Leer en Español
Time and again, voters have made it clear that the most important issues when it comes to voting are inflation (and all its derivatives), crime, and immigration. However, Joe Biden and the White House resolved that, in the final days of the campaign, the central message to citizens will be to “preserve democracy” from Republicans.
“American democracy is under attack because the defeated former president of the United States refuses to accept the results of the 2020 elections,” Biden said in his speech.
“Because we’ve enjoyed our freedoms for so long it’s easy to think they’ll always be with us no matter what. That isn’t true today, in our bones we know democracy is at risk,” the president added.
Is it smart for Biden to talk about democracy before the election? No, Democratic analysts believe
However, the truth is that most voters have more important things to think about besides an alleged imminent attack on democracy by Republicans, and even some media Democrats recently acknowledged as much.
Perhaps one of the most popular podcasts among Democrats and progressives is Pod Save America, hosted by Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer, both of whom held important positions in the Obama White House.
In one of their most recent episodes, they sat down to discuss their party’s strategy for the midterms, and, while they agreed with the content of Biden’s speech, they had doubts about whether it was appropriate or not.
“I think the question is, with five or six days left until the election what do you want voters to think about when they go into the voting booth? Right now voters are telling us that they are struggling, that they are very concerned about the cost of living, about gas, groceries, housing, education, health care,” said Favreau, who served as White House speechwriting director from 2009 to 2013.
“They’re wondering who will do something about that and I think that talking about the threat to democracy is necessary but not sufficient when you’re trying to convince people to turn out to vote,” he added.
Moreover, according to a recent survey, voters have something else on their minds when asked about democracy.
“Biden cited this in the speech last night. He said that it’s a top concern for a lot of people but when The New York Times asked people what they meant by saying that they’re concerned about threats to democracy, most people said that it’s about corruption, it’s about the fact that the government is not working on behalf of ordinary people anymore,” Favreau added.
