Democrats tarnished their brand during ugly infrastructure fight

Today, the country is dealing with high inflation that can be seen at the gas pump, with prices almost $1.25 cents higher than it was at this time last year. Food prices are soaring, and prices on other essentials are as high as they have been in two decades. The Biden administration can’t explain this away with simple answers and platitudes. This is happening on the Democrats watch, and whether it is fair or not, the party in charge gets the blame.

Inflation is a political death nail for the party in power, and it has to be acknowledged and tackled. Democrats have to acknowledge that they are not blameless in the increase in prices for almost everything. Yes, the supply chain delays are a problem, but too much money in the system is also a problem, and Democrats need to listen to its more moderate members who are concerned with inflation.

Back in the middle of the summer, which now seems like a lifetime ago, Joe Biden was riding high with decent approval ratings, and overall goodwill from the American people. Then, a perfect storm happened in the way of the Delta 3 Covid variant and the steady rise in prices for gas and food. Combine that with the intra-party fight among Democrats over the passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure bill in the house, and you end up with an angry electorate.

That bipartisan infrastructure bill was passed in the U.S. Senate with nineteen Republicans voting for it, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It was a historic achievement just by virtue of the fact that Democrats and Republicans don’t vote together on anything these days. The angst between the parties, especially in the House of Representatives is as toxic as it can be, and the toxicity is not expected to improve over the next year heading toward the midterm elections a year from now.

So, the point is that when you have 69 Republicans and Democrats agreeing on a policy issue, you immediately pass that bill and get it to the President’s desk for signature, unless you are a group of Democratic progressives who want to hold that bill hostage for another bill. Those progressives decided in their caucus that the historic bipartisan infrastructure bill that had just passed in the Senate with 69 votes, should be held up until the other bill passed. Their actions or inaction proved to be a flawed strategy, and the cause of the voters rebuking them at the polls. Democrats were eating their own, and it was ugly. Their actions hurt the party, and it hurt the President politically.

The American people looked at all of the chaos in the Democrat Party, and they soured on the party, and on the man at the top, Joe Biden. In the middle of July, President Biden’s approval rating was consistently in the low to middle fifties, and Americans were generally satisfied with his performance. But then Democrats started to fight among themselves over the two infrastructure bills, one being the just passed “hard” infrastructure bill for roads and bridges, and the other one being the social spending infrastructure bill. Voters are not interested in the process; they are interested in the results.

Initially, Democrats wanted to spend an exorbitant amount of money in the range of 6 trillion dollars, that is trillion with a t, and then they settled on 3.5 trillion, which was still too high for moderate Democrats, specifically Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kristen Sinema from Arizona. They balked at the price tag, and let it be known to the progressive caucus. While all of this was happening, Democrats were losing their standing with the American people, and Joe Biden’s approval ratings were taking a nosedive. Between mid-June and today, his approval ratings have dropped an average of 16 points, and it proved to be an anchor for candidates in the recent elections in New Jersey and Virginia.

The truth is that Joe Manchin, who is extremely close to President Biden, saved Democrats from themselves, but at a political cost to the party and to President Biden. The public fighting between Democrats turned voters off, and they responded with a rebuke of Democrats during the elections three weeks ago. Americans didn’t like the sausage making that they were seeing, and that is evident in the negative standing of Democrats with the American electorate right now. Democrats are down double digits in the generic vote right now, and that forbodes of a difficult mid-term election for the party.

Finally, Democrats in the House did pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and it went to the President’s desk, but not before their intramural and interparty fight had taken Joe Bidens approval rating to the lowest, they have been in his presidency, along with the approval ratings of his Vice-President, which are at a historical low right now.

In retrospect, there is no doubt that Democrats should have passed the bipartisan bill in the house, and sent it directly to the President’s desk for signing. Progressives were fighting to keep the bills coupled, but in the end, they ended up being uncoupled anyway.

It was a strategic mistake that Democrats are surely to pay a political price for, despite all of the good things that have happened over the last ten months, with respect to vaccines, increased job creation, and wage hikes. They don’t get the credit for the good things, but they do get the blame for bad things, and that is just the nature of politics in America today. Democrats tarnished their brand during ugly infrastructure fight, which will certainly be a factor in the 2022 and 2024 election cycles. And that’s my take. smithpren@aol.com

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Democrats tarnished their brand during ugly infrastructure fight