Media forced to admit democracy not on ballot

CNN anchors Tuesday admitted that despite the Democratic Party’s months-long harangue that “democracy is on the ballot” because Republicans are a “threat to democracy,” democracy failed to place among the top five issues for voters. 

“Democracy is literally on the ballot,” Biden said Saturday. “This is a defining moment for the nation and we all, we all must speak with one voice." 

“Democracy itself is on the ballot. The stakes are high,” said Obama the same day. 

"Make no mistake: Democracy is on the ballot for all of us," Biden said last Wednesday. 

“Democracy is on the ballot and unfortunately, it’s going to lose,” Bill Maher said on his show Real Time Friday. 

“How Democracy Itself Ended Up on the Ballot in Wisconsin,” read a New York Times headline yesterday. 

“Democracy is on the ballot,” tweeted disgraced activist organization The Lincoln Project. 

But as CNN was forced to admit during a Tuesday evening panel involving Chris Wallace, Dana Bash, Jake Tapper, Abbie Phillip and Kasie Hunt, democracy was not, in fact, on the ballot. 

Hunt expressed surprise when she discovered that voters cared about different issues than the media or White House had believed. 

“The numbers in these exits do not line up with what we were seeing in the polling data going into this election about what people cared about and the order in which they ranked it,” Hunt said. “So we have had a lot of questions throughout this time about new voters, people that hadn’t been in there before that were perhaps not getting captured by the polling. So maybe this is a sign that we’re going to see a little bit more of that than we expected. We obviously don’t know yet.” 

“And you know what’s missing from these one, two, three, four, five, top five issues?” Bash asked before answering her own question. “Democracy.” 

“Oh, yeah,” Tapper agreed. 

“It’s not even in here,” Bash continued, adding, “That’s not to say that it’s not an issue for people, but it doesn’t even come close.” 

“It’s not the issue,” Tapper added. 
 

In fact, while 71% of Americans believe democracy is under threat, 84% believe that threat is the mainstream media, and 66% believe it is the federal government, according to a New York Times/Sienna poll. 

And according to a Harvard-Harris poll reported by America’s Frontline News last month, the issues Americans care about are price increases/inflation (37%), economy and jobs (29%), and immigration (23%). The “threat to democracy by MAGA Republicans” was third to last on voter issues. Only 7% of respondents consider January 6th an “important issue,” but 27% believe it is the number one issue for Democratic leadership.