This has the benefit of being true:
“This is a ‘rip your opponent’s face off’ election for us,” said one Democratic campaign manager. “It’s clear from polling that Americans don’t like the policies that got us into this mess and they do not blame Obama for what started it. They blame him for not doing more about it, which they have every right to do. That means we have to make the other choice unbearable. You need money to do that.”
Democrats have the money; the DCCC has about twice the cash on hand of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the party is already investing in state and local affiliates. The DCCC’s early ad reservation was much bigger than the NRCC’s initial buy, announced — but not yet made — this week. If they use that money edge not only to make the election a choice, but to make it a choice in which the Republican is an unacceptable option, Democrats will save seats.
A normal citizen, presented with both sides of the argument at equal volume, is not going to find the Republicans’ case plausible or attractive. Plus, half of them really are crazy.
The strength of the Republican obstruction has been their lockstep party discipline.
The fact that every one of them voted the same way is their biggest weakness.
They will all survive together or all go down together, just like in 2006.
Surely there are some Democratic campaign folks smart enough to figure out how to use this vulnerability.
On the other side of the ledger, there will be a lot of Democratic incumbents asserting their independence of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi and showcasing when they broke with party discipline.
I don’t know. I’m coming to think that the Dems need to adopt the Rove playbook of scaring the shit out of people. They’re already scared and when they are scared the GOP is where they look for economic “expertise and wisdom”. Reagan cemented the notion that only the Right and the wealthy know what’s best for the economy because, well, that’s how they go rich.
The buy outs and unemployment benefits and HCR should never have been compassion, doing the right thing, getting people healthier, etc. It should have been about doing it because it was the best fucking thing for the economy and would make EVERYONE richer.
Buy outs suck, but you know what, the policies of the past made them necessary, so necessary that things are so fucked up that we need far more stimulus that you poor common man could possible understand.
But those fucked up policies made some folks really stinking ugly rich and this downturn isn’t hurting them a bit. So they, NOT the rest of us are going to have to pay and pay a lot to fix it. Don’t worry though, these new tax dollars they have to pay would not have been invested by them to create jobs or buy stuff to stimulate the economy. It would have been socked away in some safe security, probably tax sheltered off shore somewhere. One why or the other the rich stay rich. That’s why they are rich. But we don’t have help them and it is time they helped the rest of us.
Right now, slam that trickle down economics is IRRELEVANT because everyone is so worried about their jobs there is almost no demand in the economy. Set policies that encourage companies to keep and create jobs. And destroy the GOP for anything that isn’t maximum effort in this.
Worried about the deficit? Good you should be. Know how much worse it would be if we did nothing? Keeping the Bush tax cuts on the top 1% would add $31B A YEAR to the deficit. Wanna do that? Not funding improvement/maintenance of infrastructure will add $XB due to lost productivity and lower revenues. Not doing what REALLY ought to be done with HCR will add $YB in missed Medicare/Medicaid savings.
Call this stuff scary socialist agendas. Call Bullshit. You what Socialism we can show what socialism looks like. These just happens to be really smart, proven economic policies that a lot of the world is using to kick our collective asses while we worry about mosques and birth certificates. Instead America with all its strengths of diversity, individual liberty and enterprise, and economic powere should use these same policies to maintain our position at the top economically, culturally, politically and socially.
In short, don’t bask in your hard won but sub-optimal successes and blame the GOP for not doing what really was needed. Things suck and everybody knows it. Tell them how bad and scary the possibilities are if the GOP are allowed anywhere near the controls to our economy.