These are not normal times, and Democrats cannot use normal midterm election strategy. History would tell us that the ruling party loses in the medium term and the media already regularly proclaims the self-fulfilling prophecy that “Republicans should regain the majority in 2022”. It will certainly happen if Democrats do the usual thing with various candidates showing up on various posts with varying degrees of fear of offending the socially conservative blue-collar gun owner who may well decide to vote blue.

These rural rotating districts no longer exist. In recent cycles, Republicans have locked them in. Democrats will only expand their majority if we have a unified national campaign that defines Republicans and Democrats in layman’s terms on three national issues that can drive massive blue turnout.

1. Choice. There can be no space between all the rabid Republican officials across the country who are enforcing total abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or maternal health and any other Republican anywhere. Link every Republican candidate for any office at any level to Republicans calling for jail time for health care providers and jail time for women who have abortions. Every Republican running in every suburb has been riding the wave of “pro-life” crazies in their party that brought abortion law to the United States. They cannot be allowed to be surprised or upset when doctors in Texas are sentenced to life in prison or patients in South Carolina are sentenced to two years in prison. Excerpt from the Politico article:

In Texas, anyone who performs, causes, or attempts an abortion where “an unborn child dies as a result of the offense” is guilty of a first degree felony – liable to life in prison and a fine of up to go up to $10,000 – under the state trigger ban.

In Alabama, anyone who performs an abortion, provides abortion pills, or “aids, abets, or prescribes the same,” faces up to 12 months in jail or hard labor and a fine of up to $1,000. under the state’s pre-Roe ban.

And in South Carolina, a person who terminates a pregnancy with a pill or by other means faces up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000. under state law.

Democrats must say firmly and repeatedly – ​​we are the party that will codify Roe vs. Wade, restore access to abortion, and defend people’s basic rights against the dangerous religious fundamentalists who run the Republican Party.

2. Prohibition of assault weapons. Like the choice, increased gun control is very popular with the American public. But more importantly, Democrats and allied groups must launch a sustained campaign on these issues that helps shape public opinion. How many “pro-life” billboards have you walked through? In Minnesota where I live, I guess I’ve literally driven in the thousands over the past 20 years. The 2022 election campaign should be the start of a years-long campaign that simply says Democrats will ban assault weapons to keep them out of the hands of those who kill our school children, racist killers and terrorists. Republicans literally support the gun rights of racists and would-be mass murderers over the right to life of school children and black shoppers and moviegoers and Jewish synagogue members. Democrats must say firmly and repeatedly – ​​we are the party that will ban weapons of war and defend the right to life of school children against the dangerous gun zealots who run the Republican Party.

3. Gas price/climate. Trump and the Republicans love Putin and allowed his invasion of Ukraine which caused world oil prices to skyrocket. Republicans, the party of climate change denial, are the lackeys of big oil, the companies that are abusing you at the pumps right now and causing catastrophic climate change. Republicans are definitely trying to blame Biden and Democrats for gas prices. No one buys their gasoline from Joe Biden. ExxonMobil reported $5.75 billion in Q1 2022 profits, down from $2.79 billion in Q1 2021. Democrats need to say strongly and repeatedly that high gas prices are caused by greedy multinational corporations and their Republican catalysts. Get on the air early — now — by defining this issue for voters before Republicans do.

The recent Labor and Progressives victory in Australia shows that elections can be nationalized around single issues, in this case it was the ‘climate election’ as the country experiences a wake-up call over catastrophic climate change. This country is rocked on all three issues and Democrats must win at all levels from local, state and national offices in November. “Vote for John Fetterman in the Senate, AND vote for the Democrats until the end of the ballot.” Creatives can advertise on these, but they must be aggressive, bold, and unified in their messaging. Perhaps dramatizations of the Republican view of America – doctors, nurses and patients arrested and locked up, women as second-class citizens, racists with assault weapons, child killers with free access to weapons of war, Republican-sponsored greed hurting us at gas pumps and threatening the stability of the planet.