Advice to Dem Congressional Candidates

 

The estimable Heather Digby Parton, writing in Salon.com, gives some timely advice to Democratic Congressional candidates for this fall's mid-term elections. It's advice that the constipated Dem consultant class and leadership should follow, but so far it appears they're content to fight the last war:

"There is a great temptation, as happens so often in politics, to fight the last war. Working under the assumption that because voters said they voted for Trump in 2024 because of the economy, too many strategists still seem to ignore the fact that the country had just gone through unprecedented national trauma with the Covid-19 pandemic and, like virtually every country in the world, reacted by tossing out incumbents. It’s not that people weren’t reeling from the economic upheaval; they were also reeling from five years of death, disruption and despair. It was never just about the eggs.

American voters inexplicably thought that Trump could restore the relative tranquility that existed before that maelstrom. Instead, he has created even more chaos and fear. 

However Democratic congressional candidates ultimately decide to approach this, they simply cannot behave as if we are living through a time of politics as usual. A Republican majority that is allowing Trump to use tariffs as a weapon that hurts average Americans, occupy American cities with paramilitary forces, brutalize immigrants, depose foreign leaders, threaten allies, blackmail law firms and universities, defund science and education, and essentially tear up the Constitution, all in order to appease a tyrant, is simply not something they can ignore. Democrats can’t pretend the only thing that matters is the economy." (our emphasis)

The Times/ Siena poll below also indicates a broad understanding that the Malignant Fascist has something existential to fear in the Epstein Files.  In addition, the scale of corruption of the mentally ill MF, his family and regime is staggering, and that should be drummed into the voters as they struggle while the MF pads his bank account using his position to dispense favors.  If these issues are too much for Dem leadership to get behind, then we obviously need new leadership.