Democrats in the Bunker

Monmouth University’s latest survey of voters ahead of the midterm elections deserves to make news. That poll found that the bad odor around the GOP that prevailed in August is all but gone today. It showed that the enthusiasm Democrats felt in the wake of the Dobbs decision has disappeared. And it revealed that the relevance of the issues the Democratic Party had promoted—climate change, racial inequality, gun control, and even abortion—has faded. But the headline Monmouth chose to encapsulate its findings crystalized these disparate factors into a single, overarching grievance against Democratic governance. Joe Biden is, according to voters, just “not paying enough attention to [the] most important issues.”

What issues? Inflation, obviously, which is the single most important issue on all voters’ minds, regardless of party affiliation. Crime is another, as is immigration. Both issues matter more to voters today than they did a month ago. If there’s a common banner under which these seemingly disparate issues can be filed, it is a general sense of precarity. Voters who don’t feel safe in their homes or on their streets, who are concerned about the capacity limits of America’s social services, and who don’t know what the money in their bank accounts is going to be worth tomorrow will prioritize those concerns over just about everything else.