And so Dems will make the election about Trump. Again.

And they’ll still lose control of Congress—but just not as badly as they otherwise might have. By feeding the progressive base ever-more hyperbolic anti-Trump rhetoric, the theory goes, Dems will be able to save those deep-blue congressional seats that Biden won by 15 points just two years ago.

In other words, this is a sort of triage. Democrats are pricing in the fact that the midterms are going to be a disaster, no matter what they do. They just want to mitigate the losses. “It’s not even a Hail Mary,” Kraushaar says, “It’s a ‘stop the bleeding’ strategy.”

It’s a sorry state of affairs, but for Democrats, there really is no better plan. Dems can’t make this election be a referendum on Biden’s presidency, because Biden’s popularity is so low right now that doing so would guarantee even more Democratic losses. With that “It’s Morning Again in America” option off the table, the only option is to try and make this a “choice” election.