“At the same time, many are already voicing frustration with the Democratic nostrum ‘go vote’ when the party already controls Congress and the White House.” This is a sentence from an article TPM Reader EH sent me about Tim Ryan’s Senate campaign in Ohio, basically the very narrow path he has to tread to have a chance with Ohio’s increasingly Republican fundamentals. It’s from the Ohio Capital Journal. But I wanted to highlight this single sentence because it captures a good bit of what we discussed here yesterday, at once a sign of ignorance and bad faith and also simply a reality Democrats need to confront whatever mix of ignorance or bad faith is behind it in the given case.
Late Update: TPM Reader JS replies …
I am past the boiling point with the “Democrats just want me to vote harder” crowd. They never have a single suggestion for anything positive to do other than, I notice, “talk harder.” They think Biden can just make Manchin and Sinema turn off their narcissism and force them to do whatever. Or he should be “on TV every single day” or whatever.
I know many are still in the anger phase of grief, but the amount of things that is being blamed on “Democrats” right now is simply stunning. But is it even real? It seems like there was a huge move in generic polling in favor of the Dems.
As I told JS, I don’t even think this is really a conversation about turnout or motivation. People who are tuned out by definition aren’t part of the dialog. This is really driven by a tiny subset of left-wing wreckers trying to break things and to a larger degree people just frustrated about the never ending stream of fundraising emails. Republicans don’t care about your anger or grief. So it’s just easier and more satisfying to lash out against the “Democrats.” But none of that means it’s not a problem Democrats need to grapple with.
