”Lessons Learned from the Alito Fight”

Cenk Uygur, one of The Young Turks, has this on The Huffington Post. He argues that as long as the Democrats neglect to deal with the issue of agreeing on a “message” and “framing” their positions, the oppositon will defeat them every time, even though they have persuasive points of view on the issues.

Executive Summary:

“1. There is no organization on the left side of the political spectrum. None. If the Democratic politicians, the old established DC groups and the liberal media (blogs and radio shows) don’t come together, they will continue to lose every single fight.

2. The reason they will lose every fight is because every issue is settled the minute it is framed.

The framing happens immediately on the Republican side. The White House and Fox News Channel coordinate (as they are on the NSA warrantless spying scandal right now). Then every other conservative host, “journalist,” and commentator follows suit. Once the frame is set, it’s game set and match.

The Republican frame in Alito was that he was a well-qualified, mainstream, devoted and hard working judge who would interpret the law and not make it. The Democratic frame was ??? Nada. Zippo. No response whatsoever.

3. Once the Republican framing goes unchallenged, the media repeats it as if it is fact. If you do not counter attack in the media, you have no chance in persuading the public. Do the Democrats think the voters are going to get their point of view by telepathy?

4. The easy next step is to do a poll (sometimes by completely biased polling groups like Rasmussen and sometimes by legit polling organizations). The poll will show that the public supports the Republican position by a slight majority. It’s amazing that it is only a slight lead on most issues when the other side hasn’t even presented its case (and often times the Democratic position will win despite all these problems). Could you imagine if there were trials where only one of the lawyers spoke? Which side do you think would win more often?

5. Then comes my favorite step. Shove the poll in the Democrats face and tell them that they have no hope of winning and that the public is against them. Even more importantly, that they will lose their elections if they don’t run to the “center” by supporting the Republican position instead. They will claim that the poll is definitive evidence that the public does not support their position so they better get on board with the Republicans otherwise they’ll do to them what they did to Tom Daschle.

6. Then the most pathetic part comes. When the Democratic representatives start to cave in, quiver and repeat the same talking points used against them (Biden and Obama last weekend were the perfect examples as they argued forcefully against a filibuster they were going to vote with). They internalize the Republican messaging, start to panic and then, finally, turn against each other.

7. At which point, the base of the Democratic Party — otherwise known as the people who voted them into office — gets pissed. The normal people who vote Democratic but aren’t intimately familiar with DC, can’t understand why their elected representatives won’t represent them. They are left constantly confused as to why their leaders sound more and more like Republicans and won’t fight for their principles. So, they send angry responses to their politicians demanding them to actually stand for what they promised they were going to stand for.

8. Here comes another funny part. Then the Republicans point disapprovingly and tell the Democrats that their own base is crazy, radical and can’t be trusted. If they “pander” to their base, they will lose all the mythical Republicans who vote for them in red states. Aren’t the Republicans so helpful? They just want to help a brother out. Meanwhile, they keep appealing more and more to their base. I wonder why they don’t worry about losing the “center.”

After the Republicans convince the Democrats that their constituency is the “loony left” or the “far left,” the Democrats derisively dismiss their own voters. Thereby making their base even angrier. And on and on the cycle goes.

9. Final result is that the Democrats have been sorely outplayed. They have switched positions in the middle and criticized their own stance and their own voters. So, when the elections roll around, the Republicans say the Democrats are “flip-floppers” and “wafflers” and “weak.” They convince the electorate to vote for them instead because they are strong and mean what they say.

10. Democrats sink further and further into a hole and come out convinced they have to work harder at appealing to the “middle” in the next elections. And this whole charade is complete when the Republicans get together privately after an election and laugh their ass off at how incompetent, weak and clueless the Democrats are.”

Cross-posted at www.seattlefordean.com and www.howieinseattle.com.

”Lessons Learned from the Alito Fight”

Cenk Uygur, one of The Young Turks, has this on The Huffington Post. He argues that as long as the Democrats neglect to deal with the issue of agreeing on a “message” and “framing” their positions, the oppositon will defeat them every time, even though they have persuasive points of view on the issues.

Executive Summary:

“1. There is no organization on the left side of the political spectrum. None. If the Democratic politicians, the old established DC groups and the liberal media (blogs and radio shows) don’t come together, they will continue to lose every single fight.

2. The reason they will lose every fight is because every issue is settled the minute it is framed.

The framing happens immediately on the Republican side. The White House and Fox News Channel coordinate (as they are on the NSA warrantless spying scandal right now). Then every other conservative host, “journalist,” and commentator follows suit. Once the frame is set, it’s game set and match.

The Republican frame in Alito was that he was a well-qualified, mainstream, devoted and hard working judge who would interpret the law and not make it. The Democratic frame was ??? Nada. Zippo. No response whatsoever.

3. Once the Republican framing goes unchallenged, the media repeats it as if it is fact. If you do not counter attack in the media, you have no chance in persuading the public. Do the Democrats think the voters are going to get their point of view by telepathy?

4. The easy next step is to do a poll (sometimes by completely biased polling groups like Rasmussen and sometimes by legit polling organizations). The poll will show that the public supports the Republican position by a slight majority. It’s amazing that it is only a slight lead on most issues when the other side hasn’t even presented its case (and often times the Democratic position will win despite all these problems). Could you imagine if there were trials where only one of the lawyers spoke? Which side do you think would win more often?

5. Then comes my favorite step. Shove the poll in the Democrats face and tell them that they have no hope of winning and that the public is against them. Even more importantly, that they will lose their elections if they don’t run to the “center” by supporting the Republican position instead. They will claim that the poll is definitive evidence that the public does not support their position so they better get on board with the Republicans otherwise they’ll do to them what they did to Tom Daschle.

6. Then the most pathetic part comes. When the Democratic representatives start to cave in, quiver and repeat the same talking points used against them (Biden and Obama last weekend were the perfect examples as they argued forcefully against a filibuster they were going to vote with). They internalize the Republican messaging, start to panic and then, finally, turn against each other.

7. At which point, the base of the Democratic Party — otherwise known as the people who voted them into office — gets pissed. The normal people who vote Democratic but aren’t intimately familiar with DC, can’t understand why their elected representatives won’t represent them. They are left constantly confused as to why their leaders sound more and more like Republicans and won’t fight for their principles. So, they send angry responses to their politicians demanding them to actually stand for what they promised they were going to stand for.

8. Here comes another funny part. Then the Republicans point disapprovingly and tell the Democrats that their own base is crazy, radical and can’t be trusted. If they “pander” to their base, they will lose all the mythical Republicans who vote for them in red states. Aren’t the Republicans so helpful? They just want to help a brother out. Meanwhile, they keep appealing more and more to their base. I wonder why they don’t worry about losing the “center.”

After the Republicans convince the Democrats that their constituency is the “loony left” or the “far left,” the Democrats derisively dismiss their own voters. Thereby making their base even angrier. And on and on the cycle goes.

9. Final result is that the Democrats have been sorely outplayed. They have switched positions in the middle and criticized their own stance and their own voters. So, when the elections roll around, the Republicans say the Democrats are “flip-floppers” and “wafflers” and “weak.” They convince the electorate to vote for them instead because they are strong and mean what they say.

10. Democrats sink further and further into a hole and come out convinced they have to work harder at appealing to the “middle” in the next elections. And this whole charade is complete when the Republicans get together privately after an election and laugh their ass off at how incompetent, weak and clueless the Democrats are.”

Cross-posted at www.seattlefordean.com and www.howieinseattle.com.

Your Choice: ”Maria is not The Enemy”

I just received the following from Dwight Pelz [PHOTO CENTER], our newly elected Washington State Democratic Chair.




(PHOTO: From Progressive Majority of Washington State site)


“Re: ”Maria is not The Enemy”

The Right Wing Republicans that control Washington DC are committed to eliminating the Middle Class in America. They want to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pensions, and our employer-based health care system. They do not believe in public education, or access to higher education for low income students. They do not believe in building mass transit systems, or in repairing roads and bridges. They do not believe that Global Warming is a problem, nor that clean air and clean water are an amenity to our quality of life. They oppose a woman’s right to choose, and civil rights for all Americans. They have judges like Alito lined up like Seahawk fans seeking Super Bowl tickets. They wage a senseless, immoral war in Iraq, while needlessly provoking international tensions in countless other locations. They are pursuing a titanic shift in income allocation in America from the middle class to the very rich, and they intend to saddle generations with mountains of debt.

They hope that Maria Cantwell is defeated in seven months.

Your Choice.

Dwight Pelz

Update [2006-2-3 19:49:12 by howieinseattle]: Goldy from Horsesass.org looks at Cantwell’s voting record as well her current opponent’s recent political history and chimes in from a different angle, with the same recommendation.

Cross-posted at www.seattlefordean.com and www.howieinseattle.com.


From the Dwight Pelz for State Chair campaign site. Pelz was elected last weekend.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The biggest challenge in my view is that there’s this buckin’ bronco grassroots activism right now, and it’s exciting and, oh, it’s going to be such a challenge to keep all these people together and herded and focused and moving in the right direction. That’s a huge challenge.”-from the interview with Paul Berendt, recently retired Chair of the Washington State Democrats. In this interview in Real Change, he talks about “Iraq, the president, and liberals resurgent.”

Cross-posted at www.seattlefordean.com and www.howieinseattle.com.

The “State of the Union” in Iraq

“This March will mark the beginning of the 4th year of the war in Iraq. In contrast, U.S. involvement in WWI came to an end after 19 months. Victory in Europe was declared in WWII after 3 years 5 months. In the Korean War, a cease-fire was signed after 3 years and 1 month. But after more than three and a half years into the war in Iraq, your administration finally produced what is called a “Plan for Victory” in Iraq.” -from John Murtha’s “Letter To The President,” on The Huffington Post. Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the tip, where you can also view video of Murtha on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” with Wolf Blitzer.

And from Iraq today, via Riverbend on her blog Baghdad Burning, comes this:

“Americans write to me wondering, “But where are the educated Iraqis? Why didn’t they vote for secular parties?” The educated Iraqis have been systematically silenced since 2003. They’ve been pressured and bullied outside of the country. They’ve been assassinated, detained, tortured and abducted. Many of them have lost faith in the possibility of a secular Iraq.”

Cross-posted at www.seattlefordean.com and www.howieinseattle.com.

QUOTE OF THE DAY/”Maria is not The Enemy”

“Today, Senators who voted for cloture are going to vote against the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. And when Lincoln Chafee, Maria Cantwell, Herbert Kohl, Blanche Lincoln, and Jay Rockefeller, as well as all the others run for re-election, they can say, “Look, I said ‘No.'” But that “no” matters so little as the very issues they say caused them to vote that way – the power of the presidency, abortion rights, the right to privacy, the favoring of corporations – are turned against them time and again. Yeah, they voted against Alito, but there’s a starving, beaten prisoner in Gitmo, a pregnant teenage girl in Nebraska, a coal mining family in West Virginia who are all gonna be the ones fucked because of such cowardly courage. And when they say they voted against Alito, someone’s gonna be smart enough to say, “Hey, Maria, if it’s such a big fuckin’ deal, why didn’t you join the filibuster?””-from The Rude Pundit.

Howie Opinion: Going to Drinking Liberally last night, it became clear to me that Maria is more like a friend who has let you down from time to time, not a person to bitterly oppose and struggle against. That would be her Republican opponent. That does not mean we hide our differences, particularly as we communicate with her. But I don’t want to give “the enemy” any more ammunition to use against her this fall. I know this is not an opinion that all of us share, but I wanted to clarify my point of view, particularly in the wake of the Alito filibuster vote and QUOTE OF THE DAY (above).

Cross-posted at www.seattlefordean.com and www.howieinsettle.com.

”Get Up, Stand Up”

“Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right (3 times)
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight

Preacher man don’t tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don’t know what life is really worth
Is not all that glitters in gold and
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light, aay
Stand up for your right. Come on

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
(Repeat)

Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away ev’rything, and make ev’rybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah!

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up. Life is your right
So we can’t give up the fight
Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord
Get Up, Stand Up. Keep on struggling on
Don’t give up the fight

We’re sick and tired of your ism and skism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus’ name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can’t fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our right

So you’d better get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight.”-from the song by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

”Get Up, Stand Up”

“Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right (3 times)
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight

Preacher man don’t tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don’t know what life is really worth
Is not all that glitters in gold and
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light, aay
Stand up for your right. Come on

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
(Repeat)

Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away ev’rything, and make ev’rybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah!

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up. Life is your right
So we can’t give up the fight
Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord
Get Up, Stand Up. Keep on struggling on
Don’t give up the fight

We’re sick and tired of your ism and skism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus’ name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can’t fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our right

So you’d better get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight.”-from the song by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

”Get Up, Stand Up”

“Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right (3 times)
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight

Preacher man don’t tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don’t know what life is really worth
Is not all that glitters in gold and
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light, aay
Stand up for your right. Come on

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
(Repeat)

Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away ev’rything, and make ev’rybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah!

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up. Life is your right
So we can’t give up the fight
Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord
Get Up, Stand Up. Keep on struggling on
Don’t give up the fight

We’re sick and tired of your ism and skism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus’ name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can’t fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our right

So you’d better get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight.”-from the song by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.

”Get Up, Stand Up”

“Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right (3 times)
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight

Preacher man don’t tell me heaven is under the earth
I know you don’t know what life is really worth
Is not all that glitters in gold and
Half the story has never been told
So now you see the light, aay
Stand up for your right. Come on

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
(Repeat)

Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away ev’rything, and make ev’rybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah!

Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up. Life is your right
So we can’t give up the fight
Stand up for your right, Lord, Lord
Get Up, Stand Up. Keep on struggling on
Don’t give up the fight

We’re sick and tired of your ism and skism game
Die and go to heaven in Jesus’ name, Lord
We know when we understand
Almighty God is a living man
You can fool some people sometimes
But you can’t fool all the people all the time
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our right

So you’d better get up, stand up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight
Get Up, Stand Up, stand up for your right
Get Up, Stand Up, don’t give up the fight.”-from the song by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh.