President Biden’s State of the Union last week was remarkable. Not just as a piece of theater but as a reset of the Democratic Party, in an attempt to return to its roots. The words “woke” or discussion of polarizing social issues like trans rights, etc that might motivate donors but have provided diminishing returns electorally were mostly absent from his speech.

Instead the President took the economic and foreign relations fight to the GOP. The GOP despite being a party dominated by grifters and elites has played phony progressive-populist these last few years while in the pockets of wealthy donors, lobbyists and malign forces from abroad.

Biden’s speech was effective per my anecdotal evidence- those who tuned in and were previously unhappy with Democrats on economics (but not obsessed with things like sympathy for Russia, and opposition to vaccines like elements of the alt-left) came away realizing the working person’s best interests once again are represented by President Biden and by extension his party. It was a real Democratic speech – a return to New Deal/Great Society norms.

Many state-based Democrats in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania have also returned the party to its roots by focusing on working class “lunch pail” issues. Privately, I have lamented that Florida Democrats at the highest levels of the party seem to always take the bait from Ron DeSantis and the GOP in this state and in turn sound whiny and completely out-of-touch on social issues. Publicly we’ve called them out on it also.

Can Democrats in Florida take this cue and recalibrate the party’s messaging going into November? Or is the Democratic brand in Florida too associated with elite money interests (who happen to give MORE to GOPers) and wealthy suburbanites driven by social issues to make this pivot? Or will they keep reacting to DeSantis and his ilk, instead of ignoring them or redirecting the discussion? Time will tell.

We will of course closely monitor this at TFS.

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