There is a lot of commentary out there about what Tuesday night was or wasn’t in terms of the results. Most of that commentary focuses in on a single issue or a small set of issues, but the reality of Tuesday night is that it was a complete collapse of the Democrats to make any connection whatsoever with the voters who chose them over Donald Trump in 2020, as well as many of their own voters.

Nationally, the Democrats have adopted a strategy of keeping what happened on January 6, 2021, at the forefront of Americans’ minds. They have done some polling that suggests the voters want Congress to investigate what happened, and they are interpreting that as people believe there was a threat to American democracy on that day. But the data we have from Tuesday night suggests the opposite, that people are much more focused on the issues affecting them directly. Like I said yesterday, all politics is local.

Truth be told, I have heard that some GOP internal polling also suggests voters want Congress to investigate, but the GOP has taken that to mean they want Congress to hurry up and be done with it, because the voters see it as a distraction. Whatever the case may be, January 6, 2021, did not play much of a role in the election results in Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere.

The Democrats’ completely failed to connect with voters in part because they are focused on issues very distant to the voters right now. It may have had more of an impact if national Democrats weren’t currently presiding over major economic issues like the supply chain shortages, inflation, and the resulting price hikes in just about every facet of the American consumer’s life. But with all of these economic woes topped off by growing discontent with how public education is being run, there was no chance that the so-called insurrection would have had any sort of impact.

The Democrats insist that 1/6 is a day that will live in infamy. It was certainly disgraceful behavior and the people who trespassed in the Capitol, those who erected makeshift gallows and planted explosives at the DNC and RNC, and those who vandalized federal property should be ashamed of it. But the idea that this was some attempted insurrection and overthrow of the U.S. government is laughable. It was attention-seeking live-action role players who were playing at disrupting government.

So much for that, as Congress was back in session hours later, certifying the election results.

Now a 10-month-old issue, the 1/6 riot is far from the minds of most Americans. Those who are still aware of it as an issue do not seem to care nearly as much as paying nearly double at the pump than they were ten months ago. They seem more focused on the fact that they can’t buy the items they need at home, from groceries to vehicles. They are definitely more concerned with what is happening in their kids’ schools.

The Democrats’ problem, however, is that they have no other options. Their own governance is not alleviating the problem, and they have absolutely failed to deliver any legislation they can claim is relief. They can’t even make the case to it, and polling is showing that voters don’t see how the Democrats’ legislation will help them.

https://t.co/4Uk9o5XkKu pic.twitter.com/xvuShFCyy2

— VK (@vjeannek) November 4, 2021

They are, at this moment, completely unable to connect with voters in any way, and relying on a riot that took place ten months ago is not helping them. There is no other strategy other than to wait out the economic crisis, and that won’t help their already incredibly poor chances at holding on in 2022.