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In 1928, the Republican National Committee produced a series of newspaper ads supporting the presidency of Herbert Hoover. They argued that Republican policies had resulted in “the proverbial ‘chicken in every pot.’ And a car in every backyard, to boot.”
The “chicken in every pot” line was so effective that it’s still erroneously attributed to Hoover. But it’s “the car in every backyard” that should interest Democrats right now.
That’s because, despite all the focus placed on homeownership, Americans really love their cars. And they don’t see the Democratic Party as wanting them to have cars — or homes or families or vacations, for that matter.
That’s the takeaway from an interesting poll from Searchlight Institute, a new Democratic think tank led by the former chief of staff for Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman. Respondents were asked about various markers of “the good life” and whether they had achieved them or still have them as a goal. The markers included owning a car or a truck, owning a home, marriage, having children, being regularly able to go on vacation and having stability in your personal life.
“Owning a car or truck was the most common option chosen as having already achieved, with 80% affirming, and another 6% wanting to do so. Retirement is the most aspirational, with 30% having achieved it, and 45% wanting to,” the Searchlight report said.
It’s not surprising that a majority of Americans still want to own a car, even in the age of ride-sharing. But here’s where it got interesting: The pollsters then asked people what they believed each political party wanted for them. And the only thing people thought that Democrats wanted for them was stability. Not marriage, not children, not homeownership, not even owning a car or truck.
You could call this a failure of messaging on a large scale.
Or, when it comes to the car-and-truck question, you could call it too much messaging about personal vehicles being bad for the environment, too much messaging about why we all should be taking public transportation more often, or walking or biking everywhere.
The Searchlight/Omnibus poll found that a lot of Americans aren’t convinced that the goals of either party line up with their dreams. But in particular, “Democrats are also clearly failing to articulate a vision that champions the personal achievements and prosperity that most Americans seek throughout their lives — and that’s something that the party will have to grapple with," Searchlight said.
Commenting on the data, political historian Brian Rosenwald said whether it’s fair or not, there’s a sense among many people that Democrats are “the party of negativity, the party of doom and gloom, the party that doesn’t support the American dream.”
And political strategist and pollster Patrick Ruffini said it’s clear the GOP has a “brand advantage” right now.
“More than the leftward drift of its policies, Democrats have become a party that’s downbeat and critical of how things are going in society, that doesn’t know how to have fun. And that shines through in this data,” Ruffini wrote.
Democrats, Ruffini added, are often associated with “the party of people living a single, cramped, city-dwelling apartment-bound life — so people who aspire to bigger things don’t think they can deliver them.”
In other words, in the Democrats’ prevailing messaging, you can forget about that Ford F-Series truck. (Which happens to be the best-selling American vehicle, per Car and Driver.) That message has been heard, it seems, to the detriment of the Democratic Party.
Chickens are cheap these days, perhaps too much so because of factory farming. “An F-150 in every driveway,” however, has a lot to say for it as a political slogan — especially with gas prices expected to decline in the coming weeks.
How bad has profanity gotten?
Profanity use by politicians has gotten so bad that even Tom Nichols is calling it out in The Atlantic. “Elected officials cursing is a spreading epidemic, and it has to stop. I say this as someone who loves to swear," he wrote.
Nichols, you might recall, is the writer who once described J.D. Vance as an expletive in that magazine in 2021. “Here, I must admit that I have been part of the problem,” he now says, even while continuing to swear in his anti-swearing piece.
Nichols says that his use of the expletive to describe Vance was OK because it was a one-off, and carefully considered, not a pattern of speech. (National Review’s Charles C.W. Cooke said much the same when he used the same word to describe Joe Biden in 2023.)
To which I’d say, every snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.
For the tide to turn, we need leaders and thought leaders who can make points without stooping to use profanity, and who don’t tolerate it from others.
We just lost one.
Charlie Kirk didn’t allow profanity on his show, and even people filling in for him on The Charlie Kirk Show have been asked not to curse. Perhaps the “I am Charlie” crowd could carry this torch going forward.
Recommended reading
I’m not the only person who needed a tissue while watching videos of the Israeli hostages being reunited with their families. Samuel J. Abrams wrote a beautiful essay about one such reunion, and the spontaneous cry that came from a father.
“It was not staged or ceremonial. It was instinctive, ancient and utterly human; it was a cry of faith that seemed to rise from somewhere deeper than words. Watching the clip, shared by VIN News, I felt the weight of history in that sound. The father’s voice carried both agony and awe. It was as if all of Jewish history — its losses and its perseverance — spoke through him in that instant."
The hug, the Shema and the covenant: The meaning of father’s cry for his hostage son
Yes, the past week has been all about peace, but Jay Evensen notes that future warfare won’t look like it did in the past. Across the world, for example, countries are dealing with unauthorized drones entering their airspace.
“On Oct. 2, so many unidentified drones entered Munich airspace that 17 flights were canceled and 15 others were diverted, inconveniencing about 3,000 passengers. The next day, more drones came, forcing the airport to close for a while. Were they Russian, or did someone else stage this just to cause mischief? Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied any intention of attacking NATO countries. Much of Europe is unconvinced.”
If World War III starts, how will we know?
Whether or not you had Monday off, chances are you gave passing thought to Christopher Columbus this week, if only to grumble about the mail not being delivered. Melissa King wondered how her children came to see Columbus as a villain and invites us to look at the explorer with fresh eyes.
“Columbus wasn’t a perfect human being, like most anyone else in history. But it’s easy to take particular incidents out of context and criticize them as inconsistent with contemporary sensibilities. A fair evaluation of Columbus’ own writings and those of his contemporaries reveal a man worthy of our admiration and respect — at least as worthy as most pro athletes, social media influencers, politicians or business tycoons today or in the past."
To understand Columbus, try reading even more about him
End Notes
Marc Thiessen, after The Washington Post published his column that said Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, quipped that the Post now has a conservative opinion section.
No one is going to make that remark about the opinion section of The New York Times, which this week published an essay that — checks notes — encourages families to stop having dinner together.
Erin O. White, in her piece “Why I had to Kill Family Dinner,” complains about how difficult it is to put dinner on the table night after night and that the messaging around family dinner is “intense.”
Now freed from that onerous burden, “Sometimes my wife and I eat cheese and crackers while we play mahjong on the porch and our daughter eats a burrito in her room after tennis practice.” She suggests that families who give up family dinner might find new traditions — like watching TV with a bowl of ice cream or a bag of chips.
I read the piece with the full range of expressions that go across the faces of the “Diaper Diplomacy” babies on X. The fact is, the messaging about family dinner is intense, and it’s because research has shown that this time does matter, for both children and adults. Family dinner is work, to be sure, but there are so many ways to make it easier, from takeout meals to asking other family members to help.
Moreover, take it from a mom with a nearly empty nest, Ms. White will one day wish for a do-over of all those evenings that she let her daughter eat alone in her room — not just because she’s willingly giving up precious time with her child, but because eating alone is an insidious habit that’s becoming all too common in America.
More family dinners, less eating potato chips in front of the TV, I say.
We can do hard things.