What do Democrats do under Biden? What is the future of this party?!

[progressive85]

I'm a Democrat and I believe very much in basic progressive ideas, but at the same time I think the President is beyond all help...

I didn't vote for him in the primary, I knew he would not be that strong of a candidate, and he's by far the weakest president in my lifetime in many areas (especially on communication and charisma). 

Are there any other Democrats or strong left-leaners that are also feeling very discouraged right now?  How can we effectively communicate ourselves when the leader of the party is just so uninspiring?

It's very clear that Joe's not going to be the President in 2025 (he probably doesn't even have the same personal popularity to Democrats that Jimmy Carter had in 1978).

What do we do in the mean time?  Do we just let his approval ratings drop even more?

I'm really concerned about this party's future.  I see a very weak field of potential replacements for Joe so we have lousy leadership all around.  Meanwhile, it seems the country is moving very fast rightward especially with the Supreme Court.

[Sir Mohamed]

The dooming and "defeatist attitude" from some Dems gets kind of tiresome, imho. You would never hear a GOPer say stuff like that, even if their prez was at low 30s approvals. They always act and talk like winners and fighters, and that's what most people like.

Sure, things are not exactly going the way they should because (a) we lack a clear governing majority in congress to get stuff done while the GOP is unwilling to actually govern and (b) Biden is not a particularly charismatic politician, although he has his strengths such as personal engagement with voters and a ton of experience.

Just because Biden has medicore approvals at this point in time doesn't mean he - or any D candidate - is DOA in 2024. The previous presidents back to Clinton, and even some before, looked more vulnerable than they were in the end. The election won't take place for another 2.5 years, which is a lifetime in politics.

What Dems generally need to do, and what I'm kind of mad about, is get better in messaging, talk more kitchentable issues and call out Republican extremism more forcefully. And with that I mean how their agenda would hurt average Joe types, not just repeat the "orange man bad" stuff. Leave Trump alone with his legal problems and revelations; there's a reason he was voted out of office; simply because many Americans were tired of him.

[YE]

The fact that I prefer Biden to probably 80% of Democrats says a lot about the 2022 Democratic Party. Until the party itself changes Republicans will control every branch of government at next opportunity and I don’t think there’s much that can be done to change this outcome until that happens. Voters aren’t going to go D just because Republicans are a threat to democracy.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Why do we have the DOOMER THREADS ITS 150 DAYS TILL THE ELECTION PLSE DOOM AFTER THE RESULTS, THE ABORTION IS GONNA HAVE A DEVESTATING EFFECT ON RS WAIT AND SEE

It's a 159 days out Approval let get this straight are PRE ELECTION POLLS NOT ELECTION RESULTS

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Just remember we Ds are voting in primaries just like Rs why DOOM and we are casting ballots that's why I make a wave insurance map my vote counts just like Rs do and I voted in the primary election already, there is no such thing in my point of view but a D nut map not R nut map, the reason why we lost in 2010 10 percent unemployment,  Biden has the same Approvals as Obama and holding blue wall because Trump gained seats both in 2018/20 with 44 percent, 44 is there 50 and it's still 150 days sway

Also, people are still donating it's your choice to donate but I am donating to Ryan out of all the wave candidate that can will he has the best chance along with Crist and Crist is a multimillionaire

[7,052,770]

Ok doomer

[OSR stands with Israel]

The dooming and "defeatist attitude" from some Dems gets kind of tiresome, imho. You would never hear a GOPer say stuff like that, even if their prez was at low 30s approvals. They always act and talk like winners and fighters, and that's what most people like.

Sure, things are not exactly going the way they should because (a) we lack a clear governing majority in congress to get stuff done while the GOP is unwilling to actually govern and (b) Biden is not a particularly charismatic politician, although he has his strengths such as personal engagement with voters and a ton of experience.

Just because Biden has medicore approvals at this point in time doesn't mean he - or any D candidate - is DOA in 2024. The previous presidents back to Clinton, and even some before, looked more vulnerable than they were in the end. The election won't take place for another 2.5 years, which is a lifetime in politics.

While this is true for Clinton this isnt really true for Obama despite how bad the 2010 election ended up being. Even in 2011 while Obama had moments where his approvals dropped below 38% they then would quickly go back up as Obama had a far far more enthusiastic base of support than Biden ever has had.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html

[DaleCooper]

Stop with the Great Society overstuffed agendas and present everything one by one in simple barebones legislation. If Republicans want to filibuster the "Stop Pouring Toxic Waste into Children's Drinking Water" act then let them die on that hill; don't give them an easy out by sneaking solar panel funding into it. That goes for about everything that Democrats have been trying to pass in my lifetime. And, when something is clearly DOA, give up on it immediately. If Obama had realized the public option was dead and given up on it 6 months sooner, he would've saved himself a lot of trouble, and the same can be said about Biden and the Build Back Better drama.

Also, drop all social issues. Embrace the "No black America, no white America . . ." line of thinking from Obama's first campaign and go for a personal freedom, freedom of choice angle when it comes to these issues. All they really need to do is pass basic anti-discrimination laws, but other than that we don't need to hear about any of it.

[President Johnson]

The dooming and "defeatist attitude" from some Dems gets kind of tiresome, imho. You would never hear a GOPer say stuff like that, even if their prez was at low 30s approvals. They always act and talk like winners and fighters, and that's what most people like.

Sure, things are not exactly going the way they should because (a) we lack a clear governing majority in congress to get stuff done while the GOP is unwilling to actually govern and (b) Biden is not a particularly charismatic politician, although he has his strengths such as personal engagement with voters and a ton of experience.

Just because Biden has medicore approvals at this point in time doesn't mean he - or any D candidate - is DOA in 2024. The previous presidents back to Clinton, and even some before, looked more vulnerable than they were in the end. The election won't take place for another 2.5 years, which is a lifetime in politics.

What Dems generally need to do, and what I'm kind of mad about, is get better in messaging, talk more kitchentable issues and call out Republican extremism more forcefully. And with that I mean how their agenda would hurt average Joe types, not just repeat the "orange man bad" stuff. Leave Trump alone with his legal problems and revelations; there's a reason he was voted out of office; simply because many Americans were tired of him.

Pretty much this.

Also, even if the Democrats at some point lose to a Republican trifecta, there's always some kind of reckoning after that happened. Neither party is likely to hold a permanent majority in the near future. It's also not the case that the Republican agenda is pretty popular across the board.

Democrats need to run much more on accomplishments and not talk everything down, even if they suffer a political loss or a vote in congress. Unfortunately this isn't a uniquely American thing, some other center-left parties do the same. Of course liberals and Social Democrats tend to have more reform ambitions that are much harder to achieve.

[GeneralMacArthur]

The media environment is just abysmal for the Democrats right now.  The media decided it hated Biden after he decided to pull out of Afghanistan and it's just been history ever since, ruthless non-stop brutalizing of the man and zero credit for any accomplishments.

Crisis after crisis after crisis, emergency after emergency after emergency, the media demands Biden solve it at noon, and if he hasn't solved it by 6 PM they declare him a failure.  Then when he actually does solve the crisis, nobody cares.  They just talk about how bad the crisis was and how awful Biden was for not solving it faster.

Biden does dozens of excellent things every day, and they get no coverage.  No coverage at all.  I bet most people on this board can't even name three of the good things Biden has done.  The American people trip all over themselves to make excuses for Trump and discuss the few "good" things they give him credit for.  But they'll never acknowledge a single good thing Biden has done.

Meanwhile the media just normalizes and apologizes for Trump at every opportunity.  The both-sides-ing is off the charts.  They absolutely devour everything the right throws at them and let the Republican Party control the narrative 24/7.  People complain about Democratic "messaging failures" but the media won't cover anything we say.  They just ask the RNC for talking points and then present those as "bad news for the Democrats."  Just sheer garbage.  Look at the recent Peter Alexander.  Literally just dumping talking points sent directly to his inbox from right-wing operatives, totally uncritically.  Imagine if Democrats had that kind of power!

[Fuzzy Stands With His Friend, Chairman Sanchez]

Stop with the Great Society overstuffed agendas and present everything one by one in simple barebones legislation. If Republicans want to filibuster the "Stop Pouring Toxic Waste into Children's Drinking Water" act then let them die on that hill; don't give them an easy out by sneaking solar panel funding into it. That goes for about everything that Democrats have been trying to pass in my lifetime. And, when something is clearly DOA, give up on it immediately. If Obama had realized the public option was dead and given up on it 6 months sooner, he would've saved himself a lot of trouble, and the same can be said about Biden and the Build Back Better drama.

Also, drop all social issues. Embrace the "No black America, no white America . . ." line of thinking from Obama's first campaign and go for a personal freedom, freedom of choice angle when it comes to these issues. All they really need to do is pass basic anti-discrimination laws, but other than that we don't need to hear about any of it.

To be sure, this would help them.  Unfortunately, lots of voters in the middle won't forget how Democrats have behaved since 2020 as far as the latter goes.  Nor should they.  Their forays into Identity Politics deserve the sternest rebuke possible and that rebuke can only come at the ballot box.

[Mr. Smith]

Something of use. Simple as that.

[Hermit For Peace]

With all due respect to Biden, he needs to retire when his term is over.

That leaves the possibility of Harris as President, or someone else. But it simply HAS to be someone younger than Biden. He will not be able to keep up with another term. It appears that he is struggling as it is with this one, and his poll numbers are in the toilet. We can't win like that.

Democrats need to pump fresh blood into their party. Fast. People who aren't afraid of standing up to the Party of Trump and speaking out, loud and clear, about all their accomplishments, and how the Party of Trump are now the radical ones of society. The Radical Right. Dems need to push the narrative of the Radical Right being out of step with everyone in American but their small narrow interests.

I think the future is bright if the Democrats can light a fire under their butts and get going.

[BG-NY]

With all due respect to Biden, he needs to retire when his term is over.

That leaves the possibility of Harris as President, or someone else. But it simply HAS to be someone younger than Biden. He will not be able to keep up with another term. It appears that he is struggling as it is with this one, and his poll numbers are in the toilet. We can't win like that.

Democrats need to pump fresh blood into their party. Fast. People who aren't afraid of standing up to the Party of Trump and speaking out, loud and clear, about all their accomplishments, and how the Party of Trump are now the radical ones of society. The Radical Right. Dems need to push the narrative of the Radical Right being out of step with everyone in American but their small narrow interests.

I think the future is bright if the Democrats can light a fire under their butts and get going.

Realignments go both way. The more democrats talk about things like J6 and Ukraine, the more WWC and Hispanic voters who only care about economics toward the GOP.

[DaleCooper]

Stop with the Great Society overstuffed agendas and present everything one by one in simple barebones legislation. If Republicans want to filibuster the "Stop Pouring Toxic Waste into Children's Drinking Water" act then let them die on that hill; don't give them an easy out by sneaking solar panel funding into it. That goes for about everything that Democrats have been trying to pass in my lifetime. And, when something is clearly DOA, give up on it immediately. If Obama had realized the public option was dead and given up on it 6 months sooner, he would've saved himself a lot of trouble, and the same can be said about Biden and the Build Back Better drama.

Also, drop all social issues. Embrace the "No black America, no white America . . ." line of thinking from Obama's first campaign and go for a personal freedom, freedom of choice angle when it comes to these issues. All they really need to do is pass basic anti-discrimination laws, but other than that we don't need to hear about any of it.

To be sure, this would help them.  Unfortunately, lots of voters in the middle won't forget how Democrats have behaved since 2020 as far as the latter goes.  Nor should they.  Their forays into Identity Politics deserve the sternest rebuke possible and that rebuke can only come at the ballot box.

People forget fast.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Biden is a joke.

[Xing]

If Democrats want to be more than a token opposition party with a pathetic portion of Congress over the next decade, they need to stand for more than “normalcy”, and virtue signaling. Being less bad than Republicans isn’t good enough.

[ProgressiveModerate]

The media environment is just abysmal for the Democrats right now.  The media decided it hated Biden after he decided to pull out of Afghanistan and it's just been history ever since, ruthless non-stop brutalizing of the man and zero credit for any accomplishments.

Crisis after crisis after crisis, emergency after emergency after emergency, the media demands Biden solve it at noon, and if he hasn't solved it by 6 PM they declare him a failure.  Then when he actually does solve the crisis, nobody cares.  They just talk about how bad the crisis was and how awful Biden was for not solving it faster.

Biden does dozens of excellent things every day, and they get no coverage.  No coverage at all.  I bet most people on this board can't even name three of the good things Biden has done.  The American people trip all over themselves to make excuses for Trump and discuss the few "good" things they give him credit for.  But they'll never acknowledge a single good thing Biden has done.

Meanwhile the media just normalizes and apologizes for Trump at every opportunity.  The both-sides-ing is off the charts.  They absolutely devour everything the right throws at them and let the Republican Party control the narrative 24/7.  People complain about Democratic "messaging failures" but the media won't cover anything we say.  They just ask the RNC for talking points and then present those as "bad news for the Democrats."  Just sheer garbage.  Look at the recent Peter Alexander.  Literally just dumping talking points sent directly to his inbox from right-wing operatives, totally uncritically.  Imagine if Democrats had that kind of power!

Then Democrats need to do a better job at controlling the media narrative.

The reason why the Republicans are so successful at it for both the better and the worse in this sort of spontaneous news cycle is because they say a lot of crazy things and through out a lot of garbage that makes good headlines and ignites culture wars.

If the media just covered Biden's Presidency as "today Biden signed x, y, and z" or whatever, they would lose a lot of coverage because unfortunately to a lot of people that's boring.

Biden himself is a pretty humble, respectful, and "boring" speaker, which I also think doesn't help the situation. Trump got to control much the media because he was loud and bashful.

Long terms, Dems needs to do some more explosive things to call out the GOP for what they are doing on issues such as abortion and also blame them as the reason for a lot of the perceived failures of Biden. This doesn't necessarily mean becoming more radical, but just having Biden give a monotone speech in front of a podium every now and then doesn't cut it. If Biden himself can't do it, try to find other folks who are good communicators to participate in the effort.

Also generally, Democrats need younger, though again not necessarily more progressive, blood. Generally someone who is younger is able to be more engaging and also better be able to tap into a large chunk of voters Dems heavily rely on (young people).

I think a good example of this would be Mallory McMorrow who got quite a bit of media a while back for calling out the GOP for parental rights; her speech came across as powerful, serious, without feeling radical, and by the end of it I both felt mad at the GOP and also felt hopeful about the future.

[ProgressiveModerate]

The dooming and "defeatist attitude" from some Dems gets kind of tiresome, imho. You would never hear a GOPer say stuff like that, even if their prez was at low 30s approvals. They always act and talk like winners and fighters, and that's what most people like.

Sure, things are not exactly going the way they should because (a) we lack a clear governing majority in congress to get stuff done while the GOP is unwilling to actually govern and (b) Biden is not a particularly charismatic politician, although he has his strengths such as personal engagement with voters and a ton of experience.

Just because Biden has medicore approvals at this point in time doesn't mean he - or any D candidate - is DOA in 2024. The previous presidents back to Clinton, and even some before, looked more vulnerable than they were in the end. The election won't take place for another 2.5 years, which is a lifetime in politics.

What Dems generally need to do, and what I'm kind of mad about, is get better in messaging, talk more kitchentable issues and call out Republican extremism more forcefully. And with that I mean how their agenda would hurt average Joe types, not just repeat the "orange man bad" stuff. Leave Trump alone with his legal problems and revelations; there's a reason he was voted out of office; simply because many Americans were tired of him.

I largely agree with this, but one thing I think we must call out as fellow Dems if we want to support the larger party is when the party isn't being reactive enough.

A prime example of this was during 2020 when the party was awfully slow to respond to defund the police rather than trying to put it in the bottle right away.

Another example would be how they literally didn't fund Flore's challenger in the GE and just gave up/sat out than trying to address their recent problems in the RGV.

Also, just going relatively silent on issues such as voting rights/election reform and climate change which matter to a lot of young people. Even if you face defeat, you still need to talk about it to encourage folks who care about these issues to vote. It has felt very much in this administration that there has been a specific topic of the month; last month was guns, this month was abortion, and then next month it feels like we never hear anything about them again.

Finally, the fact that House leadership is 3 80 year olds. I personally respect Pelosi, Hoyer, and Clyburn, but all 3 are not great messagers anymore and are relatively disengaging with younger folks. Why couldn't at least 1 of them be replaced by a newer more inspiring face, though one that generally supports the same policies?

None of these are things that change my support for the party but could impact how other less reliable folks see the party and could be the difference between them voting or not come 2022.

[wesmoorenerd]

The media environment is just abysmal for the Democrats right now.  The media decided it hated Biden after he decided to pull out of Afghanistan and it's just been history ever since, ruthless non-stop brutalizing of the man and zero credit for any accomplishments.

Crisis after crisis after crisis, emergency after emergency after emergency, the media demands Biden solve it at noon, and if he hasn't solved it by 6 PM they declare him a failure.  Then when he actually does solve the crisis, nobody cares.  They just talk about how bad the crisis was and how awful Biden was for not solving it faster.

Biden does dozens of excellent things every day, and they get no coverage.  No coverage at all.  I bet most people on this board can't even name three of the good things Biden has done.  The American people trip all over themselves to make excuses for Trump and discuss the few "good" things they give him credit for.  But they'll never acknowledge a single good thing Biden has done.

Meanwhile the media just normalizes and apologizes for Trump at every opportunity.  The both-sides-ing is off the charts.  They absolutely devour everything the right throws at them and let the Republican Party control the narrative 24/7.  People complain about Democratic "messaging failures" but the media won't cover anything we say.  They just ask the RNC for talking points and then present those as "bad news for the Democrats."  Just sheer garbage.  Look at the recent Peter Alexander.  Literally just dumping talking points sent directly to his inbox from right-wing operatives, totally uncritically.  Imagine if Democrats had that kind of power!

Then Democrats need to do a better job at controlling the media narrative.

The reason why the Republicans are so successful at it for both the better and the worse in this sort of spontaneous news cycle is because they say a lot of crazy things and through out a lot of garbage that makes good headlines and ignites culture wars.

If the media just covered Biden's Presidency as "today Biden signed x, y, and z" or whatever, they would lose a lot of coverage because unfortunately to a lot of people that's boring.

Biden himself is a pretty humble, respectful, and "boring" speaker, which I also think doesn't help the situation. Trump got to control much the media because he was loud and bashful.

Long terms, Dems needs to do some more explosive things to call out the GOP for what they are doing on issues such as abortion and also blame them as the reason for a lot of the perceived failures of Biden. This doesn't necessarily mean becoming more radical, but just having Biden give a monotone speech in front of a podium every now and then doesn't cut it. If Biden himself can't do it, try to find other folks who are good communicators to participate in the effort.

Also generally, Democrats need younger, though again not necessarily more progressive, blood. Generally someone who is younger is able to be more engaging and also better be able to tap into a large chunk of voters Dems heavily rely on (young people).

I think a good example of this would be Mallory McMorrow who got quite a bit of media a while back for calling out the GOP for parental rights; her speech came across as powerful, serious, without feeling radical, and by the end of it I both felt mad at the GOP and also felt hopeful about the future.

I will say that "younger" and "more progressive" go hand in hand in this case, if only because young Democratic moderates are the biggest bunch of robotic empty suits I've seen in my life. Look at Buttigieg, Lamb, etc. Occasionally you'll get someone like Beto with a little fire in his belly, but the point remains.

Of course, a big part of this is due to Democratic voters. They all talk about how they want young blood and a stronger nationwide bench, and then they turn around and vote for wildly corrupt and half senile ten-term House incumbents over young challengers in the primaries. It is political malpractice that old men two decades past their expiration date like Danny K. Davis are clogging up the basepaths in seats that could produce the next Obama or Duckworth.

[Pericles]

Stop with the Great Society overstuffed agendas and present everything one by one in simple barebones legislation. If Republicans want to filibuster the "Stop Pouring Toxic Waste into Children's Drinking Water" act then let them die on that hill; don't give them an easy out by sneaking solar panel funding into it. That goes for about everything that Democrats have been trying to pass in my lifetime. And, when something is clearly DOA, give up on it immediately. If Obama had realized the public option was dead and given up on it 6 months sooner, he would've saved himself a lot of trouble, and the same can be said about Biden and the Build Back Better drama.

Also, drop all social issues. Embrace the "No black America, no white America . . ." line of thinking from Obama's first campaign and go for a personal freedom, freedom of choice angle when it comes to these issues. All they really need to do is pass basic anti-discrimination laws, but other than that we don't need to hear about any of it.

Unfortunately, that is what happens when you have a filibuster and have to squeeze everything into a two year term and that's more like one year that can be used to work on the agenda. If you had a four year term for Congress that could pass legislation with a simple majority you wouldn't have this problem (and while it sucks for Democrats, it is also is bad for the quality of the legislation).

[Hindsight was 2020]

Stop with the Great Society overstuffed agendas and present everything one by one in simple barebones legislation. If Republicans want to filibuster the "Stop Pouring Toxic Waste into Children's Drinking Water" act then let them die on that hill; don't give them an easy out by sneaking solar panel funding into it. That goes for about everything that Democrats have been trying to pass in my lifetime. And, when something is clearly DOA, give up on it immediately. If Obama had realized the public option was dead and given up on it 6 months sooner, he would've saved himself a lot of trouble, and the same can be said about Biden and the Build Back Better drama.

Also, drop all social issues. Embrace the "No black America, no white America . . ." line of thinking from Obama's first campaign and go for a personal freedom, freedom of choice angle when it comes to these issues. All they really need to do is pass basic anti-discrimination laws, but other than that we don't need to hear about any of it.

This is the problem with the “drop all social issues” https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=513581.0

In the year 2022 any time cops profile and take excessive force against poc it can’t be swept under the rug like it was in the past

[Person Man]

Stop with the Great Society overstuffed agendas and present everything one by one in simple barebones legislation. If Republicans want to filibuster the "Stop Pouring Toxic Waste into Children's Drinking Water" act then let them die on that hill; don't give them an easy out by sneaking solar panel funding into it. That goes for about everything that Democrats have been trying to pass in my lifetime. And, when something is clearly DOA, give up on it immediately. If Obama had realized the public option was dead and given up on it 6 months sooner, he would've saved himself a lot of trouble, and the same can be said about Biden and the Build Back Better drama.

Also, drop all social issues. Embrace the "No black America, no white America . . ." line of thinking from Obama's first campaign and go for a personal freedom, freedom of choice angle when it comes to these issues. All they really need to do is pass basic anti-discrimination laws, but other than that we don't need to hear about any of it.

Basically the 1992 campaign.

[Mr.Phips]

Dump Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Hoyer, Clyburn and all of their out of touch leadership and replace them with a younger and more aggressive type of Democrats.

[PSOL]

They are going the way of the whigs, which may not be a bad thing in regards to the future of this country.