Class War and the Democrats

[Tom Rinaldo]

Class war is the Woolly Mammoth in the room that the Democratic Party tries to talk around. By trying to ignore it Democrats ignore all of the most powerful arguments potentially available to them to rally the majority of working Americans to their side. It wouldn't be easy, it would be a battle, but battles are what happen during war.

Without acknowledging the class war taking place in America today Democrats can only win by presenting themselves as the reasonable adults capable of dealing with issues that Republicans raise more effectively than the Republicans who raise those issues in the first place. Democrats are competing on a Republican defined game field hoping to convince voters that they can execute the Republican game plan less painfully than the Republicans because, repeat, Democrats are reasonable adults.

That approach sometime works when your opponent is a Sharon Angle, but increasingly most Americans aren't feeling reasonable, they are feeling angry. Increasingly the Democratic Party is becoming a hedge bet for powerful special interests - safe and available to turn to when the need arises to distance themselves from a too rabid rightest, otherwise a nearly toothless foil.

[dkf]

1. Powerful interests occur because we've let them merge into behemoths

You can tax them but they will still exist, and they can preserve profits by raising prices.

Democrats should look at the root of the problem nstead of complaining about it's foreseeable consequences.

[OHdem10]

2. Mark my word, This will be the downfall of the Democratic Party.

Example: Paul Ryan's Budget Plan is coming up soon
for a vote. Calling Ryan names is no winning argument.
Tell me one Democrat who would have the guts to
get a plan together put their name on it and go
public with it. If we are fair, and above all Liberals
should be fair. We can think it is a terrible plan
and still give Ryan credit for the courage of his convictions.

Knowing that this is going to be presented and debated
how prepared is our party to present an alternative plan
based on Liberal Principles???? Are the Democrats on
the hill going to the fight carrying a pocket knife while
the other side has AK-47s.

I will say it again. Always permitting the other side
(RS) to set the table with their plans and the DS will
wait and just try to push back on Republican Plan
has gotten us to a RW America. If they do not start
going on offense, they are agreeing with the Republicans
positions.

Where are our courageous Democrats?? Where are our plans.

[white_wolf]

3. Maybe Anthony Weiner or Berine Sanders will propose something.

I wish Grayson hadn't lost, we wouldn't have put up with Ryan's crap.

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. I love Sanders, and Weiner is one of the few Democrats who give me hope

Weiner is actually in some lower rung Democratic leadership position. But people like him are hamstrung by the message coming from the top. He no doubt would be freer to be even more pointed in his remarks if a Republican were President.

[Siouxmealso]

5. I agree with you

If you let the other side frame the debate while you sit back ready to attack their plans, you end up debating his plans. And if he opens the debate with outrageous plans, you're stuck debating the outrageous versus the less outrageous.

Democrats have a lot to learn about power negotiations.

[sarcasmo]

6. A workers party is needed to do away with the corporate owners of the right and left.

[blindpig]

7. Whose side is the Demoratic Party really on in the class war?

Know them by their works, or lack thereof.

[hfojvt]

8. actually Democrats did play the class war card

at least in Missouri in the Senate race. I saw plenty of ads on KC TV pointing out how Blunt was serving lobbyists instead of Missouri, and for Ike Skelton they constrasted his support of veterans with his oppenent's lack of support. Both of those Democrats still lost.

I thought they could have pushed back some against the Pelosi vs. Missouri theme*, but it seems like the class war theme did not play that well with voters, and unfortunately, with Democrats like Carnahan and McCaskill, Republicans can play that card right back, and they did, running ads about how some Carnahan got millions of stimulus dollars for a wind farm.


* Republicans (or their Chamber of Commerce clones) ran ads about how Skelton voted with Pelosi 95% of the time, and he is supposed to represent Missouri and not Nancy Pelosi. An ad itemizing some of those votes might have deflated that line of attack. (Skelton voted with Pelosi to recognize the NWMO Bearcats for their national championship, Skelton voted with Pelosi to provide healthcare for children, to increase funding for Veterans, etc., etc.,)

[socialist_n_TN]

9. I personally think that they should USE THE WORDS

They can even bring out that old Warren Buffett quote if they're too chickenshit to own up to it themselves.

You've also got to take into account that we've now had six months of Republican POLICIES that PROVE that there's a class massacre (not class war..yet) taking place. The ONLY saving grace of the Republican assault on the working class is that they're not making a secret of it anymore.

There's also the problem of making it an issue and STICKING TO IT. It won't be believable if you say "class war" and then waffle when some capitalist toadie squawks about it.

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. They have( mostly) passively allowed the Republicans to frame political discussion

In Republican speak "class war" is wildly extremist crazy talk. All they are doing, they say, is trying to get our finances in order and provide encouragement to "jpb creators".

When Democrats finally begin to challenge Republican framing it won't go smoothly at first because the Republicans have a twenty year head start laying their foundation. But people sense something is fundamentally and seriously wrong, and if Democrats consistently talk about what is really happening in this country people will catch on fairly quickly, after some initial cross message turbulense.

[hfojvt]

11. I disagree about the passivity

one trouble is that Republicans have a noise machine. They have the Heritage Foundation, they have Cato, they have Pete Peterson, and Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News and right leaning mainstream media like CNN and CBS, and yes, even the New York Times and Washington Post. That's where Republican framing comes from. Republicans throw out a bone and the pack of the media can't wait to tear into it and then regurgitate it. For some reason millionaires like Ted Koppel, Brian Williams, and Katie Couric are not on our side in the class war. Even a supposed liberal like Lawrence O'Donnell seemed to be in love with the Bush tax cuts, and also to have contempt for Democratic candidates http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/130

The liberal noise machine, insofar as it exists seems to spend lots of time helping Republicans too. They spend lots of time pushing the Republican message "liberal elites think they are better than you" by spending so much time talking about how stupid and racist the other side is.

So I don't think Democrats have been passive, but they have been forced to play defense because they are out-gunned.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. If Anthony Weiner were President would the public dialog be significantly different?

My presumption is that it would be. I understand the point you make, but having the Presidency can be a powerful propaganda tool, depending on how it is used. It doesn't erase the points that you make, but it alters them.

[Shiver]

13. Maybe, but most people wouldn't notice anything past the words "President Weiner"

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