Should Democratic Candidates be willing to Demonize Big Business

[el_bryanto]

Daily Howler is running a good series this week on why Conservatives have such a tight message ("Government is the problem" "Pointy headed liberals think they know better than the people"), while Liberals are all over the place. One thing he notes is that successful liberals like FDR and TR, besides both being Roosevelts, were both eager to take on the moneyed interests, or what we would call big business. It's a simple message - "The Democrats stand with the people against big business."

What do you think?

Bryant

[stray cat]

1. Why not just tell the truth and not make blanket demonizations of any group

[el_bryanto]

2. Because saying "Republicans stand with Big Business while I stand with the people" is a

much clearer message then trying to differentiate out which corporations are good and which are bad. or so the argument goes.

Bryant

[Boojatta]

3. It does specify which corporations are bad.

It specifies that all "big" ones are bad. It's actually not particularly clear. Where is the boundary between "big" and "not big"?

You used the words "clearer message", but I don't think that you're talking about whether or not an idea is clearly formulated. I think that you're talking about whether or not an attitude is simple. The problem is that an attitude isn't an idea. To someone who is looking for an attitude to support, every idea seems "too complicated" or "not clear enough."

[el_bryanto]

4. Fair enough; I'm not comfortable with this myself

For those reasons.

But Republicans since Nixon have been very successfully pushing two ludicrous ideas - "Government never does anything right" and "Pointyheaded Liberals think they are better than you." We haven't had a counter message; the closest we come is saying No we're not!

Bryant