Political Strategist: Republicans ‘Are Winning’ the Battle on Messaging for Spending Bill
"It can’t be simply about Joe Biden Democrats," Cornell Belcher says
Democrats are losing the war when it comes to the messages about their big Build Back Better Act, according to a prominent author and Democratic strategist.
So it's not going to be good enough merely to pass that sprawling spending package, but also effectively sell it to the American people, said Cornell Belcher.
It's only by accomplishing both that Democrats can avoid another disastrous result in next year's midterm elections, he said during an on-air panel discussion Tuesday on MSNBC.
Democrats have been struggling to wrangle the necessary support to pass their Buy Back Better Act, which would enact much of President Biden's agenda going into next year's elections.
However, they have no margin for error, as no congressional Republicans support the measure, and two crucial Senate Democrats — Sens Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, have withheld their support from the $3.5 trillion version of the legislation.
“Well — so here’s the thing. I want to step back and give a little context and dynamics here of this. One is, I reject the ideal of the either/or-ism that I think happens way too often, where it’s you got to be for the moderates or you got to be for the progressives, and that the moderates are how you win this because it’s not an either/or proposition,” said Belcher, founder and president of Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies. “Look, The Washington Post did a really good article yesterday talking about the frustration of the voters, the young voters in Georgia who, quite frankly, were the keys to flipping Georgia and turning Georgia blue. And those young voters were not marching for bridges and potholes, they were marching for social justice and equality. So, I reject this either/or-ism.
“But I also want to step back and talk about the dynamics of this. Because someone who was ringside at 2010 and a lot of us Democrats looking at this — at least some of us older ones with the gray hair are looking at this and going there’s a lot of similarities here to 2010,” he added. “And when you look at the generic horse race — and when you look at some of the things that are happening — how do we avoid 2010 again? First step is legislation. Right? Putting up points on the board, and Build Back Better and infrastructure are absolutely sort of key to putting points on the board for Democrats but it is not the end-all and be-all.
“If you look at the CBS poll from just a couple days ago, yes, all those things that voters were talking about that you all just reported on, prescription drugs, child tax credits, all those were very popular, but you know what voters were actually hearing about most? They weren’t hearing most about those issues,” Belcher said. “They were hearing most about $3.5 trillion in spending. The Republicans are winning that battle and it’s not enough just to put points on the board because — legislative points on the board — because lord knows [Barack] Obama in 2008 and Nancy Pelosi and then [Senate Majority] Leader [Harry] Reid [D-Nev] passed a lot of legislation that pulled this country back from catastrophe, but we got our tails whooped in the midterm.”
This is where Democratic messaging becomes so crucial, Belcher said.
“So it’s also about sort of messaging, and I think you’ve got to message about — do a better job of messaging what it is that you’re working on. And quite frankly, I reject the ideal that it’s just about progressives because Build Back Better has a lot of things in there that quite frankly are targeted to and will help middle class, and quite frankly, working class whites,” he said. “But you also got to make this about — it’s got to be a pivot. It can’t be simply about Joe Biden Democrats. This was the mistake I think of 2010, which they fixed in California because it also has to be a referendum on Republicans. This also has to be a referendum on a party that, quite frankly, majority of Americans don’t approve of.”
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