 The Democratic Party has gotten a lot of bad news this week when it comes to the midterms. And none of this is surprising. There's a new article from David Siders in Politico today where he explains that the gap between Democrats and Republicans has widened since October. And I've got to say, we all kind of expected this to be the case because Joe Biden has allowed just two senators, Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema, to obstruct the entirety of his agenda. And he hasn't really done anything to push back against them. We've heard reports about how the relationship between the White House and Kirsten Sinema is strained. But I mean, you have to show us that there's some sign of life there. You have to show us that you're willing to go to bat for these policies that you supposedly care about. But all we see is Joe Biden letting Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema run rough shot over him. And it's hurting him. It's hurting Democrats overall, because if people don't feel as if they see this concrete difference in their lives, if they don't feel as if there's a material benefit to Democrats being in power currently, they're not going to go out and vote. They're not going to stand in line for hours to vote. If Republicans take in control of one house isn't really going to meaningfully change their lives. So we're in this predicament where Democrats are running out of time to act. The window of opportunity is closing and there's seemingly no sense of urgency. But let me get to the article published in Politico today by David Siders. He explains at the end of October, Republicans held an 11 percentage point advantage in voter enthusiasm. By January, that margin had ticked up to 14 points. Now, according to the most recent NBC News poll, it has swelled to 17, a massive advantage that has foreshadowed devastating losses in Congress in prior years. It's beginning to look like nothing is going to bail the party out this year. The last time the enthusiasm gap was this wide in 2010. Democrats lost more than 60 seats in the House, but now they're confronting a supercharged Republican electorate to in an NBC poll. About two thirds of Republicans say they have a high level of interest in the midterm elections compared to half of Democrats. The party's current enthusiasm deficit is a reversal from 2018 when Democrats retook the House. So November will most likely be a bloodbath for Democrats. The good news is that there still is time, believe it or not, to turn this around. The problem is that as you wait the longer and longer that you don't take action, significant action to change this momentum kind of builds up in the Republican Party's direction. Now, we'll get to what the solution is. Now, it's not a perfect solution because at this point, you know, when you when you pass a policy that impacts people, there is an amount of time that it takes for them to really feel the effects of that. So it depends on what the policy is. For example, when Biden was first inaugurated, you know, they got done the $1,200 checks or $1,600 checks. It was supposed to be 2000, but they they got down a smaller amount. Now, even though it was disappointing to people because it was a lesser amount than what was promised, that money made a huge difference in people's lives relatively quickly. So they have to pass some sort of policy that makes a really quick difference in people's lives in order to kind of spark this enthusiasm that's missing currently. Now, if you're just a voter and you don't live in a state like mine where we get our ballots mailed to us and we do mail in voting, I live in Oregon. But if you have to take time out from your job potentially or go and stand in line at a poll for hours on end or drive, use up resources if you don't live close to a polling station. If you're in one of these voter suppression red states, then you're just not going to do that. You're going to think, look, I mean, my life hasn't really changed significantly with Democrats in control. So if Republicans retake the House, is that really going to make a difference? I'm just going to stay home. This is the thinking of people. So you have to make it worthwhile for them to get up and vote. But Democrats have not done that and it is hurting them so bad. Now, there's a poll about 2024. It's way too early to really talk about 2024 in a meaningful way. But there's a line from the pollster here that's really significant that I don't think that Democrats have truly reckoned with. As Alex Griffin of Mediaite explains, a new Harvard caps Harris poll shows former President Donald Trump handily beating President Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 general election matchup. Trump would beat the sitting president by 47 percent to 41 percent, with 12 percent undecided if the vote were held today. The poll found Harvard Center for American Political Studies and the Harris poll released the findings exclusively to the Hill on Monday. According to the Hill, Vice President Kamala Harris would lose to Trump by an even wider margin, with Trump trouncing the sitting VP, 49 to 38 percent. God damn, Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard Caps Harris poll survey, told the Hill the polls finding of Trump's early leads over both Harris and Biden speak less to the former president's popularity and more to Biden and his administration's current challenges with voters. That's really important. So you think, OK, maybe because Trump hasn't been visible, his popularity has increased. But the reason why Trump would win is because Biden isn't winning over enough support or not maintaining support, I should say, really, what you have to keep in mind is election will always be determined by turnout. Now, whenever turnout is higher, that disproportionately benefits Democrats. Whenever it's lower, Republicans and their loyal base of psychopaths, they win, right? So they count on a lack of enthusiasm on the Democratic Party side. So because there is such a huge gap and enthusiasm between party bases, well, Trump would win again. And that's after everything, after the insurrection, after the lies. He would win again if the 2024 election were held today. So what does this tell us? This tells us that Biden has not given the American people enough reasons to come out and vote for him. You can say that your Democratic representative is doing a satisfactory job. But really what Biden does or doesn't do is a reflection of the broader party. So if he fails, all Democrats fail. Now, AOC had some words of wisdom that I don't think that the Democratic Party establishment is going to really take into account. But what she says here is essentially common sense. Biden can now do a lot of things unilaterally via executive order, and it would change people's lives in such a meaningful way that they'd actually be able to possibly turn things around. It's not a guarantee at this point, right? Not a guarantee. But would it help potentially shift momentum away from Republicans? Without question. So here's what she said in an interview with New York Magazine. If the president does pursue and starts to govern decisively using executive action and other tools at his disposal, I think we're in the game, she said. But if we decide to just kind of sit back for the rest of the year and not change people's lives, yeah, I do think we're in trouble. So I don't think that it's set in stone. I think that we can determine our destiny here. So what she's saying makes sense, right? All you have to do is bust out that pen and get to work. Do what you're not able to accomplish legislatively. Now, we've heard an abundance of excuses from the Democratic Party establishment. Well, you know, there's two votes that we're lacking in the Senate, Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema. Now, I'd argue that that's not really persuasive, one, because Biden hasn't even used his bully pulpit to exert pressure on them. And even if he did, there'd always be some other holdout. If it weren't Manchin, it would be John Tester, right? So there's always going to be this revolt from the conservatives in your party. What matters is how you use your bully pulpit as president. And, you know, if it wasn't just these two holdouts, then it'd be the parliamentarian, not allowing you to include something in reconciliation, immigration reform, for example. So what Biden needs to do is take decisive action as AOC is recommending and do things that you can do legally to help Americans. Now, there's a number of things that he can do. We know that Joe Biden can cancel all student debt. He can do this. Well, at least all student debt that's held by the federal government, right? Now, the federal government holds the overwhelming majority of student debt. So if he were to sign an executive order wiping out all debt, forgiving all debt held by the federal government, for most people, they'd see their debt erased entirely. Do you know what that means? They'd be able to start lives. Perhaps they'd be able to move out of their parents' homes, purchase a car, purchase a home, stimulate the economy. I mean, if I saw my debt wiped out, that would change my life dramatically immediately like that. My enthusiasm for Joe Biden would go through the roof. Now, his administration has bragged about how nobody has had to make a payment on their student loans since he's been in office. Now, that's evidence that, well, these arguments about canceling student debt, disrupting the economy are bullshit because nobody's been making payments. So all you have to do is cancel that. And all of a sudden, you galvanize millions of young people, millions. It's an easy win. The parents of these student debt holders who don't have debt themselves, they'd be able to see their kids start lives. This would make a giant difference. You can remove cannabis from Schedule One. It's ridiculous that that's the case. You can move us in that direction so we can start at least decriminalizing marijuana at the national level. But Biden isn't doing that. There's so many things that he can do via executive orders to move us towards renewable energy, but he's not doing that. He can't do a Green New Deal via executive order. Let's be clear about that, right? But there are steps that he can take. And he's not doing that. There's so much that he can do with just his pen. He could pick up his pen and immediately make a huge concrete difference in people's lives. And I'm not saying that that's definitely going to turn things around. But would it help without question, without question? The people who you just erased the debt of would think, wow, well, if my debt was just erased, what else good things can Joe Biden do if he still had both chambers controlled by Democrats, perhaps, you know, they don't understand the fundamentals of it. Maybe they don't know that he signed an executive order. But just overall getting them excited to vote for Democrats would make a huge difference. But Biden at this point in time is not doing that. So it's insane that there's this iceberg debt ahead. They've seen the warnings. They know that it's going to be a bloodbath in November if they don't do anything and they're doing nothing. We have Nancy Pelosi, who could be trying to gin up support for newer progressive candidates endorsing anti-abortion conservative Democrats under FBI investigation like Henry Cuellar over progressive up in cumbers like Jessica Cisneros. The Democratic Party leadership has just given up and Joe Biden seemingly has just given up. I mean, is he trying to do anything? He, you know, floated this new billionaire tax. Joe Manchin immediately shut it down like that. So are you even trying to fight? Show us that there's a sign of life somewhere in the White House. Show us that you care about democracy and you don't want this authoritarian far right party to retake control of the House or the Senate. You have to do something, but we see nothing. And then what's going to happen inevitably is Democrats will get wiped out in November. And do you want to know who's going to be to blame? Progressives. Oh, you know, they pushed us too far to the left. And now, you know, moderate voters, they just didn't go for that. No, actually, progressive policies are incredibly popular. Americans agreed, by and large, with Build Back Better. So if you couldn't get Build Back Better, where's the initiative to pass standalone bills? Universal pre-K. Do something. That's the takeaway. It's pretty simple. Fucking do something. At least try. Otherwise, you're going to see a bloodbath, the likes of which we haven't seen since 2010, and it could be worse. We don't know. But I mean, we're in this climate in America where Republicans are so fucking insane that they should never be able to win under any circumstances. But still, with how bad things are in this country, the Democratic Party's base has to have a reason to get out and vote. Just knowing that the Republicans are a threat to democracy isn't enough. They need to feel the difference on their wallets. They need to feel the difference in their lives, so you have to consistently keep them enthusiastic, let them know that you're fighting for them. But Joe Biden and the Democratic Party largely has failed.