Memo: New Warnock Ad and Getting Us Through To The Other Side
Getting Us Through To The Other Side – It’s been our contention for many months now that there was no politics for Democrats right now outside the COVID/recovery frame (here, here, here, here). That until we had put the pandemic behind us, Pres. Biden and the Democrats need to ground their politics in the fight to defeat COVID, secure the recovery – to get us through to the other side. That was what we were elected to do, and until that work was done, we could not be seen as having moved on to other things.
Our latest Saliency Index report confirms COVID and the economy remain the overwhelming focus for Democratic voters, and this should not be a surprise – we are living through perhaps the greatest disruption to the lives of Americans in our history. It is where our voters are right now.
A new ad by Senator Warnock is a very good example of how Democrats should consider approaching their politics at this moment. Watch. Here’s the script: People are hurting. People are tired. People have seen what they’ve worked their entire lives to build turned upside down at a moment’s notice. They’re wondering when things will get back to normal and at the same time not knowing what normal even means anymore. At my heart I am, and will always be, a pastor. That means going to work for my congregation. It means understanding the challenges you face, and then doing my best to make a difference. Every day I carry your concerns with me. That’s why I’ve worked so hard to protect and create jobs. That’s why I know we must make health care more affordable. That’s why I’m cracking down on the corporations who are raising prices out of control. What I want the people of Georgia to know is that I see you, I hear you, I am you. I understand the work I was sent to the Senate to do and that’s what I intend to keep doing for Georgia.”
He’s helping us get through to the other side. That is what he was elected to do, and that is what he is doing.
It has been our recommendation that Democrats need to make the grit, resilience, ingenuity, can do spirit of the American people the hero our story in 2022 (here, here). In a time of incredible adversity, we put our heads down and powered through. We created more new businesses than any year in American history. Our companies created a record number of jobs, and developed vaccines, therapeutics and tests which are giving us innovative tools to fight the pandemic. The stock market boomed. Millions got health insurance. Wages rose for the bottom 50% of workers. Poverty plummeted. Our teachers kept teaching. Nurses kept tending to our sick and dying. Athletes kept competing. Our kids, remarkably, kept Zooming, masking, plowing ahead. Our workers kept working. It has been hard, really hard, but we are getting their folks. We should be proud of what we’ve done, together. For as Joe Biden says it is never a good bet to bet against the American people. What the American people have done together this past year has been inspiring, powerful, awesome to see.
And Democrats of course are doing their part to get us through to the other side. We passed the ARP, which gave us tools to fight the pandemic, put money in people’s pockets, got millions affordable health care, kept businesses open and secured a very strong recovery. We are passing a series of far sighted economic plans which make investments in America which will ensure strong growth and opportunity for decades, so when the pandemic ends America can move confidently into the future. We are defending democracy with our allies against Russia, we have begun the hard but vital work of tackling climate change. We are working hard to do our part to get us through to the other side, and build back better when we do.
You can hear Simon talking about “getting us through to the other side” in this Deep State Radio podcast, this Politicology pod, this Newsy interview and this new Bottom Line television show hosted by Steve Clemons. Simon was also prominently featured in this Washington Post story about the path forward for Biden: “Biden needed to get us through covid, and when he was getting us through covid, his numbers went up and when we were getting defeated by covid, his numbers went down, and that’s where we are now,” said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist. “He needs to be the general who got us through the battle with covid and rally the American people, and I think there’s still time to do it, but omicron has made that more challenging.”
