Er … what? Joe “Put Y’all Back In Chains” Biden? Joe “Jim Crow 2.0,” “Stand with Bull Connor” Biden? Do Democrats really think that the man who repeatedly told the nation that small mom-and-pop gas station owners suffered a lack of patriotism for pricing gasoline rationally in the Biden-created supply crisis is being too nice?

Apparently so, according to The Hill:

Democrats are tired of being stomped on by the opposition. They hate the public perception of President Biden as a president in peril. And the conservative Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is pushing them past their limits.

Going low suddenly seems more appealing, some Democrats now say.

“This is a time to say ‘We’ve had enough. [Republicans] are taking away every freedom we’ve had and we’re full of rage,’ ” said one Democratic strategist. “This isn’t the time to say we’re the honorable party, because that clearly isn’t working.”

Democrats generally have sought to improve Biden’s public image by punctuating bad news with an optimistic tone. But with roughly three months until the midterm elections, they now are encouraging a more forceful approach from Biden on down.

Supposedly the Democrats wanted to play nice as a contrast to Donald Trump, but there’s been precious little evidence of such a strategy. They don’t even play nice with moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin and arguably Kyrsten Sinema. Biden’s repeated Jim Crow 2.0 comments have been almost always aimed at Republicans, but his angry accusation of standing with Bull Connor and George Wallace was clearly aimed at Manchin and Sinema for refusing to change the filibuster to pass his election-federalizing bill.

Joe Biden doesn’t have to be told to get angry; it’s a persona that makes regular appearances, and has his entire career. He looooves to play the angry “Ragey Joe” demagogue, partnering it up with his fauxlksy Scranton Joe persona (after 50 years in Washington) and his new creepy-whisper Truth Teller Joe persona. And Biden himself has already promised to ramp up Ragey Joe two months ago in an effort to abandon “bipartisanship,” even though Biden’s only actual bipartisan project succeeded — the infrastructure bill. The rest of Biden’s agenda failed because it couldn’t get Manchin and sometimes Sinema, not because Republicans blocked it.

How has Ragey Joe worked to improve matters for Biden and Democrats? One look at Biden’s favorability rating in Civiqs makes it clear:

Biden’s favorability wasn’t in good shape when he made that pledge in mid-May, but it’s only gotten worse since. To the extent that Biden carries the party’s fortunes in the midterms, his fellow Democrats really should be encouraging the exact opposite approach. Biden needs to shore up his personal likability to give him an opening for countering his confidence-crisis cascade among the electorate. Ranting may make progressives like Biden better, but it will only make Biden look less presidential and less likable otherwise.

What Democrats really want is for Biden to act out as a distraction from the results of their policies and to demagogue Republicans as the source of all misery. Biden’s been doing that all along, though, and it’s not working. It’s not just Biden who’s completely out of ideas and in over his head. It’s the entire party, and they’re now getting very nervous about the accountability coming their way for their single-party governance of the nation.