(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Why aren’t Democrats 20 points ahead - what do they need to do? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-07 “You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic” ― Robert A. Heinlein The 2024 presidential election is a tighter race than it should be. Despite all the Democrats have achieved — even in the face of the Republicans’ aggressive nihilism — the race is a toss-up. The Democrats do not need to panic. But they do need to do something. Or 2024 could be a sobering year for the Left and the Republic. There are no small presidential elections. And next year is no exception. In the past, Democrats would have little to worry about. November 2024 would be a lock — with the Right wondering in December, on the heels of a thrashing, if the GOP will survive as a safe haven for America’s anti-democratic, Constitution-shredding insurrection enablers. But the play is not following the script. Polls, even if you ignore the outliers, have Biden and Trump equal in their rematch . And Democrats must accept that — if they embrace the status quo — they may perform as poorly versus expectations as the GOP did in 2022. Opinion surveys are rightly criticized for their spotty performance. In 2016, Hillary was so buoyed by good numbers her campaign dreamed of a landslide. Even as the numbers tightened, audio revealed the Republican candidate, already celebrated as a serial bankrupt, to be a self-avowed pussy-grabber. Doom portended — and the vaporous GOP wondered how this pretender had hijacked the party as it spiraled into parody. Then, to almost universal astonishment, the Queen’s conman seduced the eager MAGA mob into cultism and, with an assist from the Constitution’s Rube Goldberg-flavored Electoral College, won the White House. Seven years later, despite three disastrous elections in a row, he is 50/50 at the betting sites to repeat the feat. If you want honesty, follow the money. The reality for the Democrats is bleak. It shouldn’t be. The economy is humming. This week’s job report blew the doors off expectations — with 336,000 Americans newly employed and the unemployment rate close to historic lows. Inflation had been high. But it is now nowhere near nudging double digits, as it was a year ago. The Biden administration and the congressional Democrats have passed substantial laws opening the door to prosperity. To wit, the bipartisan infrastructure bill , the CHIPs & Science Act , and the Inflation Reduction Act . They also floated the US economy and stabilized personal finances with the American Rescue Plan Act , as COVID continued to ravage America. However, they are not getting the respect they deserve. Americans still believe the economy sucks and that Republicans are better on the topic than Democrats. The Left’s problem is not due to lack of achievement — but to lack of credit for those achievements. Or, to put it in the cheap vernacular of TV pundits, they do not how to “market” themselves or their product. Many liberals defend this poor PR effort by blaming the media for ‘bothsiderism’ and caving in the face of Republican onslaughts. They are right. But identifying a problem does not solve it. The Republicans have played the press like a virtuoso. The Democrats can whine about it. Or figure out how to reduce the Republican press advantage. On the other side of the aisle, while the Democrats helped Americans, Republicans were immolating rights and dancing around the bonfire. Misogyny reigned in conservative precincts. Forced birthers celebrated chattelizing women with giddy glee. And after Dobbs , experts and local elections predicted that denying women the right to choose was a bullet to the brain of Republican electoral dreams. Then there is the GOP’s godhead, the four-time criminally indicted, sticky-fingered, document-thieving fraudster and defaming rapist. Previous wisdom said a man with Trump’s legal resume was hemlock to Republican electoral aspirations. And if that were not enough, the man himself is a vocabulary-challenged, broken record with the breadth of interests of a jonesing drug addict. Yet the Democrats are in a presidential coin flip with the Republicans. Biden is behind in some crucial swing states . And their Senate prospects are dismal. I do not write this to demand the Democrats pressure Biden and Harris to step down and let another ticket run. I also do not rule it out. Everything must be considered. It is tough. Biden is a consequential and productive President. Yet he is getting hammered in the political ring. The Democrats have done far more right than wrong. They have shed their usual fractious nature and united behind Biden. Most impressively, they have embraced Hakeem Jeffries’ House leadership. Between their record of achievement and party comity, they have a solid platform to launch their 2024 campaign. But it is not enough. For the sake of brevity, I will focus on one issue. Democrats need to present a robust immigration plan — or if they have one, they must let the rest of us know what it is. Unlike the imaginary crises manufactured by the GOP — absurdities such as the sexualization of kids by librarians, genital mutilation scares, and gays with an agenda — immigration needs to be addressed. The good news is that the border is a lemons to lemonade opportunity. Immigrants have made America great. The Republicans — almost all the descendants of foreigners — have succeeded in demonizing these wannabe citizens as drug trafficking, welfare cases. Let the Democrats celebrate these strivers as potential new taxpayers. Far from being leeches, undocumented workers with fake SSNs pay taxes for benefits they will never receive. The rents paid by immigrants contribute to the property taxes that fund schools. And they support local businesses. The Democrats should run ads featuring the biggest supporters of undocumented workers — the Republican farmers and conservative construction company owners who hire them. As they get that on track, the Democrats should also take the school wars to the Republicans. They could start by embracing woke. Let Howard Stern show the way . He makes “woke” a synonym for empathy, respect, and caring — in his words, “I am woke, motherfucker, and I love it.” Democrats will want to tone down the language for a general audience — but emulate Stern’s vocal embrace of decency and compassion. The Democrats are also hampered by reputation. They are considered the grown-up party. People expect them to act like adults, so they are not rewarded when they do. On the other hand, the Republicans are expected to act like vandals, so when they break American institutions, they are dismissed as just “boys being boys.” Liberals will complain this is not fair. Of course, it isn’t. But as the old adage says, all is fair in love and war. And as Clausewitz observed, “War is nothing more than the continuation of politics by other means.” Republicans have other advantages. They are lockstep thinkers, simpleminded monomaniacs, and efficient liars. They adhere to Victorian scholar Benjamin Jowett’s dual advice, “Never apologize, never explain,” and “Get it over with and let them howl." Democrats cannot wear Republican shoes. It is not in their DNA to keep things short. They are uncomfortable with falsehoods. It makes them good people, but it steepens their political hill. Some do know how to derail the GOP’s crazy train — most notably Pete Buttigieg. And the independent Bernie Sanders (now strangely quiet) is a master of ‘damn the torpedos’ oratory. Many Democratic politicians are lawyers — it is time for them to release their inner prosecutor, shed the niceties, and win this fight. 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