An ‘ultra-MAGA’ political blunder

With his approval ratings hitting new lows, President Joe Biden has come up with a new strategy to save his party from a historic shellacking in November’s midterm elections: attacking Republicans for their “ultraMAGA agenda.” Not since Hillary Clinton dismissed Trump voters as “deplorables” has a political attack line bombed so badly. The GOP is embracing Biden’s new catchphrase, emblazoning it on T-shirts and using it in fundraising emails.

Unlike Clinton’s blunder, the “ultra-MAGA” attack is apparently the culmination of a sixmonth research project led by Biden adviser Anita Dunn and the left-wing Center for American Progress Action Fund. If it took the administration and its allies six months to come up with a strategy this bad, it’s little wonder they can’t figure out how to control inflation or the southern border.

Biden’s attack on the “ultraMAGA agenda” is based on a critical misunderstanding of why Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Americans didn’t vote against Trump’s agenda; they voted against Trump. His agenda was extremely popular. In September 2020, 56% of registered voters told Gallup that they were better off under Trump than they were four years earlier — a stunning number considering that we were in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, triggered by the worst pandemic since 1918, and followed by the worst racial unrest since the 1960s. That’s significantly higher than Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan when they won reelection. Yet unlike those presidents, Trump did not win a second term. Americans approved of

Trump’s policies, but they did not approve of him.

So when Biden attacks the “ultra-MAGA agenda,” millions think: Things were pretty good under the “ultra-MAGA agenda.” Before the pandemic hit, inflation was low, gas was cheap, people were working, wages were rising, the economy was growing, the border was secure, crime was under control, the United States was an energy superpower, our adversaries across the world feared and respected us — and there were no shortages of baby formula.

None of that is true today. Little wonder that a Post-ABC News poll in February found that just 17% said they are better off now under Biden than they were before he took office — and that was before inflation hit 8.5%. So running against an “ultra-MAGA agenda” is a mistake.

But Biden’s strategy is even worse than that. Not only is he attacking “MAGA Republicans,” he’s trying to make the election a referendum on the man he calls “the great MAGA king” — Trump. This is yet another unforced error. Democrats know deep down that they are going to experience historic losses in November. If they know they are going to get crushed at the polls, why would they try make the election a referendum on Trump? When they do lose, it won’t just be a defeat for Democrats — it will be a victory for Trump. Campaigning against the “MAGA king” means losing to the “MAGA king.” By making Trump his foil, Biden is only making Trump stronger going into 2024.

Worse still, Biden’s new campaign is based on a lie. To define the “ultra-MAGA agenda,” Biden has latched onto a plan introduced by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), which suggests that all Americans should pay some income tax “to have skin in the game.” Biden has used this to assert that “congressional Republicans” want to raise taxes on half the country. He even claimed that “the majority of Republicans buy on to Scott’s plan.” That is patently untrue. Virtually no Republicans in Congress have endorsed Scott’s plan. Biden’s claim got him “Three — nearly Four — Pinocchios” from The Post’s Fact Checker.

In other words, Biden’s “ultra-MAGA”

If it took the administration and its allies six months to come up with a strategy this bad, it’s little wonder they can’t figure out how to control inflation or the southern border.

attack is both dishonest and inept. So why is he doing it? Simple: He is running against the “ultra-MAGA agenda” because he can’t run on his own. When voters think of the “Biden agenda,” here is what comes to mind: the worst inflation in 40 years, the worst crime wave since the 1990s; the worst border crisis in American history; record-high gas prices; a record labor shortage with 11.5 million unfilled jobs; shortages of baby formula — and a president who appears to be completely overmatched by these problems.

If that’s the best Biden can do, he’d better get ready for Americans to vote for the “ultra-MAGA agenda” in droves.