On the eve of the 2022 midterm elections, CNN appeared to be already on its way to accepting the inevitable shellacking awaiting Democrats on Tuesday.
“CNN Newsroom” host Jim Sciutto was talking “big picture” in the sense of which party controls Congress after the election — spoiler alert: it will be the Republican Party — when he suggested that Democrats made the wrong choice to ignore kitchen table issues like the cost of living and the economy to pursue the fabricated claim that democracy is under threat.
“In a cycle when that is the case, do the Democrats get their message wrong by focusing for instance on threats to democracy as opposed to economics as the top issue?” Sciutto asked.
Panelist Van Jones was quick to answer the question, referring to the “fool’s gold” represented by the party’s focus on election deniers and insurrection.
“I think there was this kind of fool’s gold, this idea that the threat to democracy is so severe in the wake of this insurrection and wake of these election deniers possibly grabbing control of the government, that that was something that you had to talk about,” Jones said. “But you also have to talk about the economy.”
And just when he threatened to actually make sense, Jones rallied to get back on the Democratic plantation.
“I think the tragedy here is that the Democrats have something to say on the economy,” he added, this being 10 million jobs he accredited to Biden, as well as lower prescription drug prices and the feign that Republicans are a threat to Social Security and Medicare. “We didn’t focus enough firepower on that issue, and I think it is going to potentially cost us.”
In effect, Democrats didn’t scare voters enough to convince them to vote against their own best interests.
Democrats’ closing argument in the midterm elections was to convince voters that “democracy is on the ballot,” as seen Monday evening when Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared on CNN.
“I do believe that our democracy is in danger because of what the others are saying about undermining our elections, even now as we go forward,” she said.
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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