Politics ‘What Are You Doing?!’ CNN’s Enten Warns Democrats Are In Trouble Ahead of the Midterms

CNN’s data guru Harry Enten warned Democrats on Monday that they’re in definite trouble with American voters ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Anchor Kate Bolduan asked Enten about a new poll showing “that most Americans still trust Republicans over Democrats on some major issues.”

“You know, Donald Trump being underwater, Democrats and, ‘Oh, this guarantees us we’re going to fly high in the midterms!'” Enten said in a mocking voice. “Let me tell you, this guarantees you nothing! Nothing! Because at this particular point, the Democrats are the New Orleans Saints of political parties.”

Enten continued with his magic wall of statistics:

Who leads on the economy? Republicans by seven. Immigration? Republicans by 13. How about crime? A big issue for Donald Trump and the Republicans. Look at that, lead by 22 points! So the bottom line is, at this particular point, the ball may be on the ground, but the Democrats have not picked up the ball and running with it. If anything, at this particular point, it’s the Republicans who are running with the ball on the top issues, the economy, immigration and crime.
…

Let’s compare it back to 2022. I think this kind of gives away the game right here, okay? The GOP is more trusted than the Dems on the economy. It was 12 points in 2022. Slight, slight decline in that lead, but still seven points. How about immigration? It was Republicans by three back in 2022. Look at this! The Republican lead has actually gone up by 10 points. What are you doing Democrats?! My goodness gracious.

And on crime the Republicans were up by 13 and now they’re up by 22. The lead again expanding by nearly double digits. So whatever Democrats are doing it ain’t working.
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Enten said that even if voters don’t particularly like what Donald Trump is doing, “they ain’t necessarily liking what Democrats are doing, and it ain’t just a referendum on one party.”

Enten concluded that Democrats just aren’t able to beat Republicans at this point in time.

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/w...mocrats-are-in-trouble-ahead-of-the-midterms/

 

Dems either have to move more to the right, like Bill Clinton did when he was President, or move more to the left towards Bernie. However, where they are now, and their biggest point is that Trump is bad, is not going to work.

 

Assembling a winning coalition is so incredibly simple. You just have to do exactly what each voter thinks is the right and obvious thing to do.

Luckily it is a small country and everyone agrees on most everything.

barfo

 

Every time I hear a Democrat (in office) say that the midterms are going to go their way, I laugh...and then cry a little.

They're too wish washy, but more importantly, this country (and a large portion of the voters) is fucking idiotic, gullible and if breathing wasn't something that is done automatically, would die.

 

It's not difficult to understand, it's difficult to do.
You can't make (or propose to make) big changes without either (a) being a dictator, or (b) explaining how you are going to get from here to there.
And once you explain how you plan to get there, a whole lot of people are going to disagree with various different parts of your plan.
Some will disagree for economic reasons, some for ideological reasons, some because they are just fucking stupid.
And those people are going to fight you / not vote for you.

barfo

 

The DNC and the "leaders" of the party align with their donors. Nothing more. They don't want to piss off their gravy train.

 

But if you start asking *how* the government should do that, you'll immediately lose all the people who think taxes are necessarily a bad thing, which sadly is a fuck-ton of people.
And you'll lose all the people who make money off the current system and either fear they'll lose income and/or just don't want their lives to change. Also a large number of people.
And you'll lose some people who want universal healthcare but have their own ideas about how it should be implemented.
Some subset of those people will turn out to be vociferous opponents of any specific plan you propose, even if they like the general concept.

I agree that's absolutely not a reason to not advocate for the policy.
But advocating for that policy is just not a magic bullet that automatically gets you elected. See, e.g. Bernie, Elizabeth Warren, or even Jill Stein.
And yes, the system is corrupt, cheating, money, unfair, corporate, conspiracy, etc.
But you have to go to war with the political system you have, not the political system you might want or wish to have at a later time.

barfo

 

Ok. And I'm advocating for facing up to the reality that politics is complicated and there are a lot of different interests, including big dollar donors, other politicians, single-issue voters, media, etc. etc.
Sure, it would be nice if billionaires got only 1 vote, and corporations got zero votes. But that's not really the way it works right now, so anyone who is going change that needs to first get elected under the current system.
The party kneecapped Bernie? Not getting kneecapped is part of the job description. It shouldn't be, but it is, and Bernie certainly knew, or should have known that.
What politician are you seeing that can do a better job of selling M4A than Bernie?

barfo

 

We're all gonna die. That's just Joni Ernst math.

Part of our disagreement is about the party dying. I don't think it will die.

I think it is already dead. It's mostly just a label, not an organization.

barfo

 

I would have won in 2016 if I'd run and if I had a long record of public service and if I was a great public speaker and more handsome and charming and I had no skeletons in my closet and I was a great fundraiser and a tireless campaigner and had popular policy ideas and lots of friends in high places and I'd done everything right and not made any big mistakes and wasn't, you know, a degenerate old drunken pirate.

At least, I'd like to think so.

barfo