As the dust settles on Democrats' downballot failures, it's becoming increasingly clear that the attempt to throw activists under the bus is a panicky attempt to cover for inexplicable, systemic failures by Democratic leaders and campaign committees. https://twitter.com/ShaneGoldmacher/status/1334870858196774917

This. When you run a top-down system out of DC where leaders hand-pick the candidates and micro-manage the message - and when those candidates are powered by unheard-of sums of cash - you’re accountable when those candidates and their message fails. Dems had no economic message. https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1334879140680523778

The lack of economic message was noted at the convention. Biden ramped up with “Scranton v Wall Street” but downballot Dems had no discernible econ message. Focus on health care was reminiscent of 2014 when Dem attempts to re-run “war on women” fell flat. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/democratic-conventions-big-blind-spot-economy/615547/