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NOVEMBER 3, 2022

Meyerson on TAP

Democrats Rediscover How to Run on Economic Issues

But it's kinda late, no?

In his 1975 memoir
<[link removed]> of his
long career at

**The New Yorker**, Brendan Gill tells the story of the writing on the
wall. It seems that back in the day (roughly, the 1930s), a person
walking down one of the office's long corridors would find the word
"Too" written on the wall, by Gill's fellow

**New Yorker**James Thurber. Only, it didn't just say "Too." It said
"Tooooooo ...." with the o's continuing all the way until the corridor
ended at its intersection with another corridor. And when you turned the
corner into that second hallway, there on that wall was the word "Late."

I relate this story because I fear it may encapsulate one reason why the
Democrats probably won't do all that well next Tuesday. To be sure,
there are a host of reasons baked into that failure, if indeed failure
is what we'll see. There's the foundational fact that the party in
power almost invariably fares poorly in midterms, that inflation is
blamed on the party in power not just here but across the globe, and
that right-wing media and pols aren't constrained, to put it mildly,
by adherence to facts.

But should Tuesday be the bad news day (apologies to Ira Gershwin)
that's widely anticipated, one additional factor will be the tardiness
of the Democrats to come up with something to say that addresses the
public's number one concern: the soaring cost of living. As Stan
Greenberg and others have been writing here
<[link removed]> and elsewhere for
quite some time, and as Bernie Sanders has also advocated, Democrats
needed to acknowledge this reality, put forth their remedies, and
contrast them with the Republicans' positions for at least the past
several months. Instead, it's only in the past few weeks that
Democrats have made that pivot.

On Monday-just eight days before the election, and well after millions
of Americans had already cast their ballots-President Biden called
<[link removed]>
for a windfall profits tax on oil companies if their prices didn't
drop, if they didn't offer rebates to consumers, if they didn't at
least seek to expand production. To be sure, this came one day after
ExxonMobil posted
<[link removed]>
the highest quarterly profit in its 152-year history, and Chevron the
second-highest quarterly profit since its own founding. But oil company
profits had been soaring for the past year, prompting a host of other
nations (including the U.K., governed by those crazy left-wing Tories)
to adopt windfall profits taxes of their own. As Democratic strategist
Faiz Shakir has been suggesting, this would be a potent cause for
Democrats to adopt-vowing, say, to enact such a tax in the lame-duck
session and highlighting the opposition or silence with which
Republicans would respond to such a proposal.

Now, in the closing weeks of the campaign, Democrats are finally
recasting their messaging to the price of gas, the price of drugs, the
Republicans' threats to Social Security and Medicare and the like.
Perhaps this will work. My fear, however, is that it may well be

TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

LATE.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter <[link removed]>

[link removed]

How Democrats Mishandled Crime
<[link removed]>
The most effective issue for Republicans in this midterm is a result of
Democratic elites failing to understand what their diverse base of
working-class voters wants. BY STANLEY B. GREENBERG

'Voters Are Lethargic': A Missing Economic Message in New York
<[link removed]>
Ignoring the cost-of-living crisis, plus the erosion of Democratic Party
infrastructure under Gov. Cuomo, means an uncomfortably close race in
New York. BY LEE HARRIS

For Young Voters, Abortion Still Looms Large
<[link removed]>

In Maine, mobilizing young voters focuses on preserving women's
reproductive freedoms. BY GABRIELLE GURLEY

From Countervailing to Prevailing Power
<[link removed]>
Progressives should plan our fights against anti-democratic oligarchies
with the explicit aim of becoming the dominant political force. BY SCOT
NAKAGAWA & DANIA RAJENDRA

Donate to TAP's Midterm Tracker Travel Fund
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to send our reporters to cover elections around the country. You can
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cover expenses for reporting and travel.
Thank you for your support!  

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