I & I Editorial BoardFor the past year, Democrats up and down the leadership ladder have been on an endless campaign to portray Republicans as delusional out-of-touch anti-science hate-mongering conspiracy-peddling vote-suppressing anti-vaxxer insurrectionist racists.
The result has been a huge shift in party preference: away from Democrats and toward Republicans. Have voters finally wised up to the left’s cravenness and radicalism? Will this newfound awareness last?
Gallup this week released its survey on party preference, which found what it describes as “a dramatic shift” over the course of 2021. The public went from favoring Democrats by a 9-point margin at the start of the year to favoring Republicans by a 5-point margin by year’s end – a stunning 14-point shift in preference.
Gallup says “Both the 9-point Democratic advantage in the first quarter and the 5-point Republican edge in the fourth quarter are among the largest Gallup has measured for each party in any quarter since it began regularly measuring party identification and leaning in 1991.”
This follows other polls that show a similarly wild swing in favor of Republicans. A CNBC poll, for example, found that Americans support Republicans over Democrats by a 10-point margin – a record, and “a significant swing that may produce a Republican landslide victory in the 2022 House and Senate midterms.”
RealClearPolitics’ average shows Republicans have been favored in a generic congressional ballot since November.
Then there are President Joe Biden’s approval ratings, which are now lower in some polls than Donald Trump’s were at the same point in his presidency. And keep in mind that Trump’s low poll ratings came amid 24-7 wall-to-wall attacks as the press drummed up the phony Russia scandal. In contrast, the press has been busy genuflecting before Biden, only reluctantly covering the multiplying crises that he’s brought about.
Even more embarrassing for Democrats is the fact that some polls now show Trump – whom the Dems have spent countless hours calling a deranged authoritarian bent on destroying democracy – leading in a rematch against Biden.
How did Democrats blow it so badly? We can think of three main reasons (none of which involve Biden’s obvious mental decline or the Omicron variant).
First, Democrats spent the past year hyper-focusing on Trump, hoping that they could keep the Jan. 6 riot in everyone’s head, convince the country that it was a dangerous insurrection, and pin it on every breathing Republican. But the public never bought into this tale and was far more concerned with rising prices, empty shelves, a border crisis, and an unfolding crime wave.
Second, Democrats revealed their true far-left roots, whether it was the push to indoctrinate kids with Marxist critical race theory lies, their deadly defund the police agenda, their zeal in imposing COVID mandates (that they themselves often ignored), the ridiculously overheated rhetoric about prudent election integrity reforms, or the unbridled hostility toward anyone – including members of their own party – who dares to disagree with them.
Third, the public finally got a good look at what happens when the left is in charge. Chaos at the border thanks to open-border policies. Rising inflation thanks to an unquenchable thirst for government spending. Supply chain problems thanks to Democrats’ get-paid-not-to-work programs. Oh, and weakness abroad.
Even if you think Trump is crazy, his policies had produced energy independence, a booming economy, rising incomes for the middle class, peace and quiet internationally, respect for law and order, and some semblance of border security. (Anyone who wants to blame Trump for COVID needs to read our editorial from Wednesday.) We have no doubt that the country would be in a far better place if he were still in charge.
The question now isn’t whether Democrats will pay for their indiscretions this November. The question is whether voters will remember these lessons in the future.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
Editor’s note: The line about Trump being crazy wasn’t stated clearly enough and caused some readers to think that we were asserting that he was. We’ve clarified the point we were trying to make in the text above.
Bob Maistros
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
It was a great article until I read this…” Trump might be crazy, but”!
Every parent of a school age child has been impacted by the government policies and not in a good way. The Democrats have painted themselves into the anti-parent corner and that is very big problem for them.
That finished em I think, these sneering maniacs spitting and drooling their vile poison all over your children…ghastly vermin that they are….no mother with a fully functioning brain will have that. And so that I suspect, will be that…..good.
PS They made a similar mistake last time referring to decent normal ordinary people as a “Basket of deplorables” and so that was a great meme and rallying cry…and this time you have “Lets go Brandon” and isn’t it hilarious how much these horrible twisted people hate it? ha haa. And of course you are all “Domestic terrorists and insurrectionists, racists and homowhatsits…but at least you are not pedos, they have reserved that for themselves.
Never depend on American voters, who run after celebrities and (you can’t make this up), pay for propaganda.
Let’s face it. Americans don’t like to be told what to do, especially by un-elected bureaucrats. Democrats are now perceived as bullies. Biden’s illness is obvious. Inflation is burning everyday, non-political people who are going to blame the people in charge.