Should democrats run on the strength of the economy or does that turn off voters?

 So, this is a question that popped up in a subreddit I lurk, and I felt like giving my opinion here.

Long story short, I think that NO, democrats should NOT run on the strength of the economy. I do think it turns off voters and it is a losing issue for two reasons. 

First of all, regardless of what "the numbers" say, people aren't happy. I admit that to some extent this is a perception issue rather than a reality issue. Especially as far as Trumpers go. A lot of them are gonna scream about inflation and the like but when Trump gets in suddenly everything is perfect. Combine that with people on the democratic side who are unhappy with the economy, I just think it's a losing issue. Remember 2016. The economy was "good", and Clinton ran on the strength of the economy and lost. Then trumpers turned around and acted like the economy was perfect.I think democrats need to be populist to win people over on the economy and point out that there's still work to do in raising peoples' living standards.

Second of all, I feel like the numbers just don't tell the whole story. Pointing to the numbers is condescending AF, minimizes the actual economic pain certain segments of the economy have, and lead to a form of economic conservatism on the democratic side that just doesn't work for the democrats. Again, remember Clinton. She did this and lost. And as you probably know, as far as I'm concerned, she deserved it. Regardless of what the numbers said, there are a lot of people in America who aren't doing well. We have serious underlying issues to our economy where even if the numbers are "good" theres still millions of people not prospering. And also, I do think there's legitimacy to the fact that even if the worst of inflation has subsided, people really are still reeling from the loss of living standards and their wages have not caught up. 

And as you know, I would argue that no matter how good the numbers are, capitalism is just gonna fail people. Again, the last time we were here, UBI was discussed. And it should be again. I know it's not a popular issue as republicans will just use it to claim democrats will trigger more inflation, but factually? It's what the economy needs.

The fact is, the democrats can't just be stewards of the status quo and expect to win. That's what REPUBLICANS run on. Democrats need to be populist and progressive, outlining the legitimate problems that exists and empathizing with their pain, while offering solutions to fix the problem. Biden and the democratic party are in this weird uncanny valley where they just dont resonate with people. That's what centrism and incremental fixes gives you. The democrats need to be bold and progressive if they want to win people over. They need to be the party of progress, not the party of the status quo. The democrats lose when they cling to the status quo as a good thing. Because not only do they face a blitz of negative campaigning from the republicans, but also malaise from their own party that wants actual progressive policy to be disappointed again and again.

I don't think Biden really has much to run on that's positive. And any time I see a centrist dem outlining all of these incremental fixes in gish gallop format, I really have to wonder "okay, so how does this help me?" And in a lot of ways, most of it doesn't. And I feel like that's where most voters are at.

The fact is, I'm mostly grading Biden on EFFORT. I outlined my goals, I feel like Biden has made some tangible progress on SOME goals, but let's face it compared to what I want, he hasn't done a whole lot. He was railroaded by congress and he never was gonna give us universal healthcare or UBI. He has too many centrists hes trying to appease for that.

Well, that and...Trump. Honestly. I hate to say it but the dems do need to lean into the whole "this guy is a psychopath" angle. I really hate to say it, but while I'd normally write this off as democratic alarmism and lazily distracting people from the real problems, Trump IS dangerous, he's openly authoritarian, and we need to go all "daisy ad" on his butt. I'm serious. This election has to, in part, be shifted from a referendum on Biden to "do you really want this nutcase back in charge?" They need to campaign on abortion rights. They need to campaign on democracy itself. They need to outline to the world all of Trump's darkest impulses and why he can't be allowed in office again.

We cannot allow this election to focus on how "good" things are, and make this election a referendum on the economy as it is. Because honestly, that's a good way for Biden to lose. Biden has to be progressive and outline all of the policies we still need to be accomplished. he needs to keep pounding the bully pulpit trying to accomplish what he set out to do. he needs to go to the american people and tell them to give him a congress to pass things. he needs to push for a progressive agenda that motivates people. And at the same time, he needs to attack Trump. There's no way around it. I normally hate negative campaigning, but yeah, we need to keep the narrative on how much of a psychopath he is. 

That's how I see it. If the democrats gonna win. They gotta do a sword and shield strategy. They need to attack the status quo and be populist and try to improve things, but they also need to act as defenders of democracy from the authoritarians. Plain and simple. The strength of the economy is the LAST thing Biden should run on.