Democrats have to fight with themselves to fight against Republicans (while Republicans fight Democrats constantly)

I worry about this, too.

Why couldn't I sleep last night?

I couldn't stop thinking about the authoritarian nightmare that awaits our country if @JoeBiden and Democrats in Congress fail to deliver big for working-class people in this brief window they have.

— Jonathan Smucker (@jonathansmucker) February 26, 2021

On the other hand, Rick Perlstein notes that Biden-Harris Administration has the opportunity with COVID relief and vaccinations to be the ones who made it possible for people to hug their grandkids again. In this case, even doing a job "not as bad as Trump" has the potential to pay big political dividends. (Rick talks about this in his recent interview with Rick Perlstein, Rumble #167: he Middle Of The Road Is Deadly 02/25/2021)

Paul Krugman has been pointing out for the last year or so that once the virus recedes as a major public health threat to the point where more normal economic activity can resume, the economy is likely to enjoy a significant and relatively quick upturn.

Of course, discussions about these possibilities always feature not only Republican obstructionist slogans but economists' jargon, as well. Part of the latter is the distinction between "relief" and "stimulus," a distinction that means something to economists but is more-or-less unintelligible to everyone else. But Krugman explains in these two Substack columns, Nonstimulus arithmetic Why the American Rescue Plan has to be big 02/09/2021 and Cooling it on overheating 02/21/2021.

Especially if the COVID relief bill is followed by a substantial infrastructure bill this year, that should be a powerful boost to the Democrats in 2022.

But the Democrats are notoriously clumsy with their messaging, even when they do something very popular. And they need to do better than they did in 2009-2010 during the Obama-Biden Administration. There's a current fight over the $15 minimum wage within the Democratic Party that's an important moment in Democratic messaging. See the TYT petition Don't Kill It, Bernie. Theres 'a hashtag #DontKillItBernie

Sam Seder and his crew talk about this Democratic problem with messaging in this Majority Report segment, How About Those $2000 Checks, Joe!? 02/26/2021:

Results are critically important. But the Democrats really need much better messaging on their actual achievements, too.