Ten Democrat Anchors

As we sail toward November's mid-term elections the Democrat ship seems to be dragging a number of anchors that threaten to pull them underwater at the polls.

The Democrats appear to be in trouble mainly because their policies have been extraordinarily short-sighted and harmful to the nation and are associated with cultural trends that many if not most people find intolerable.

Here are ten examples:

1. Massive spending that has fueled inflation.
2. Requiring those who didn't go to college or who paid their way to subsidize the debt incurred by others.
3. Crippling oil and gas production which makes it more expensive to live and heat our homes.
4. A frustrating tolerance of crime, releasing felons from jail or refusing to prosecute criminals in the first place.
5. The desire to defund police departments while crime is surging.
6. Normalizing and subsidizing homelessness and addiction in our cities.
7. Facilitating massive illegal immigration and refusing to do anything to stop it.
8. Promoting the teaching in public schools of racially divisive content, particularly the notion that racism is a uniquely and indelibly white sin.
9. Promoting the cult of transgenderism in our schools and institutions.
10. Using their ideological hegemony in academia and the media to "cancel" those who dissent from progressive orthodoxy.

Because each of these is a Democrat vulnerability, political ads for Democratic candidates scarcely mention any of them. Instead they've focused on three issues they hope will have purchase with voters:

1. Democrats' determination to make unlimited access to abortion legal.
2. Their conviction that climate change is an existential threat.
3. Their characterization of the January 6th riot as an "insurrection" fomented by Republicans.

Whether Democrats can stave off Republican gains in November and retain their majorities in the House and Senate will depend on whether voters think those last three issues are more important and more credible than the first ten.