Who’s next on their menu?
Abortion rights may appear a lower-tier issue than “threats to democracy” in the NBC News poll released Sunday, but one poll does not an election campaign make. Voter enthusiasm and turnout win races.
Dan Pfeiffer believes “the political environment has shifted in Democrats’ favor.” Activists in in Pittsburgh concurred. The Dobbs decision has put Republicans back on their heels. We need to keep them there.
Democrats historically avoided the term “abortion” while still advocating for Planned Parenthood and women’s health issues. Reports of women’s health emergencies in the wake of Dobbs have modified that calculation:
Democratic efforts to turn this midterm from a progress report on Democratic governance into a referendum on GOP extremism failed to connect until the Dobbs decision. That was when Republican extremism went from an abstract argument to lived reality. Many people thought Republicans didn’t really mean it when they talked about banning abortion or that their words didn’t matter because the constitutional right to abortion services was in no danger of being overturned. The Republicans exacerbated the problem by following up the Dobbs decision with a series of laws and proposals like total bans, restricting interstate travel, and limiting IVF.
The fact that Republicans wanted abortion banned, and then it was banned has many people much more concerned about other extremist positions like ending access to contraception and marriage equality. A politician that denies access to abortion to rape victims is also a politician that seems like to ban contraception, out law gay marriage, end Social Security, and steal an election.
What else might Republicans do to you? Remind voters that something they care about could be next on the Trumpublican Party’s menu. First Republicans came for abortion, etc. Next they could “privatize out of existence” Social Security, Medicare, and other social insurance Americans paid into their entire lives.
Democrats need to do more than emphasize what they are running against. But the staged rollout of Biden’s infrastructure package and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions makes it more challenging to pitch to prospective voters what Democrats are doing for you. The White House provides a series of fact sheets on that, but voters won’t hear it via a website. They need to hear it from family and friends more so than from ads and events. Voters won’t appreciate the help until they feel it, and other than lowering inflation and gas prices, most of that feel won’t come until after November 2022.
That’s why, while reminding voters that unemployment is at record lows and more help is on the way, voters need to hear Democrats are fighting to keep government of the people, by the people, for the people from perishing from the earth. The message must include that they are fighting for you and to preserve women’s freedom to choose when whether, when, and with whom to have a child.
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