Greg Sargent says we need to do a better job of demonizing Republicans:
With President Biden’s approval rating tanking, we’re getting constant reports about the handwringing internal debate among Democrats over how to turn things around for the midterms. Yet something is largely missing from this discussion: a serious effort to ask whether Democrats might go much further than they currently are in prosecuting an effective public case against ongoing GOP radicalization.
In one sense, Greg is missing something here: Democrats already have a long history of demonizing Republicans, just not in quite the way he's imagining. Just ask any Republican who's been the target of ads about cuts to Medicare:
That one is famous for going a wee bit too far, but it's generally the case that Democrats demonize Republicans for supporting cuts to social welfare programs. And it works: the public is pretty much convinced that Republicans hate poor people.
Now, in this case Greg is thinking about things like mask hysteria and CRT nonsense. But the question is whether topics like this are salient to the voters who matter: those who are likely to change their minds. They certainly aren't salient to either Republicans or Democrats, who already have strong opinions about these things. But there's some good news! Independents support mask mandates and are therefore potential targets of Democratic efforts to demonize Republicans for putting us all at risk. The problem is that I suspect this is a very low-salience topic. Very few Independents are going to base their vote on opposition to mask mandates no matter how hard Democrats try.
And the news on CRT is even worse. Nobody may know what CRT really is, but Indies oppose teaching it. You can't successfully demonize Republicans for this if most people are on their side in the first place. In swing districts, even plenty of Democrats oppose teaching CRT in public schools.
For reasons that we could discuss at length, it's really hard to demonize Republicans. For years they've represented wildly irresponsible views, the worst of which at the moment is the conviction that Democrats stole the 2020 election and that justifies passing new laws that give Republicans more power to count votes. That's about as bad as it gets, and even so most non-Democrats don't consider it a big deal.
So the right question to ask is: If even something this alarming produces little more than a yawn outside the ranks of Democrats, what the hell would it take to make people genuinely afraid of Republicans?
This is a question I've been pondering for years and I still come up blank. The simplest answer, I think, is that Republicans are generally conservative in the literal sense: they want things to stay the same, and extremism in the defense of doing nothing just doesn't bother most people. Conversely, it's easy to demonize Democrats: liberals want to change things, and extreme changes are scary as hell. So liberals are working under a handicap from the start.
As you can see, Democrats have been successful at making liberalism more popular over the years, but they've been distinctly unsuccessful at making people hate conservatism: self-IDed conservatives amounted to 36% of the population in 1992 and amount to . . . 36% of the population today.
I'm completely in agreement with Greg that we should try to make more people fear Republicans. I'm just not sure how.
All of my grand kids and their friends, [all voting age], have an opinion of climate change. Perhaps this is an avenue for a new approach to demonizing the do-nothing R's?
Between a Democrat Party apparatus agitating for conversion to non-fossil fuel energy production & greater adoption of LEED principles in construction & the earth-friendly policy of former Rep. Bob Inglis, both parties have climate-facing agenda.
I believe Karl Rove had it right: attack your opponent's strengths. Republicans have demonstrated that they hate and despise the constitutional order. They literally attacked it and are trying to act like it's no big deal.
Democrats need to hammer this every day: Republicans hate the constitution. They attacked. It's not debatable. It just is.
Yes. With today's Republicans (emphasize that these guys ain't your grand-dad's Republicans), their idea of elections is "One man, one vote, one time." Like bindweed, once Republicans take over your government, you'll never be rid of them, regardless of how you try to vote them out.
... On second thought, lots of people would really love this. Scratch that slogan.
In fact, could prolly get Amy Coney-Barrett, Amy Chua, Laura Ingraham, & J.D. Antivaxxx's Hindoo betrothed on board with repealing women's suffrage.
Yes. That's perfect. Drill them over and over and over and over as "bad people," using specific (and true, of course) accusations. Use images and soundbites of the insurrection, of Trump, whatever, to show how Republicans "have desecrated and are destroying the Constitution"....even better, go for the jugular and rip them for "hating freedom and liberty" and "stealing elections" by hammering them with the specifics of voter suppression. Over and over and over again. The language and images are critical - you MUST turn their own language and imagery against them without mercy.
Also: 'Democrats are capable adults and Republicans are incompetent, pathetic children.' Not "wrong," or "mistaken," or any weak ****. No - pathetic, helpless children. Soft on crime. Lovers of dictators and despots. Etc. "Democratic competence delivers; Republican incompetence fails." They are weak, incompetent, failures. Period. It's not just that Democrats tie one hand behind their backs by refusing to play hardball; they send unmistakable signals of weakness that everyone - not just low info voters - picks up on.
This is bigger than winning any single election. The problem is the crippling inability of national Democrats to fight like they mean it. Policy changes the world, but politics births policy. Democrats need to get this through their collective thick skulls. Fight like you mean it, m***********s.
Also, to answer myself - you don't stay in this space for long. Get in, etch the point indelibly in the American consciousness, then pivot to business as usual. Repeat as necessary. Preemptive and rapid response. Stochastic and strategic timing. Tell the truth and stick to the facts. Expose the rot at the core of the Republican Party using their own language, imagery, and tactics.
Oh dear lord. Please tell me this isn't some variant of 'messaging'. I would have thought that one would have been discredited long ago.
I never understood why Rove was branded a 'genius'; other than a compliantly supine media he looked middlin' stupid to me.
There are certainly some people and ideas within the current republican party that should be demonized. (And I'm saying this as a republican.) But democrats have made this task more difficult by their penchant for hyperbole and crying wolf. I mean, a few years ago Joe Biden said that if Mitt Romney was elected he was going to put black people in chains. Mitt Romney. How do you now demonize people that really do deserve to be demonized when you've been saying ridiculous things like that?
Actually, it's easy. Just ask Donald Trump who has said the most ridiculous - as well as frequently ugly and hateful - things that any person within miles of the White House has ever said. He makes Lyndon Larouche seem hinged. You can dig up and cherry pick things Democrats have said if that makes you feel better about remaining in what has become a cult if that helps you sleep at night.
Lest you forget the GOP shamelessly beat Benghazi into the ground for several years and sadly it worked and helped elect the lying dirtbag of Queens. I can name literally hundreds of examples of things that the Dems can and should demonize the GOP with starting with the Trump incited insurrection and violent attack on the Capitol on January 6th. That can and should be 24-7 for the Dems. And I don't think it matters that many supposed "moderates" and independents may currently be lukewarm and receptive to the GOP going all in "it's time to move on" . The Dems need to be tenacious and not let it go. Every GOP candidate needs to be asked if he/she believes in our democracy and form of government.
Don't stop. Don't tire. Be patient. Benghazi. It works.
Yes, This.
Agree with you and Wonder Dog.
And btw, the context of Biden's remark matters:
"He's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules - unchain Wall Street!" Biden said. Then he added, "They're going to put you all back in chains" with their economic and regulatory policies.
That's hyperbolic rhetoric for sure but not that remarkable for a political campaign. You can find dozens of examples like that from candidates of all stripes. Try again.
I was going to say, I didn't think joebiden, as gaffe-prone as he is, would have felt safe in 2012 making explicit allusion to the return of Negro Servitude, knowing he was running as VP to our first Black president. & pretty sure, had joebiden still done it, the pushback from the Big Guy would have been immediate. That was why I was pretty sure Atticus had made a Four Pinocchio lie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gII8D-lzbA
“… few years ago Joe Biden said that if Mitt Romney was elected he was going to put black people in chains. “
?????? I musta missed that day of Fox Newz.
It was actually a big story and widely reported. Google it.
It was actually never said, although it was a big lie and widely misreported in right-wing media. Google it.
If you're going to try the bothsidesisms, they need to be factual. Biden was talking to a mixed race audience:
"“Romney wants to let the — he said in the first hundred days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, unchain Wall Street,” Mr. Biden said. “They’re going to put you all back in chains.”"
Please post a link to Biden saying that Romney "was going to put black people in chains."
Take all the time you need.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/joe-biden-put-yall-back-in-chains/
Oh, Atticus will never admit he's wrong about the most blatant and objective untruths. That's why he's, um, 'conservative', as they say these days.
What am I wrong about?
"Vice President Joe Biden has taken a lot of heat...for telling a predominantly black audience that Romney would unchain Wall Street and put them back in chains."
https://www.npr.org/2012/08/16/158943306/on-the-campaign-trail-biden-chained-to-a-stump-speech
I agree in some ways. Calling every Republican or conservative for the past 50 years a "fascist" (which I am sick of hearing) is pathetic, juvenile, and narcissistic, and only feeds a so-called 'leftist's' ego. Too many on the left - and I know some of these folks - have preened a smug, self congratulatory, self righteous, pseudo-revolutionary self image by taking cheap shots at folks who aren't as 'enlightened' as they are. But these folks have historically been nowhere near the mainstream of Democratic politics, and if some Democrats are now speaking with less, umm, restraint it's because the Republican Party has over the past 40 years become the embodiment of every deadly sin known to man. I mean, Trump.
It's less about any single person than the amorality of the Republican and conservative project as a whole. These folks bet everything they had on the dark side in order to maintain and aggrandize power and wealth to a shrinking base, and that is a Faustian bargain. I mean, Trump. So they've ended up exactly where anyone or anything ends up when you sell your soul for worldly gain. And now they're poised to take this country down their black hole with them, and will use any means necessary to do so. So it's the behavior that must be stopped, period. And if some folks are so invested in the behavior that they cannot or will not change, then unfortunately that's their problem. Their choice, their problem.
I think it's not that all GQPers of the last fifty years have been deserving of the term fascist, but since the Goldwater goldbug Council of Concern Citizens cranks triumphed in 64 over Rockefeller, the Party of Lincoln has been proving inexorably that the defeat of Robert Taft's isolationist Fortress America dreams by Eisenhower was less durable than the Volvo Driving Soccer Mom antecedents of the 1950s thought.
In the end, the Party of Eisenhower was always the Party of Charles Lindbergh & Robert Taft, just laying dormant long enough that the comparisons to the Wehrmacht we defeated in 1945 would seem overdone.
https://wapo.st/3Ec5PCf
"This is actually a perennial problem. Every now and then, Democratic strategists and pollsters find themselves faced with a conundrum: Many voters simply refuse to believe Republicans hold the policy positions they actually do hold.
Back in 2012, for instance, Democrats did a focus group and found that voters simply refused to believe that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney supported a plan that would end Medicare as we know it while also cutting taxes for the rich. But he did."
“ Many voters simply refuse to believe Republicans hold the policy positions they actually do hold.”
Whatever gop voters, esp trump voters tell pollsters, I think many of them do believe that gop leaders hold such positions and many gop voters support those positions. But they’d never admit that to a pollster.
Concur w casualt: show repeated scenes of the worst violence from 1/6, like Trump-supporting rioters beating a policeman with a flagpole. Intersperse with fuzzy pictures of, I dunno, Tiananmen Square, or Nuremberg, and borderline-hysterical dialogue about totalitarian takeovers. Cut to stately Mr-Smith scenes with a calm, dignified Joe Biden presiding over an orderly State of the Union, and waving American flags, and calm dialogue about American democracy and freedom. "Why do Republicans hate democracy? Why do they hate our Constitution?"
And as to mask mandates, come on! Show scenes of frantic ICU rescue attempts of a heavily masked patient struggling to breathe. Cut to short clips of COVID sufferers and the survivors of people who died talking plaintively about why vaccines and masks are good. Cut to happy scenes of children being taxed, people enjoying themselves with masks on, and soothing dialogue about health and safety. Why do Republicans want people to die?
This is advertising. You can gin up outrage about anything. Republicans have known this for years. Dems should give it a try.
Sigh. Children being VAXED. Stupid autocorrect. Also, edit function please?
Who cares if the Biden-Harris regime is allowing public inoculation of children when backstage the Democrat Machine is allowing Hillary Climpton to transfuse the youngs's blood into cauldrons in preparation for the Aztec-style deflowering & volcanic sacrifice?
Yes.
Exactly right. None of this has been tried yet. Try it. If Republicans can gin up outrage about a few overwrought anti-racism programs and a few broken Starbucks windows, we can certainly get the public worked up about attempts to overthrow democracy and kill hundreds of thousands in a pandemic for political gain.
Here's a quick look at a "few broken Starbucks windows" from the first night of riots.
https://youtu.be/apzayKr8aMg
Downplaying the dozens of deaths, billions in property damage, and assaults on police officers
...probably not the best way to get Dems elected
Well, no one here is denying that Republican fear-mongering about "riots" is effective. That was in fact the main premise of the discussion.
Not “dozens of deaths”. Nine. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/31/americans-killed-protests-political-unrest-acled
Bingo.
Characterizing Republicans as super predators might work to instill fear in independent voters, but liberals have already used that label to demonize others for political advantage.
I thought the "superpredators" tag from back in the 1980s or whenever was now applied exclusively to Hillary Clinton. That word's toxic, and not in the right ways.
It was attributed to her; she actually was indirectly quoting some criminologists who had applied that characterization. She was actually arguing against the notion that criminality is widespread among African-Americans.
The term was poorly chosen, I suppose, but it really amounts to nothing more than a statement that habitual criminals account for a disproportionate number of crimes; true for any subgroup of society and for the whole population.
Read a suggestion somewhere (maybe here!) with regard to school boards, etc, to just show who Republicans would have decide what your kids will be taught. All those red hat wearing "grab this" shirted zombie hordes.
It’s one thing to demonize Republicans for their policy positions. I think what Sargent and others are suggesting is that Democrats demonize Republicans for their values. The constant refrain on the right, from Fox News to leaders of the Republican Party is that Democrats “hate America.” For right wingers, this is an easy shorthand that explains their opposition to every Democratic policy they don’t like.
Mainstream Democrats, on the other hand, seem to go out of their way to distinguish between “good” Republicans and “bad” Republicans. But, at this point, such distinctions are meaningless.
Since that's exactly 100% appropriate, what, precisely, are your objections?
The definite thing Dems should not do is get the back up of the independents and repulsives. It nearly always backfires. On the other hand, there seems to be little that the dems can do that doesn't rile the repulsives.
Republicans appeal to group instincts that are aroused by racism and religion. Nothing gets people madder or more fearful (often the same thing) than attacks on their group or even major insults. The US had a largely pacifistic attitude through the 30's and was not interested in European conflicts, but this changed instantly with Pearl Harbor. The reaction to 9/11 was somewhat similar - George Bush's favorability went instantly to almost 90% although he had done absolutely nothing constructive himself with regard to the attack.
And when I say nothing, I mean absolutely nothing arouses people like defending the group - people will sacrifice their lives for their country or for their side in a civil war, or even for the sake of lesser groups. Most of the time people are not really doing this for "ideas", it is an instinctive reaction to defend or advance the group. An evolutionary explanation for this is not simple, but that this reaction exists is an undeniable fact.
How can Democrats counter this? They actually can appeal successfully to rational considerations of self-interest, so that most people are in favor of the things in Biden's bills, for example, but this does not change the voting preferences of a large fraction - what many are looking for in politicians is support of their racism and religion. What group could Independent voters - that is swing voters - be convinced that they belong to in common with more liberal voters? That is what would be required to make them hate and fear Republicans.
Democrats simply don't have the coordinated media ecosystem Republicans have to consistently brand themselves -- or Republicans -- one way or another. Press conferences, snarky tweets, and appearing on The Daily Show are never going to compete even remotely with the messaging behemoth Republicans have in Fox, talk radio, and Sinclair broadcasting.
This. They also don't have a MSM that can't refrain from putting its thumb on the scale when things are looking dark for the Repubs.
I stood next to a guy waiting to get into a Sanders rally who was going on and on about how there was no difference between Biden, Hillary and Trump. To the extent, I suppose, the guy wanted to outlaw the New York Stock Exchange he was technically correct, neither of the three were going to do that.
However, anyone who looked into it could see the current US Supreme Court situation coming a mile away, that alone should have been enough for anyone to vote for Hillary over Trump, yet, a significant portion of the Dem vote sat that one out.
And in our system thats all it takes. I would love to have that Sanders guy sit through lunch with some women from Texas and Mississippi and try to tell them that Hillary wouldn't have been any different.
There are plenty of potential Dem voters who need to be reminded about what elected Republicans, from Trump on down, would do.
There is a very small number of independents and disgusted Republicans who are susceptible to the same argument.
During the 2016 election those Sanders guys had no problem telling female Democrats voting for Clinton that they were hysterical b*tches. Many of my female friends had a toxic Bernie Bro interaction from that election.
And the Dem establishment in some states, controlled by the Clinton gang, held caucuses and selection of delegates in ways that screwed over Bernie supporters. …. Had more impact than idiot bros shouting at women.
🙄
True. In several states, backers of both candidates spent time yelling at each other during those meetings, which were always controlled by the Clinton campaign. Old news, sure. But if nobody else brings up 2016, I won’t either.
The lies multiply.
If a state chose its convention delegation by caucus, it was Bernie's supporters who wanted it. & who toxified it.
Bernie wants low turnout Democrat primaries in the same way the GQP wants low turnout general elections.
Sorry, didn't see this one before my reply, and you said it better anyway.
Uh, you don't remember that it was the Sanders organization that insisted on caucuses. I get it when people don't remember the 80's on accounta not being born yet. But this one is in recent memory; just five years ago, in fact.
Of course, you realize what this means for your rep.
Hillary is responsible for Hillary’s loss. The Dem Party and some liberal icons who refused to step aside are responsible, not completely but mostly, for our Supreme Court situation. And it may only get worse cause of another who refuses to step aside.
Prove it.
I still think appeals to plain old patriotism would work. We should be constantly playing tapes of Erdogan's thugs beating up Americans on American soil while Trump stands by and allows it. And show him blowing off honoring America's war dead because he didn't want to get wet. And so on -- the list is endless.
In fact this is one of the lines taken in 2016 - it didn't work. Trump had already done a lot of this stuff and clearly showed his friendliness to Russia, but that didn't matter then and it did not matter much later.
In 2016 all I saw was "we are patriotic." It needed to be "they are un-American," which was indeed tried to some extent in 2020 and worked. It just needs to be hammered more relentlessly and in more visceral terms, not vaguely as in "he seems subservient to Putin."
Granted, it's hard to get the message across if the media is basically taking the other side's position.
I don't think there's a way to "message" the danger that Republicans represent.
Unfortunately, the only way to make the public properly fear Republicans is to give Republicans power and see what happens.
We may see the beginning of that if Republicans win one or both houses in midterms. If the country faces a crisis that requires congressional action as it did in 2020, expect the opposite to happen. The president is a Dem, and GOP-ers will do everything they can to hold him accountable. If the GOP wins the trifecta in '24 or '28, hold onto your hats.
One big risk is the economy. Inflation, debt, etc. are not particularly big problems right now. But overreacting to those worries, especially to drive ideological right-wing policy, could be catastrophic.
The surest way to get the public's attention is to decimate people's 401(k)'s and screw up the job market. Republicans will try to do that while Biden is in office. But if they have to wait till a GOP-er is in the WH, they'll do it then. Don't think it will be like Trump.1. It's almost certain to be far, far worse.
I call bullshit that that ad went "a wee bit too far."
If anything, it took too long to get to the core of the message, which is that Republicans literally want people to die for the sake of low taxes for rich people.
That ad didn't go far enough.
It seems to me that what needs to be done is to not try to demonize the Republicans but instead separate them from the Trumpians. Focus on the evil things that they do. Show die hard type Republicans who fear for their lives and families because of threats by Trumpians. Show Trumpism for what it is, a fascist cult of personality. Hammer at things like his hatred of the military and disdain for the people who served. Show the abject cowardice of Ted Cruz and others who submit to Trump. Show the lunatics. Show Trump telling the Proud Boys to stand by and then calling them to action on January 6th. Show the Republican pundits who are no longer welcome in their Party as usurped by Trumpism.
Republicans don’t like change? Then show the changes brought about by Trumpism.
The simple answer is make them fear Republicans because Republicans will cut services and lower taxes on rich people (while maybe also raising them on regular people).
"It's the (finances), stupid."
I learned long ago that my now-Trumpy-af Republican relatives in Iowa became Republicans because they were voting their pocketbook. Everything else just followed, because they had to resolve the cognitive dissonance somehow. There's a whole thing out there about in-group identification...
Pro athletes tend to be rather right-wing for the same reason: they start out wanting to pay lower taxes and end up anti-vax because that's what's required to consciously vote for the politicians who promise to lower their taxes.
...probably not the best way to get Democrats elected
The real religion of America is "I'm gonna get rich and if I don't, then my kids are gonna get rich".
Thus, attack the Rs in their strong area, Karl Rove style. The Republicans are going to impoverish the country just to try to keep things like the 1950s. Wanna get rich in the global economy? Better get educated and stay healthy. Vote Democrat.
As for CRT, tie it to this. Republicans don't want your kids to know we had a civil war to make the country a better place and more fair. They think Americans just accept things the way they are and never want to improve. Think your kids can succeed if they don't know any history?
Get ahead of the news instead of always reacting to what has already happened or been said. The issue of 2022 is, in my opinion, going to be abortion. I haven't delved into the statistics, but I'll bet that not many independents want abortion to be completely banned. Maybe the Supreme Court will surprise us, but many, many Republicans are clearly on the side of outlawing abortion and imposing draconian penalties on anyone who acts contrary to that position. Make them own that approach, and make them try to defend it.
Yeah...
Republicans lie. Democrats try not to. That's a major handicap.
I second most of what was already said. Some caveats:
The focus has to be on the overturning of the Constitutional order. "They think they don't need to abide by elections". The Big Lie. This is violation of the core of democratic government. This is the beginning of tyranny -- to not abide by the will of the people as certified in elections. This is violation of the core of Americanism -- the consent of the governed. As such it is understandable, even instinctive, to ostensibly all Americans. (Link to current attempts to bypass non-partisan election administration.)
Don't get precious about the deaths on Jan. 6; they were few and slightly ambiguous (heart attacks?) It's not in the first instance about the violence: (I'd riot too if they stole my election.) But it's about the Lie. Rerun the nastiest insurrection footage with the message: these are the actions of would-be tyrants refusing the verdict of the ballot-box. (BTW, in the face of the Big Lie, the proper response is, "Put up or shut up." Where's the evidence?)
This ties to the cray-cray: Look at the lengths to which they will go -- what they will claim to believe -- in order to get their way. Trump himself will say ANYTHING (don't quote the WaPo factchecker. Just run some footage.) This is madness and this way lies tyranny.
BTW, I've long thought it an awfully telling critique, that the ostensible party of the Constitution and the Bible managed to elect the one president we've ever had who has never read either one!
Thus is the Rep Party tarred with its own feathers or however you say it. Petard, etc.
How is that ad too far? Remember "death panels?"
The Trumpublican really do want to destroy Medicare. And Social Security.
I can't understand why Democrats don't beat the entire country over the head with, "Remember: when Trumpublicans say they're against socialism, what they mean is that they want to take your Social Security check away from you."
I think it may be that the only way now to get gop/Trump supporters to “fear Republican rule” is to convince them to care about the lives of other people who are not close to them. Not an easy task at all. …
More gop/Trump supporters are in favor of the cruelty of the Trump years than the rest of us may be aware of or are willing to admit, no matter what lies they tell pollsters. They are in favor of turning their backs on their fellow Americans because they believe that what the Dems want to do will help mainly foreigners or the undeserving poor, at their expense. If their lives are not perfect, it’s only because undeserving non-Americans are soaking up the resources that should go to real Americans, with the support of the Dems . ….
So there’s your assignment: Get hardline gop/Trump supporters to care about other people. Good luck with that.
This is easier than Democrats think it is, the difficulty is simply that Democrats aren't that kind of people, because,
when they go low, you have to smash their teeth in and stomp on them while they cry like babies writhing on the floor.
This is the only important thing to do.
Any other response only emboldens them and the people already inclined to vote for them will think they've won the argument, whatever it may have been.
I'm not worried cause I know granny is a good swimmer.
Kevin, I think you're on the wrong track. Of course, Dems have attacked Republicans over POLICY. Maybe in past decades that might have been the logical way to proceed. But not now, with a just-ended GOP administration that broke all records for corruption, incompetence, and dishonesty.
How don't Democrats see what a gift this is? Don't bother attacking them over social program cuts or anti-mask-mandate mandates. Just say this:
"This is the party that put the most corrupt, incompetent, and dishonorable man imaginable into the White House. And they are now so afraid of him that they want to put him BACK in there! They have become just as rotten as him."
This has the wonderful advantage of all being true, and demonstrably so. It's the PARTY OF TRUMP! Use that!
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
January 6, and all the Republicans who supported those events, was arguably treason. It was a stupid, shiftless, half-assed war conducted by dimwits but they were up front about their intentions, and open rebellion was it.
Seems like that ought to bother moderates at least a bit.
I’d like to see any data that would support this kind of messaging. We just elected a Democratic President, by a 7+ million-vote margin, who campaigned on bringing the country together. In 2008 we elected a Black man who campaigned on “hope and change”, with a nearly ten-million-vote margin. What I know of political science research says that a lot of ‘independents’ pay little attention to politics, think that politicians bicker too much, and want more bipartisanship. You may think they are living in a fool’s Paradise, but that’s where many heads are at.
I think that the kind of people who are motivated primarily by hate and fear are deeply committed to the cult that the GOP has become. I think the core of the Democrats’ message should remain positive, pointing to a better future for oneself, one’s family, one’s community, the country, the planet. Sure, don’t let Republicans off the hook for the divisiveness and disunity they have fomented. Put GOP candidates on the spot over the Big Lie, Trump, January 6, all of it. Several commenters have invoked Karl Rove - so, attack Republicans on their claimed strength in ‘law and order’, remind the voters of the chaos of Charlottesville, Lafayette Park, the Capitol insurrection. Republicans always say they will run the government efficiently, like a business - attack their supposed competence: pretty easy, Trump blew up the debt, failed to pass his infrastructure bill while Biden succeeded, and his stupid wall fell down. And then be sure to constantly remind voters of the Democrats’ successes. Worst recent mistake was running away from ACA. Talk up the infrastructure bill, and (we earnestly hope) BBB.
Easiest, which will not happen, take Foxys Shrews off the air .