By Jennifer Rubin
Columnist |
Today at 7:45 a.m. EDT
Only in the minds of White House aides would “Building a Better America” represent an improvement over “Build Back Better.” The latter, certainly, was hopelessly vague, not to mention an unfortunate reminder of months of wasted effort trying to pass an overly ambitious agenda. However, the new and improved slogan isn’t much of a help. (What is “better”? What about solving today’s problems?)
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has a sharper message. “Democrats, Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden and a group of his aides, need a more succinct and consistent message,” the New York Times reports. “The speaker, who has long been fond of pithy, made-for-bumper-sticker mantras, offered a suggestion she had heard from members: Democrats deliver.” That’s closer to it.
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Democrats’ slogan problem is indicative of the White House’s reluctance to stop talking about the slew of items (e.g., child-care subsidies, universal pre-K, paid leave, voting rights) that they haven’t gotten. Even now, in remarks to the House Democratic caucus and the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting, President Biden returns a list of items he has not gotten through the Senate and will not get in the foreseeable future. (“We’re going to improve the lives of millions of Americans. We’ll meet the great challenges of our time: voting rights, climate crisis, gun violence, criminal justice, immigration, and so much more.”) Stop. When you are talking about everything, you’re communicating nothing.
In fairness, Biden is talking less about this grab bag of progressive initiatives and more about the popular infrastructure plan and job growth. He’s spending more time on inflation concerns. Still, the average voter easily gets lost in the jumble of initiatives — American Rescue Plan, infrastructure, unity agenda, inflation-fighting, etc. While Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and a highly impressive Supreme Court nominee afford Biden his first chance in months to break the bad news cycle and to project strength, he still lacks a big picture that ties it all together.
Biden faces several challenges: 1) He can’t do much about the biggest economic concern (inflation) which fairly or not voters blame on him; 2) Voters seem to have taken job growth and a return to post-covid normal for granted; 3) The GOP noise machine of constant conspiracies and baseless accusations effectively manipulates the mainstream media, which regurgitates GOP talking points; and 4) Voters forget how positively nutty the GOP has become and the degree to which its worst elements will predominate if it returns to the majority in one or both houses.
So what can Biden do? At its most basic, Democrats must convince voters they are on the side of regular Americans — making progress and solving real problems (e.g., jobs, covid). They need to remind voters that Democrats are on the right side of the middle class, democracy and law and order. Democrats must leave no doubt as to which party did a lot to clean up the mess left behind by the previous administration and which party understands the real problems left to work on (e.g., inflation, green energy, defending against international bullies).
Republicans? They are bullies and chaos creators (be it attacking the Capitol, letting the country default on the debt, setting up a litigation machine to sue teachers, undermining elections, threatening to take away kids whose parents give them medical care and inviting a truck blockade). Do voters really want to give power back to the crowd that defends violence (“legitimate political discourse”), lets their cult leader extort Ukraine, and goes to bat for big corporations (e.g., allowing them to escape paying taxes, protecting Big Pharma’s price gouging)?
Democrats need to get back to a fundamental message: When in power, they make government work for ordinary people and defend American values (democracy, opportunity, fairness, playing by the rules). They solve real problems. When Republicans are in power, they create division, conflict and chaos. They are not on your side. That’s it. A simple dichotomy.
Columnist |
Today at 7:45 a.m. EDT
Only in the minds of White House aides would “Building a Better America” represent an improvement over “Build Back Better.” The latter, certainly, was hopelessly vague, not to mention an unfortunate reminder of months of wasted effort trying to pass an overly ambitious agenda. However, the new and improved slogan isn’t much of a help. (What is “better”? What about solving today’s problems?)
Tell us your thoughts on Editorial Board articles in this short survey
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has a sharper message. “Democrats, Ms. Pelosi told Mr. Biden and a group of his aides, need a more succinct and consistent message,” the New York Times reports. “The speaker, who has long been fond of pithy, made-for-bumper-sticker mantras, offered a suggestion she had heard from members: Democrats deliver.” That’s closer to it.
Follow Jennifer Rubin‘s opinionsFollow
Democrats’ slogan problem is indicative of the White House’s reluctance to stop talking about the slew of items (e.g., child-care subsidies, universal pre-K, paid leave, voting rights) that they haven’t gotten. Even now, in remarks to the House Democratic caucus and the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting, President Biden returns a list of items he has not gotten through the Senate and will not get in the foreseeable future. (“We’re going to improve the lives of millions of Americans. We’ll meet the great challenges of our time: voting rights, climate crisis, gun violence, criminal justice, immigration, and so much more.”) Stop. When you are talking about everything, you’re communicating nothing.
In fairness, Biden is talking less about this grab bag of progressive initiatives and more about the popular infrastructure plan and job growth. He’s spending more time on inflation concerns. Still, the average voter easily gets lost in the jumble of initiatives — American Rescue Plan, infrastructure, unity agenda, inflation-fighting, etc. While Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and a highly impressive Supreme Court nominee afford Biden his first chance in months to break the bad news cycle and to project strength, he still lacks a big picture that ties it all together.
Biden faces several challenges: 1) He can’t do much about the biggest economic concern (inflation) which fairly or not voters blame on him; 2) Voters seem to have taken job growth and a return to post-covid normal for granted; 3) The GOP noise machine of constant conspiracies and baseless accusations effectively manipulates the mainstream media, which regurgitates GOP talking points; and 4) Voters forget how positively nutty the GOP has become and the degree to which its worst elements will predominate if it returns to the majority in one or both houses.
So what can Biden do? At its most basic, Democrats must convince voters they are on the side of regular Americans — making progress and solving real problems (e.g., jobs, covid). They need to remind voters that Democrats are on the right side of the middle class, democracy and law and order. Democrats must leave no doubt as to which party did a lot to clean up the mess left behind by the previous administration and which party understands the real problems left to work on (e.g., inflation, green energy, defending against international bullies).
Republicans? They are bullies and chaos creators (be it attacking the Capitol, letting the country default on the debt, setting up a litigation machine to sue teachers, undermining elections, threatening to take away kids whose parents give them medical care and inviting a truck blockade). Do voters really want to give power back to the crowd that defends violence (“legitimate political discourse”), lets their cult leader extort Ukraine, and goes to bat for big corporations (e.g., allowing them to escape paying taxes, protecting Big Pharma’s price gouging)?
Democrats need to get back to a fundamental message: When in power, they make government work for ordinary people and defend American values (democracy, opportunity, fairness, playing by the rules). They solve real problems. When Republicans are in power, they create division, conflict and chaos. They are not on your side. That’s it. A simple dichotomy.
