Monday, October 18, 2021

Changing The Narrative

The panel on "Press The Meat" was, miraculously, actually worth paying attention to this weekend. John Podhoretz has not moved in his conservatism, but he today sounds almost like a liberal. The topic was Biden's "agenda" and his failure to get it passed already, and how the Democrats are therefore doomed.  Podhoretz pointed out LBJ had a 155 seat margin in the House in 1965, and 69 Senators (if the numbers are off, blame my memory).  And LBJ passed 79 major pieces of legislation in one year.

Podhoretz also point out Biden has 3, 2, 5, seats past majority in the House (he was mockingly making a valid point), and a 50/50 Senate at best.  The times, they have been a changin'.

Amy Cook pointed out many voters are more interested in police reform (remember the George Floyd protests?  That wasn't about daycare or bridges.)  than infrastructure. It made me realize (not for the first time) that Bernie Sanders is far more interested in economic issues than social ones; and AOC didn't wear a dress to the Met  Gala emblazoned "DEFUND THE POLICE!"  There is a lot of truth in what Amy Cook says, but all the pundits and poo-bahs insist the Dems must build bridges and fund daycare, or they'll lose their voters.

Sorta like this:

Biden's approval ratings are down and he's taking a hard hit among the very voters Democrats need to win in 2022 and 2024. As NBC News reported this week, "A Pew Research Center poll found that from July to September, Biden's approval rating fell by 18 points among Black voters, 16 points among Hispanics and 12 points among women." His approval is down 13 points among Democratic voters. As Cleve Wootsen writes in the Washington Post, the "Black and other minority voters who helped fuel Biden's victory" have started to "see what they consider unfulfilled promises and dwindling hope for meaningful change."

Neither Cook nor Podhoretz was trying to say the world of Biden is coming to an end, in other words; but Ms. Cook was definitely trying to inject into the narrative a little reality:  that it isn't the failure to extend the internet which has black voters disappointed.  Bernie Sanders and AOC, not surprisingly, blame this disappointment on the press not selling the infrastructure package sufficiently.

But even just discussing this topic:
is not coming close to the topics that led people to fill the streets after George Floyd was murdered; or why, it seems obvious, so many black voters supported Joe Biden.

Everybody knows police reform leads to cries of "LAW 'N' ORDER!" and "DEFUND THE POLICE!  BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!" That's what everyone in DC is afraid of, as much as some (AOC, Bernie, et al.) are really only concerned with economic issue.  But there's a good argument police reform is more what the voters voted for, than an Infrastructure Week that actually ends in an accomplishment.

Is nobody noticing that people are voting with their paychecks right now?  It is Striketober, after all.  And they aren't voting for more government spending on roads and internet access?  Or are the pundits and the politicians locked in an eternal damned embrace where they only speak to each other and stand amazed every two years when the electorate has another narrative in mind, and pulls out the national blue pencil to their manuscript?

And no, I'm not sure there are any "good" Republicans anymore.

Besides:
At least somebody is trying to change the narrative.
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