"How Can Dems Be Losing to These Idiots?"

[applegrove]

How Can Dems Be Losing to These Idiots?

by Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/29/how-can-dems-be-losing-to-these-idiots.html

"SNIP.......................


But the underlying reason is this: The Democrats don’t have the right words for attacking the Republicans’ core essence and putting Republican candidates on the defensive. When Republicans attack Democrats, the attacks quite often go right to the heart of Democratic essence, and philosophy. “My opponent is a big-government, big-spending, high-taxing” etc. That gets it all in there in a few short words. Every Republican says it, and the fact is that it’s typically at least sort of true, because Democrats do believe in government and spending and taxes.

As a result, in almost every American election, the Democrat is instantly put on the defensive, while the Republican is playing offense. Of course that’s going to be truer in a sixth-year election of an incumbent Democratic president. But it’s usually more true than not. The Democrat, who is for things, who wants to do things besides cut budgets and taxes, carries the burden of explaining why those things will be good.

In fairness to the Democrats, they’re a little boxed in, because they can’t respond to the above attack by saying, “Well, my opponent is a small-government, low-spending, low-taxing” etc., which wouldn’t sound like much of an attack to most people.

So what they have to do instead is find a way to talk about this policy bankruptcy and duplicity of the GOP that I describe above, the party’s essential anti-idea-ness, because it’s through that bankruptcy and duplicity that the Republican Party manages to conceal from voters its actual agenda, which is to slash regulations and taxes and let energy companies and megabanks and multinational corporations do whatever it is they wish to do. Most Americans may be for limited government and lower taxes, but they sure aren’t for that.


........................SNIP"

[msongs]

1. tough to be credible against repubs when your own agenda is repub lite nt

[Doctor_J]

2. no principles.

What does our party even stand for at this point? What are they as a group campaigning on?

[world wide wally]

3. I will just say one more time that here in Colorado, I have not heard one word about Republican

policies that hurt the average American. The obstructionism in the form of record breaking filibusters, Republican hypocrisy, denial of climate change, the involvement of ALEC, or any of the ridiculous things they say. When one of them says something stupid, they are all responsible because they vote in lockstep invariably

Nor have I heard one word about what the President has accomplished in spite of this obstructionism. Nothing about unemployment being down, the deficit down, the stock market at record highs, gas prices down, and so on and so forth.

So, there is no need to scratch your head wondering why they are losing. They have practically demanded it.

[Kablooie]

20. I agree.

It's like they are afraid to attack the Republicans with truth because someone seems to think it will make people turn on Democrats.

I don't get it.
If the public had been hearing constantly for years what we hear on this web site the Republicans would be gone.
But no.
The Republicans are constantly screaming into their ear splitting, 24 hour megaphone and the Democrats just plug their ears and whistle Dixie hoping it will go away.

[AZ Progressive]

4. Why can't the Democrats make voters fearful of the anarchy loving Republicans?

Why can't Democrats run ads making people fearful of big corporations being unregulated and leading to people's deaths? How about ads that attack the rich and tell them like, for instance, how they jacked up the price of gas within the last few years? Get the voters angry.

Make the cold blooded big corporations and the greedy rich the villain and government the hero. Government makes society function. Without Government it is a free for all where only the strongest and most brutal survive. Republicans are the dangerous extremists that want to destroy peaceful civilization and turn it into a dog eat dog savage world.

Why can't Democrats be like the Democrats of long ago?

[mimi85]

14. Wow - I was far too young to vote, but

I actually remember that ad. Sadly, some things never change.

[unblock]

5. "in fairness to the democrats ... they can't respond by saying..." wtf???

hey, derrrr, republicans have a great message, because they're uh, for mom, apple pie, and the american flag, and, uhhhhh, in fairness to the democrats, they're a little boxed in, because they can't respond to the above by saying, derrrr, "well we're opposed to mom, apple pie, and the american flag", which wouldn't sound like a good position to most people.



some remarkably stupid and republican-biased analysis in this one.

[onecaliberal]

6. Republicans are only for low taxing the 1%

Their supply side Econ almost collapsed the entire world economy.
They are also not for small government, they want to control all women and their reproduction and healthcare. That's a damn big government.
Republicans are also responsible for the department of homeland security which has become a behemoth and absurdly expensive.
The truth is republicans are liars and the corporate meme aides and abets them.

[raging moderate]

7. Republicons are NOT for small government, low spending, low taxing!

They want a HUGE government that jails more people than any other country on Earth, spends HUGE amounts on trumped-up payments to companies that manufacture armaments, with bribes to politicians in other countries that will allow our huge billionaires to plunder their countries, bribes to politicians in our country to go along with the photocopied bills they force through Congress, huge "volunteer" armies to reinforce the insatiable demand for more revenue, massive overstuffed prisons, bully police forces to keep the nonwhite population properly intimidated, extravagant oil corporation subsidies, ridiculous luxuries to stroke the swollen egos and bloated ids of the super-rich, artsy-smartsy monkey-with-a-parasol ceremonies to legitimize the farce that they have made of our civilization and our government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Every time a Republicon claims that Democrats are the big-government, big-taxation, big-spending party, Democrats should laugh in his or her face. It was THEY who put those mendacious wars and building of Blackwater (etc.) unnecessary thug-mercenary private armies on the credit card, running up most of the national debt which they then pretended was the fault of the Democrats. And, in a way, it was, because we should NEVER have been so STUPID as to let them get away with it. The social programs favored by Democrats cost a tiny FRACTION of the amount demanded by the bloodthirsty psychopathic Republicon party.

[AZ Progressive]

8. Tell voters how that hurts THEM

[world wide wally]

21. But, do you ever hear a Democrat say that?

I don't

[oldandhappy]

9. Stumbled across this today.

We need to talk about this.

https://www.facebook.com/AddictingInfoOrg/photos/a.182300141810466.38724.146422995398181/615441528496323/?type=1&fref=nf&pnref=story

I put it on my FB and now here.

[Moostache]

10. Respond to the Right with a backhanded beat down of their ignorance and stupidity.

Make them answer questions about policy solutions to ANY issue and they lose.
Make them accountable for their own idiotic words...
Hold the mirror to them at an angle that reflects their true selves to the voters...

Do not let them dodge.
Do not let them breathe.
Do not let them slip away.
Do not let them spin...

The enduring images of Sharon Angle?
RUNNING away from the press as her own stupid words played over the pictures....

The enduring images of Ken Buck?
His own words, playing over the picture of him saying them in a park picnic...

The enduring images of Todd Akin?
His "legitimate rape" comments on a constant loop...

The enduring image of Mitt Romney?
His disdain for 47% of the American population and utter tone-deafness in response...

Republicans are NOT an invincible monolith of power and inscrutability.
They are a bunch of rubes and bought off clowns.

They are bereft of ideas, absent ANY governing plan and just looking for one thing and one thing only....an extension of their own lifestyles at the expense of everyone else....Country First? Only if you mean the Cayman Islands or Switzerland...

[CK_John]

11. Lose the idiot would be a step in the right direction.

[chillfactor]

12. simple answer....

because many voters are idiots!

[Gloria]

13. Yeah, they play defense far too much!

They should go right into the religious fray, it's time to point out the utter hypocrisy of this crap the GOP pulls.
Also, the intolerance is an issue....Jews don't believe in this personhood crap...they have easy access to abortion in Israel, which
the GOP loves...yet here, they treat women like chattel.

Then there is the hypocrisy about spending....they, who have created our huge deficit in large part, they who love big military budgets for perpetual war at the expense of anything related to living breathing human beings.

They keep getting away with this crap, over nad over. Dems never learn to speak effectively...The populist wing seems to do just fine. It needs to be given some air to breathe!!

Democrats need to get a nice cudgel and beat the shit out of the GOP! WHEN will they learn???

They run campaigns for little niches of voters rather than having a big, bold overarching message...They need to have an IDENTITY!!

[Gloria]

27. Hah! Today I heard Mr. Chuck Todd say what I said...

that they were so focused on slivers of voters...he used the word "niches," too--that they didn't have a real overall message...

They could easily have had a message..."saved the economy" (event though it's terminally ill), etc. etc.

[NBachers]

15. Alan Grayson never seems to be at a loss for effective wordsmanship.

[blkmusclmachine]

16. Who is counting the votes???

[blkmusclmachine]

17. Image URL http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/voting_machine_electronic.jpg

Comments are my own.

[LeftInTX]

18. They've run some pretty effective ads for Pete Gallego (D)

His opponent Will Hurd plans to cut Social Security and raise the retirement age. They've been hammering it.


They've also had a positive spot on Gallego with his support for veterans and border security. (This is a purple district with a lot of veterans and Social Security recipients)

[SleeplessinSoCal]

19. John Oliver gets at the heart of politics 2014

http://www.hbo.com/html/mobile-landing/last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver.html

Think ALEC, Incumbent, and 25% of the House running unopposed.

[MoonRiver]

22. Two Thugs are about to go down in "ruby red" Kansas,

because people here have gone through a world of hurt for the last 8 years, under the draconian reign of terror instituted by Brownback and supported 100% by his toadie in the Senate. Even Republicans in red states reach a point where they will not put up with being royally screwed any more.

[Vinca]

23. Democrats always seem to believe civility will work. It doesn't.

The sheeple need raw meat. Tell them what Ernst actually stands for. Tell the fools in Kentucky the healthcare they love is Obamacare and Mitch plans to steal it from them. It's mind boggling to me that millions upon millions of people so easily vote against their own self interest.

[CrispyQ]

24. But they believe in a big military government, huge spending w/o accountability & no taxes.

How do you pay for all that? The dems need to call them out on it.

[spanone]

25. because democrats are not only fighting republicans...they are fighting republicans & 24/7 media

[SummerSnow]

26. Shows that the majority of the people embrace "the stupid"

oh and the rethugs are cheating at the voting booths