In the Midterms, Democrats Occupy the Left Bank of Denial

In politics, as in business, it’s never a good idea to tell people that what they see before them isn’t real. It is tempting, but always a mistake, to insist that the very evident flaws of the thing they have only recently bought from you are illusory, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

There may be no better illustration of the futility of this approach than Monty Python’s famous sketch about the dead parrot, in which a dissatisfied customer returns to the pet shop from which he recently bought a finely plumed “Norwegian Blue” only to discover that said creature has been—evidently for some time—very much dead.

In their response to voters’ concerns about the state of the country, Democratic candidates across the country are performing an uncanny impersonation of the shopkeeper in the sketch who insists that the deceased bird is in fact not deceased, but “just resting” and “pinin’ for the fjords.”

On the campaign trail and in debate studios in the last few weeks, denial of the reality of voters’ experiences seems to be the strategy the Democrats have adopted as their chosen method of persuasion.

Two years after control of the entire federal government was handed over to the Democrats, polling indicates that Americans are, to put it mildly, unimpressed. In the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, conducted Oct. 12-13, 63% of respondents think the country is on the wrong track, up from 47% in early 2021.

Now not all the country’s problems can be laid at the Democrats’ door. But you don’t need to be a logician to understand that if you’ve been running the country for two years and if voters are deeply unhappy with the state of the country, then you are going to be held primarily responsible.

On issue after issue, instead of acknowledging the problem and offering to fix it, Democrats are denying the problem exists at all. That same poll indicated that inflation, the economy, immigration and crime are the four most important issues facing the country.

On each of these concerns, denialism characterizes the Democrats’ response.

Joe Biden

insisted in October that the economy was “strong as hell.” But while growth was solid last quarter and unemployment remains low, the most pressing economic reality for the most voters remains an inflation rate that, at over 8%, is rapidly eroding real wages, forcing up interest rates and collapsing their wealth. To suggest that the worst cost-of-living crisis in 40 years is not real is to invite not just ridicule but political retribution.

While Democrats avoid the subject and try to tell voters that election denial is the primary challenge they face, it is probably no accident that a state like Nevada—which according to Congress’s Joint Economic Committee has one of the highest inflation rates in the country—is also a key target for Republican gains in both Senate and House.

On crime, it’s not Republican propagandists but voters in deepest blue states like New York and Oregon, who are highlighting the daily reality of life under Democratic rule. In both states, cities have seen surges in crime and disorder in the past two years. Yet their leaders mostly insist that there’s nothing to see here.

In last week’s New York gubernatorial debate, Republican challenger

Lee Zeldin

complained that incumbent

Kathy Hochul

“hasn’t talked about locking up anyone committing any crimes.” Ms. Hochul responded, “I don’t know why that’s so important to you,” suggesting a detachment from the reality in which so many of her fellow New Yorkers live.

With denialism like that, it’s hardly surprising that Ms. Hochul is in danger of losing in a state that hasn’t elected a Republican statewide in 20 years. Likewise in Oregon, where spiraling crime is the No. 1 issue,

Christine Drazan

has a shot of becoming the first Republican elected governor since 1982.

On immigration it’s a similar story. With illegal border crossings up dramatically in the first 21 months of the Biden administration and hitting new records, Americans are understandably uneasy about the implications of apparently unfettered immigration. But as recently as September, Vice President

Kamala Harris

was still insisting the border is “secure.”

Again, the political ramifications of this reality-denial are stark. In counties along the Texas-Mexico border, Republican support is surging. Some of the most striking results next week are likely to come in these congressional districts, cementing recent trends toward the GOP.

It’s not wrong to call out continuing election denial by Republicans. But Democrats’ refusal to acknowledge the reality of the conditions their own policies have helped produce will be the crucial factor if—as seems likely—they go down to an undeniable electoral defeat.