Since winning the White House in 2020, Democrats have sought to restore normalcy to American lives in large part with infrastructure and child tax credit bills. Now, as the party faces losing control of both the House and Senate, one journalist reflects their efforts might have been better served debunking the attempted Republican coup instead.
"The Republican party is on track to take control of both the House and Senate next year—not in spite of Donald Trump’s Big Lie and the evidence that he and other Republicans attempted to overthrow our democracy, but because of it. The Big Lie is the Republican platform for 2022. It is what most motivates Republican voters," The Bulwark's A.B. Stoddard wrote Thursday.
Stoddard continued, "Democrats seem to believe that Americans are tired of hearing about how reckless and anti-democratic Republicans are. They seem to believe that they need to keep talking about 'real issues' that affect 'real voters.' But after what we have learned in the last week, perhaps that calculus should change. Because the threat Republicans pose to the republic, through their explicit or implicit roles in either helping to create the insurrection or to excuse it, has never been more clear."
"The events of January 6 were clearly planned and coordinated to some extent—to what extent we have yet to learn," Stoddard wrote. "And the same is true of the post-coup cover-up... The January 6 Committee will hold public hearings next year, and a congressman or two could even be indicted before Election Day. There is no need for Democrats to wait until then to describe the Republican party as manifestly unfit to control Congress."
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Saving democracy should be the first priority for Democrats, Stoddard argued.
"Republicans will try to talk about the Democrats’ weaknesses on inflation, immigration and crime. Fine. Inflation matters, a chaotic border matters, and rising violent crime matters. But a functioning democracy matters most, because without it nothing that ails us can be fixed. And once it’s gone, it’s gone forever... The future of our democracy is the most important issue facing America. Why don’t Democrats trust voters to understand that?"
