Democrats Need a More Urgent Post-Roe Message

A generic appeal to vote blue won't cut it. To win, replicate the GOP's take-no-prisoners approach, this strategist says

- DOUG GORDON

IN THE HOURS AND DAYS AFTER the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Democrats from President Joe Biden to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as other elected Democrats from coast to coast, have echoed a similar message: Roe is on the line this November, and the path to undoing the damage the Supreme Court has done runs through the ballot box.

The message boils down to: If you want to see the protections, rights and freedoms that were taken by six extremists on the Supreme Court restored, vote for Democrats this November.

While the message is accurate, it is woefully insufficient. It also flies in the face of the reality of the last two years.

The truth is people did vote. In record numbers in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, more than 81 million voters delivered the White House to Joe Biden, whose popular-vote victory margin was larger than those of presidents Truman, Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush and Kennedy. Then, less than two months later, the people of Georgia defied all odds and delivered the Senate to Democrats too, giving Democrats full control of Washington for the first time in over a decade.