Democrats Run On Doom In The 2022 Midterms

Democrats Run On Doom In The 2022 Midterms

John Hugh DeMastri on October 3, 2022

Despite the fact that President Joe Biden had planned on running on a message of unity, Democrat strategists and politicians are increasingly embracing a message based heavily in a pessimistic view of a Republican-run country, The Washington Post reported.

Following a resurgence of Trump-backed candidates — some of whom were funded by the Democrats in a controversial attempt to generate more favorable general election matchups —Biden, alongside members of his party like Democratic House candidate Max Frost of Florida, Rep. Pat Ryan of New York and Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, have repeatedly denounced so-called “MAGA Republicans,” likening the Trump-oriented wing of the GOP to a fascist uprising, according to the Post.

“It’s not hyperbole, now you need to vote to literally save democracy again,” said Biden at a fundraising event on Aug. 25. “America must choose. You must choose. Whether our country will move forward or backward.”

Trump-backed Republicans are engaging in “a coordinated domestic attempt to undermine our Constitution,” Ryan said, according to the Post. Republican Gov. Ron Desantis of Florida is trying to create a “right-wing fascist power,” according to Frost.

“It wouldn’t be a woman’s choice — it would be the government’s choice,” said Pappas, criticizing Republican nominee and former White House aide Karoline Leavitt for her view on abortion, the Post reported.

The shift came as Democratic operatives saw likely Republican midterm wins until the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, resulting in a massive surge in women registering to vote, according to the Post. Democratic strategists took this as a sign to shift the election from a referendum on Biden, to a referendum on Trump, who had managed to stay in the news cycle due to an FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home that recovered classified documents and his outspoken support of several GOP candidates.

Some Democrats have adopted a strategy of using campaign ads to spread the word on legislative accomplishments such as the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and new laws restricting gun rights, while relying on the media to pick up aggressive sound bites criticizing Republicans, the Post reported. Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania has said he has been trying to avoid the aggression other candidates have been showing, expressing worry that Democrats hadn’t sufficiently touted their victories.

My dad used to say, “Joey, don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.”

And here’s the deal: Democrats want to codify Roe. Republicans want a national ban on abortion. The choice is clear.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 3, 2022

Trump has suggested that Biden views the MAGA movement as “enemies of the state,” before adding that Biden was truly an “enemy of the state,” the Post reported.

“When you are the in-party in the midterms — like the Democrats are now — and the wind is blowing against you, you have to ride every advantageous breeze you can find,” former Democratic Rep. Steve Israel of New York told the Post. “And the Democrats have found those breezes in the Dobbs decision and in Donald Trump.”