Institutions should trust the public if they want the public to trust them.

Dems should ask the people what they're worried about, not tell them what they should worry about.

Joe Biden’s approval numbers continue to be abysmal. His slide in approval numbers closely tracks with American’s continuing loss of trust in our major institutions. No question this is not a coincidence. I don’t see either rebounding anytime soon. Biden was not elected because the public loved him, or his policies. Joe Biden won the primary because he was not Bernie Sanders. Then, because he won the general because he was not Donald Trump. He wasn’t elected with a mandate. If not for Trump’s idiocy in Georgia the Dems would most likely not even control the senate.

Since taking office Biden has seemingly surrendered to the left flank of the party. Speaking honestly, I don’t know how much capacity Biden has to be running the show at all. His administration, and Dems in congress, on the other hand have acted like they were Reagan beating Mondale. Like the country is starved for their ideas. The infrastructure bill had some good things in it, but I live in a town fueled by government construction projects and know how little of that money will end up in the hands of workers on those projects, and how little the public will ultimately get for their money. The BBB bill was a big slush of social projects, most done poorly and with a huge price tag. If Dems really had the courage of their convictions they would’ve broke BBB into its constituent parts and attempted to pass them individually. If they had done that the public would’ve had a chance to hear more granular detail about each proposal and realized how poorly and carelessly they were designed. Also probably don’t want to give raising the SALT cap a lot public attention.

We literally spent trillions of dollar over the course of two administrations on COVID bills. From what I can tell, we have neither built up hospital capacity and staffing, nor have we apparently improved the air filtering in our schools. Why regular Americans would have any faith left that if we just give the Dems another multi-trillion dollar check, this time we’ll get the goods. I still remember the “shovel ready projects” from the Obama stimulus. When projects never get off the ground, that money never reaches working class workers. When its all environmental scientists, industrial hygienist, lawyers and managers, that money gets all used up and never makes it regular uneducated folk. Democratic politician seem to not care. It’s just a numbers game to them. As long as they can say we spent X amount on a thing, make a good sound bite for the campaign, and most importantly get kudos from their elite upper crust friends, then everything is fine. Whether any regular person is helped is not important. They were taught at school that if you spend that amount then this result will happen. Our lives are their theory.

Nothing exemplifies this more than the debate around student loan forgiveness. The ridiculous attempts to frame this as a program to help regular people is beyond laughable. The idea that someone could come to my neighborhood and make the argument that one of our priorities should be forgiving student loans is literally insane. You would be laughed off my block. These Dem politicians are walking over homeless addicts on the street to make an argument we desperately need this program. Don’t worry about the uptick in burglaries and and drive-by shootings, I am sure those are happening because of the student debt those criminal have. As soon as that’s forgiven they’ll quit smoking meth and join the peace corps.

I do hope the Dems will wise up and start focusing on problem that Americans are facing. They need to quit trying to catastrophize Trump and Covid, that’s not a winning strategy. Quit focusing on activist issues, and focus on what the public is telling you. Treat people who disagree with you with some respect. Many independents are exhausted with the current extreme partisanship and just want to hear people with opposing views treated with decency. Disagreement should not be viewed as attack, and should not be treated as such. Americans will vote for someone they have policy differences with if they think that candidate shares their values. Family is important when you’re poor. Dems would do well to remember that. They would also do well to remember when your poor the church, whether you’re religious or not, is often a lifeline. I am an atheist. I use to be kind of jerk about it too, and I deeply regret that. We can disagree with each others beliefs with out mocking them. Most of the time now I feel like the Dems, especially the progressive wing of the party, are just mocking, attacking, and insulting anyone who doesn’t share their beliefs. They have brought their values from campus, from a life most of will never lead, and now seem hell bent on forcing them on all of us. You can’t force the public to trust you. You may be able to trick them, but to do that you have to try. The Dems seem to have given up on even trickery.

Trust in the system comes from a belief that we share a common fate. Then you have a reason to at least move towards the same goals. The fate of the elites now seems to be nearing complete disconnect from the fate of the working class. Many Dems are rooting that disconnect on. I hope for a course correction, but don’t expect one. Dems will continue to lose ground with working class people, which bring up the very real prospect of a second Trump presidency. A prospect I do not look forward too. The potential chaos from that will potentially cause will get its own post in the future. Dems still have time to right the ship, but they need a coordinated messaging strategy around responding to public concerns, not Twitter controversies. Listen to regular people not activists.