Democrat push to expand government, inject race alienates 2022 swing voters, polling shows

Newt Gingrich, who crafted the Contract with America that upset Washington's political status quo a quarter century ago, has quietly been conducting one of the most extensive polling operations ever of swing voters ahead of the 2022 election. His takeaway: Democrats' big government, race-focused and America-disparaging agenda could bust the fragile coalition that put Joe Biden in power last November.

His polling, shared with Just the News, shows Americans overwhelmingly think the United States is the greatest county in history, prefer free-market capitalism to big government socialism, reject the premise of critical race theory that skin color is a predeterminant to success, and oppose defunding the police.

In other words, Democrats have overreached with an agenda that this week alone will put $4.5 trillion in government expansion on the table in Congress with a series of critical Biden agenda votes.

"With Biden's election, the left went crazy," Gingrich explained in a recent interview on John Solomon Reports podcast. "They totally misunderstood what had happened [in 2020], and they decided this was their moment to go out and be who they really are, which for most Americans is pretty horrifying, frankly. And the result was they took a series of steps that I think are unsustainable."

The former House Speaker is now taking the survey data, assembled by Donald Trump pollster John McLaughlin in August, to begin training Republicans prepping for the 2022 election on what language to use with voters. His top advice: Relentlessly draw a distinction between the "free-market capitalism" touted by conservatives and the "big government socialism" inherent in the Biden plan.

"You need all six words," he cautioned. "If it's capitalism versus socialism, capitalism wins, but not by a decisive margin. But if it's free market capitalism versus big government socialism, it's a 59% to 16% issue. And that changes everything."

Gingrich's extensive polling focused on swing voters, those who don't reliably vote just Democrat or Republican but have an independent streak to them. You can read his entire findings here:

In that voter world, all the current talking down and disparagement of America on the left comes with a huge political price, he said. That's because 84% of swing voters believe that "the United States of America is the greatest country on earth," and they prefer free-market capitalism to big government socialism by an 82% to 18% margin.

Similarly, 69% of swing voters agreed that "the big government socialists are taking over from the traditional moderate Democrats and now define the Democratic Party," compared to just 31% percent who disagreed.

Getting rid of cops or defunding police as part of the social justice movement? That didn't fare well either: 68% of swing voters declared police need more funding and training, while only 31% believed funding should be redirected from police to social services. Similarly, 69% said they believed the recent spike in violent crime was caused by the "undermining of law and order and disrespect of our police officers."

The survey also showed strong opposition to the underpinnings of the critical race theory that many Democrats and their teacher union allies want taught in schools. That doctrine teaches that America is an inherently racist society in which whites are oppressors and minoritires are the oppressed.

But 80% of swing voters said they wanted schools to "teach young people to treat people the same no matter their skin color," while only 20% thought young people should be taught "to consider people's racial experience in how they treat people."

Gingrich said the message in the swing voter polls needs to be "driven home until it becomes the brand of the New Democratic Party, which is a Bernie Sanders, big government socialist party."

Many Democrats dismiss such concerns, insisting their agenda remains popular, especially among young people. The Atlantic magazine, a bellwether of the new left, declared this past weekend the progressive movement has already won by shifting the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

"In the battle for ideological supremacy in the Democratic Party, the progressives have already won," wrote the magazine's Russell Berman. "Biden was indeed a proud moderate during his three and a half decades as a senator, but he has fallen in firmly with the progressives as president. He's embraced the agenda championed by the likes of his former rivals Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren."