Can Democrats Turn Their 2022 Around?
About this episode
With the 2022 midterms approaching, Klein brings together pollster Sean McElwee of Data for Progress and messaging strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio to diagnose the Democratic Party's predicament. They debate whether Biden's unpopularity reflects governing failures, poor messaging, or the structural doom of a president's party in midterms; whether Democrats should emphasize popular policies, raise the salience of their accomplishments, or pick sharper fights with Republicans; and how the party should talk about inflation, crime, abortion, and the culture wars. The conversation digs into the difference between what polls well and what moves voters, the limits of persuasion, and whether Democrats' real problem is what they're doing or how they're describing it.