That contrast – between what’s on the mind of voters and what the president wants to talk about – was stark. Especially when you consider just 9% of likely voters in the CNN poll said that voting rights and election integrity were the most important issues to their vote for Congress.

Or when you consider this astounding data point from a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted last month: 71% of registered voters said that democracy was at risk, but a meager 7% said it was the most important issue facing the country.

What do numbers like that tell us? That, when prompted, voters may well be concerned about the state of our democracy, but it isn’t a top of mind issue for most of them. And it pales in comparison to economic concerns like inflation or the price of gas.

Even before Biden gave his democracy speech, Faiz Shakir, who served as campaign manager for Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential bid, suggested that the president was missing the forest for the trees.