly.

So let’s get to work! Join us for a great free-flowing discussion with my good friend, Joe Sudbay, a frequent guest host for SiriusXM Progress and a political consultant who works with progressive groups on issues like immigration, LGBTQ rights, and more; and my co-host, our own Daily Kos communications direction Carolyn Fiddler, a keen observer of state legislative politics and Virginia aficionado.