Why Are A Lot of Dems Such Wimps? Scared of the Repub Attack Machine

[ellacott]

Why is is that Democrats always warn people of how mean the Republicans are going to be and not fight back.

We have had decades of experience as to how the Repubs campaign and it seems like we roll over and take it.

It's possible to fight them back. Kerry's advisors made a huge mistake with the swiftboaters by not fighting back.

So many people are afraid of what the Repubs will do to Obama or Clinton and this has become a rationale on why to choose either candidate.

We spend so much time being afraid of what they are going to do but we have failed to come up with a strategy to counter those attacks.

I wish we could learn to fight smarter.

[Tim4319]

1. Agreed!

[ananda]

2. I don't think we need to worry at all about..

.. what the corporofascist attack machine WILL do.

They're doing now and with their fantastic success
why stop?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. It's not the pugs. It's the media's facilitation of their message. nt

[ellacott]

5. A lot of it is also the messengers that the Dems put on TV

Some of them are so soft. They don't know how to fight. I enjoy listening to Lawrence O'Donnell. He represents his position very well and doesn't get intimidated by the other side. I wish we had stronger people on TV who can get the message across.

[blm]

18. The Dem spokespeople GROOMED in the 90s and schooled only in defending Clintons

knew little about any other Democrat or their actual record, including Al Gore.

That vacuum in the media of knowledgeable Dem spokespeople allowed the onslaught against Dems who stepped up to oppose BushInc since 2000.

And you are wrong about the swifts - Kerry DID counter them forcefully, and the media DELIBERATELY ignored the counters, including an all out attack from Kerry personally during his Aug 19 speech to the Firefighters Convention that they were SUPPOSED to broadcast but every one decided to NOT BROADCAST that speech and few even reported it happened, though Kerry extended his attack to Bush and challenged him to STOP HIDING BEHIND the swifts and come out and publicly debate their years of service.

That media chose to NOT BROADCAST the speech and barely reported it, with NO rotation of the clip where he challenged Bush to debate their services should make it plain the corpmedia was complicit to protect Bush for the favorable rulings they expected in his second term - just as Dan Rather has admitted recently.

[ellacott]

19. Thanks for the clarification

I thought I remember Kerry and Brazille saying that they didn't respond forcefully enough to the swiftboaters.

I do agree that the Dem spokespeople have been schooled in defending the Clintons.

[blm]

20. You're right, Kerry did say that, but the only way forceful enough would've been seen is if he chose

to do it while holding a knife to John O'Neill's throat while the cameras ran. Then he would have been arrested and BushInc wouldn't have HAD to work 24/7 to steal that election.

[ellacott]

27. I'm hoping with the increased media outlets that we can get our message out there

That's of course if we strategize and use it effectively.

[redqueen]

28. Spot on.

Obama has been the only candidate IMO who's been able to figure out a way to deal with their attacks... since we're up against not only the GOP, but the M$M as well. Sorta stacked odds, there.

[Armstead]

4. I absolutely agree

The main thing the GOP did to hold power and the dominant zeitgeist for so long was to stick to their principles and beliefs, and use that as their framework for their approach to politics.

The fact that many of those principles were BAD for average people just proves how effective it can be when you stick to your guns.

Rather than countering with a clear agenda of our own, Democrats have been playing defense for too long. We react to the GOP plays, rather than make our own.

Now that the wheels are loosening on the GOP steamroller, Democrats have a great chance to set the tone and the terms.

So why not take advantage of that, instead of making decisions on what the GOP might say?

[ellacott]

6. Yes

We have so much ammunition to use against them. We need to learn how to fight with the facts.

In 1999 60 Mins. did a show on the Texas educational system(TASS). The teachers, administrators and students talked about how bad this system was and how they were teaching to the test and the corruption in manipulating the system to get higher scores. That system was the model for No Child Left Behind and all the problems with the Texas system are present in NCLB. I was waiting for the Gore campaign to capitalize on this report and nothing was said.

[Skidmore]

7. Not afraid of it.

Just don't like a Democratic candidate using it and keeping it alive, particularly since it was being beaten back. You can't fight smarter when you are doing the same thing as them. I would hope that we would be finding a way to make that type of politicking distasteful to the nation.

[ellacott]

9. You CAN fight back and not do the same

That's why I say we don't fight smart. The example I gave of Gore and Kerry, if they had just spoken up it would have gone a long way.

[OmahaBlueDog]

8. We are scared because the machine is remarkably effective

We are scared because we take the bait and fall into the trap 95% of the time.

We are scared because many in our party "refuse to dignify these attacks with a response" or "refuse to sink to their level"; the Republicans wised up years ago to the fact that Joe Bagodonutz perceives this as weakness.

We are scared because they attack on the symbolic issues, or substantive issues that will never impact 99% of their constituents. Gods, guns, gays, gay marriage, flag burning, whether Kerry earned his purple heart.

I agree, we need to focus on how to hit back.

[ellacott]

10. Very true

We need better strategists on our side.

[Aviation Pro]

11. Because "thinking" Democrats....

...believe the average American will fall for anything. News flash, Lincoln was right and he will be proven right again in November.

[Fluffdaddy]

12. Because the Repub Attack Machine works. That's why I'm afraid of it.

[ellacott]

14. It works BECAUSE we are afraid of it

I wish we would toughen up and learn how to fight back.

[msongs]

13. congressional dems are afraid of Bush and Cheney, thus they also fear repub ads? nt

[kentuck]

15. Why are Democrats so fearful of what Republicans "might do"?

For example, if Obama is the nominee, just think of how the Republicans will destroy him? Or if I vote against this insane war, the Republicans will say I am "unpatriotic" and that will kill my chances at running for President? Or if they run that ad by the crazy Reverend, that will be the end of Obama's campaign? Or they will ask what Bill will be up to in the White House with nothing to do for 4 years? And then, many Democrats start shaking like a dog shitting a peach seed. Why?

Let the Republicans do what they will always do. They are good at screwing up this nation. We should be confident that we can respond to these morons and their media masters. In my opinion, we give them entirely too much respect with their attack machine. But, they have succeeded in the past, you say? Yes, they have. Because, we thought it would be best not to respond at all or to respond meekly. We need to slap them down with the facts. That is all we need. And we need to stop worrying about what the Republicans "might do" if we say this or if we do that. We should do what the majority of the people in this country want us to do.

[ellacott]

23. That's exactly how I feel

We need to slap them down with the facts.

[snooper2]

16. I'm not scared, we got our own attack machine...

Seems the American people need to know how McWobble cheated on his disabled wife with the whore...

Maybe the Keating 5 needs brought back to light :evilgrin:

Maybe the betrayus folks can help out

[ellacott]

24. I agree, we have plenty of ammunition against McCain

[graycem]

17. This frustrates me too

because on so many things we win on issues. I think that we will win no matter who we run this year. The DNC's current ad is perfect and it will hit home with so many people. The economy is huge this round and that will define him by the time November is here, at least on the economy. So I'm not worried. I think we have Dean and either Obama or Clinton, and both will fight this time, probably much stronger than anyone before, because things ARE so bad. Now if we could just get some of those in the Senate and House to grow a spine...

[ellacott]

26. Yes, we DO win on so many issues

I hope when the debate centers the economy and McCain's position that it will be obvious which party is the best.

[backscatter712]

21. That's why I'm supporting Obama - he can beat the GOP swiftboat.

Hillary's repeated attacks have been at least as bad as anything the Repugs will throw at him.

The "I'm rubber, you're glue" strategy works! Obama's verbal jiu-jitsu works. Hillary's thrown the most vicious and vile attacks that any human being can conceive of in her desperation, and the polls only show the attacks backfiring on her like Wile E. Coyote.

This year, we will beat the slime machine. This year, we will take the White House. This year, we will take our country back!

[BlooInBloo]

22. DUers have always been that way.

[wiggs]

25. For the 50th time...elected Dems aren't wimps or naive or stupid. They are smart,

ambitious people who know how to use resources and connections just as well as republicans. While I think they are less ideological (and therefore less willing to lower themselves to any means that justifies the ends) I also believe that there are enough dc dems WHO ARE ON THE SAME PAGE as dc GOPrs when it comes to corporatism, protection of buddies, and concentration of power.

There are dems who are just fine with the much of the last 7 years...

[ellacott]

29. I think many of them are weak

They don't seem to know how to effectively counter the repub smear machine. Many Dem strategists on TV don't know how to get their point across and wind up getting owned by the Repub on the panel.

We don't fight smart. We are scared of the repub smear machine and that's what we're using as a basis for choosing a candidate.

You can fight hard with stooping to their level.