Republicans Face Angry Voters at Town Halls, Hinting at Broader Backlash
After a monthlong honeymoon for the G.O.P. at the start of President Trump’s term, lawmakers are confronting a groundswell of fear and disaffection in districts around the country.
Exactly. In order to promise to “fix the government” you need to lie to them and claim the government is broken, first. That’s where liars have a leg up.
Well, there are some broken parts of the government thst do need fixing. The courts don't have a way to enforce rulings. Laws that limit executive overreach don't have an enforcement mechanism. Too much power is concentrated in the oval office.
It is broken, but not because of spending or any of the stuff Republicans claim to be broken. It is broken because it allows for their shenanigans.
Dems could have run on fixing the actual flaws in the system that are allowing this coup, but they chose to appeal to moderates instead. In the future they could run on fixing the flaws, but would need to follow through when they have the ability.
Dems could have run on fixing the actual flaws in the system that are allowing this coup
It would have accomplished exactly nothing if they did. Voters aren't interested in "fixing the system". It would have come off as Democrats caring about nothing but "making power grabs" while ignoring kitchen table concerns such as the price of groceries. It would have come off as Democrats being more disconnected from the needs of everyday voters than they already are.
Harris, or whoever the dem nominiee would have been, would have been focusing on "fixing the system" while Trump just made all the same empty promises about "bringing down the price of eggs on day one", and he would have won by an even wider margin. Your average voter gives exactly zero shits about how things work in DC and what does and doesn't need to be fixed.
It would have come off as Democrats making nothing but "making power grabs"
Even if it didn't have that outward appearance, the liars would have lied to ensure that was the message.
Here's an example of this with Democrats trying to improve access to voting:
https://barr.house.gov/2021/3/rep-barr-denounces-house-democrats-h-r-1-the-election-power-grab-act
Rep. Barr Denounces House Democrats’ H.R. 1, “The Election Power Grab Act”
Here's Democrats trying to fix the courts:
https://www.courthousenews.com/republicans-wont-budge-as-biden-details-supreme-court-reform-plan/
“Liberals are furious that [the Supreme Court] is abiding by the Constitution,” said Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, branding court reform efforts as “a toxic power grab” chipping away at the constitutional separation of powers.
Here's the Democrats trying to give people in DC access to representation:
Republicans warned the Democrats’ bill is an unconstitutional power grab that will result in the District receiving greater benefits than citizens of any other state
This isn't hypothetical partisan complaining.. the past is littered with examples of Democrats attempting to do the very things that people complain they aren't doing -- with Republicans whipping up lies to feed the electorate undermining those efforts.
Democrats try to win debates. Republicans try to win power.
Right. But here's the thing.
Those issues you brought up probably don't even make the top 10 in terms of issues that are important to the average voter. Your average voter doesn't care about "fixing" a system that they believe has been long since broken anyway, regardless of who is offering to do the fixing. It's not even a matter of who's right or wrong. It's the fact that the entire issue is just not important to the average voter to begin with. To your average voter, it will just come off as Democrats being out of touch with kitchen table issues and just trying to implement "fixes" that will primarily cement their own power. Even if those fixes end up having benefits for the average voter, they'll be seen as largely irrelevant if it doesn't actually help them pay the bills.
Put that up against someone who's making promises (regardless of how empty) that he will do things that will actually impact everyday voters, and the ones making those promises are going to win every time. Kamala Harris promising to fix the government while Trump is promising to actually bring prices down (Yes, I know....) would have just led to her losing by an even bigger margin.
That's the rub. The issues that the average voter thinks they're concerned about were spoon-fed to them by the liars. Which means we can either have Democrats also lie, or they can tell the truth and fix the actual problems.