The next election will turn on what voters believe about five issues. Democrats need a clear message in order to win.
Their opponents are the same guys who spent most of President Clinton’s first term accusing him of murdering his friend, Vince Foster. Now they promote the notion that a birth certificate isn’t really a birth certificate. These are really the same thing. They are "misdirections," a technique familiar to any magician. Look over here, dear voter, so you won’t see what I’m doing over there.
Democrats don’t need to fight every crazy lie that will be told. Truth is they can’t. Telling a lie is much easier than debunking one. To win, Democrats need to do just one thing – keep voters focused on how Republicans don’t represent people anymore.
Here is what Democrats need to say if they want to win:
On Birtherism:
- Birtherism is a litmus test. Anyone willing to tell this lie in order to win an election would be willing to tell any lie. You can’t trust them.
- When someone claims that a birth certificate is not a birth certificate, that person doesn’t have the moral clarity needed for public service. Someone who does this is not fit to serve; his or her oath of office would be meaningless.
- The people telling this lie don’t believe it. They’re simply willing to steal your vote by lying.
About Medicare:
- Republicans don’t have the stones to take Medicare away from you. So they’re trying to take it away from your children. And your grandchildren.
- The Paul Ryan Plan – which Republicans already passed in the House – takes Medicare away from your children and gives tax breaks to the rich.
- Republicans hope you’re too old to notice what they’re doing to your kids. But you are not. Frankly, they need a good spanking.
Regarding Budget and Tax Policy:
- The thing no one wants to tell you is that you can’t have it both ways. You can’t have a government that serves the people while paying only enough taxes to cover the cost of corporate welfare.
- Republicans are fond of saying “we don’t have a revenue problem,” but that’s just a big fib. Rich people pay the lowest taxes ever. Everyone is paying the lowest taxes since the 1950. Corporations are getting a free ride.
- “Tax rates are too high” is just a trick. The rich pay a lower tax than you do, thanks to all of their deductions. The rate doesn’t tell the story, the check does.
- First Republicans told you that we could cut taxes and still have everything. Then they told you that we can’t afford anything. By that they mean anything for you…
- I don’t think Republicans will ever give up corporate welfare. But as long as I’m a Democrat, I’ll never give up Abraham Lincoln’s idea that that government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. My, how that party has lost its way…
On Defense Spending:
- Defense spending is bloated by corporate welfare.
- We will not cut pay and benefits for troops nor will we cut anything they wear, carry, or use for transportation.
- Except for nuclear deterrents, we will eliminate any weapon that hasn’t been used in the last twenty years. We will eliminate any weapons program that is more than five years behind schedule. And we will eliminate any weapons program for something that doesn’t work.
About Corporate Influence:
- What kind of idiot believes corporations are people?
- Free speech is not the same as secret speech. Our founding fathers promised that you could stand in the town square and say whatever you want. They didn’t intend for you to hide in the shadows and pay someone else to say it.
- When promoting a political idea in a democracy, hiding who you are is the supreme act of cowardice.
Republicans will have a singular response to all of these messages. It’s Class Warfare,” they’ll moan. “Americans don’t go for that.”
“You bet it is,” Democrats should reply. “And you started it.”
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Jeanette DeMain
Cap'n Parrotdead
Jack Blackshear
Bob Calhoun
Steven Rockford
Kate Flannery
Salon.com
Comments
obambi should not be running , again, for the title "liar in chief."
He should be running from the Hague, where he deserves to be sentenced (for genocide and war crimes) to club Gitmo, oft described as Club Med.
Oh, and by the way, the WMDs have been found -- they are in his left (right IS wrong -- left IS best,) front shirt jacket pocket.
-R-
"Now they promote the notion that a birth certificate isn’t really a birth certificate. These are really the same thing. They are "misdirections," a technique familiar to any magician. Look over here, dear voter, so you won’t see what I’m doing over there."
Sad thing, that works so perfectly. Problem being the average American is apparently not very smart.
Great post...
Just as we should have taken a page from the Canadians on healthcare reform, so we should have taken a page from them regarding Fux. Canada recently refused Fux a broadcast license on grounds that are blatantly obvious to anyone with half-a-brain:
Party organs are not news organizations, blatant falsehoods are a cancer fatal to an informed electorate, and nationalized and institutionalized propaganda is the death of democracy.
Despite the obvious, here in the States, Murdoch and Ailes are allowed to metastasize their media monopoly by buying up local stations and newspapers. Good forbid, the FCC should do its job!
And thanks to the Court of Worst Resort, aka The Five Blind Mice, Citizens United granted personhood to pieces of paper, giving corporations the inalienable right to spend secretly, that is bribe as necessary, to subvert elections and pervert legislation and legislators.
Seems the legacy of Joseph Goebbels is still very much alive and residing in the new corporate fascist Reich, the good ol' US of A -- where every man is free to put his neck beneath the corporate hob-nailed boot.
And, you're right. Republicans do need a good spanking!
We have to remember that some of them are the dregs of the old Southern or Irish Democrats who have no ideas and who are pissed off that Obama stirred up their cushy system.
The Democratic party had better remember this: Obama raised his own funds and got his own voters at a time when the party tried to destroy him.
And who let him down with health care reform and the budget? It was the Democrats. Even Democrats are sick of democrats.
Obama is still way ahead of congress, even with his lowest popularity ever.
I haven't heard anyone from the left come up with a talking point that is worth spit. We can't counter the extreme right if we do not have a ineffective leadership on the left!
So the lesson is that America is, like any nation on the brink, a centrist nation where neither extreme needs to get too full of itself.
This makes me wonder why Pres Obama should bother with any party but the middle party.
Golden Zuma for well thought out and presented expression.
First of all the title says everything. "What Democrats must "say" to win the 2012 election." How about what they (or anyone) must "do" to win an election. But you are not really interested in doing; just saying what is necessary to win. Then doing the things you really want done.
As for the birther thing, except for Donald, no one is going to run on
that as an election issue. Even Donald will drop it shortly if he is seriously going to run. So you dems wont have to explain how morally bankrupt the candidate is because it won't happen.
As for corp. "speak" are you implying only republicans use these tactics? Dems don't use lobbyists, and bribes and corp. welfare?
They don't engage in backroom deals etc? That is disingenuous
for you to imply it only goes one way.
What do you call $50B to GM? BTW a corp exec can only vote once. But Obama bought a lot of individual union worker votes didn't he? And he continues to do so with the long list of exemptions from ObamaCare. Exempting whole states
and corps. Interesting that he exempted FL. A large swing state.
I don't expect TX will see an exemption anytime soon.
Exempting McDonalds. These low wage earners that cant afford
insurance is exactly what health care reform was all about. Now McD get to not have to provide a decent policy as originally intended, but can keep the micro med plans that are of almost no use to an employee. A max of 2K coverage in a multitude of different categories. What good is 2K?
And social program promises are direct "buying" of masses of individual votes.
All I get from you post is that you want is a winning strategy, not
necessarily the truth or what we will really get. Just what has to be said to win. Obama said all the right things. How many did he deliver on?
I would settle for any candidate that told the truth , not what is needed to be heard. Donald is making outrageous statements right now that cannot get him elected, but this is better than lying and spinning. Imagine if Donald won without ever saying these things and then he did them. That would be totally deceitful.
Obama made such great statements about foreign policy, war, gitmo etc, that were in a sense lies. Not overtly, but because he could and did not know what he knows now.
The best truthful and accurate statement from Obama should have been something like this.
"My philosophy on these issues are aligned with humanitarian concerns, avoidance of war etc. , but I will have to make
the best decision based on what I know when I become president and what happens." I recently ran this past one of my liberal friends. He response was "yes that would have been an accurate statement but not a winning statement".
Why is it that the truth has to be a losing statement? Why cant candidates on either side tell the blunt truth?
Basically you are describing politics as usual. All about the strategy of winning, the appearance. Aren't you sick of that from all politicians? I guess not became you are promoting it here.
A politician should not say what people want to hear. He should say what he believes. If what he believes is what is wanted, he will win. If it is not she will lose. Its that simple.
Brilliant. I don't know the facts on this at all because this is the first I have heard. But if they really shot down Fox because they don't likewhat they say, then Canada needs to be taken to task by the rest of the free world.
As for Death panels, how about the kid that just came here to get a simple trach and went back to Canada. If that was not a death panel what the hell is? The not only decided what they wanted to pay for, they decided how, when and where the kid was gong to die.
It is bad enough to make a financial decision not to provide in hospital life support anymore, but by what decency can they tell the parents no trach so he can be off the machine and go home.
Of course they could not take the kid home without the trach because he would have died right away. So they simply wanted a basic procedure done to allow them to take him home and it is denied. If I were that kids parents and coming to the US was not made available I would have done the trach myself. But then I am just a retard as you most angrily put it.
I hope the next dem candidate actually thinks like you and
says the following two things.
1. We should be like Canada and cut off Fox
2. Canada handled that kid's situation perfectly appropriately and that is exactly how we want here our health care system to work.
Please let Obama be that stupid.
Want to guess if those are election winning statements?
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_7c18a6ac-d724-58b9-96ce-841e4e0103f7.html
Have you reported on this Jimmy. Talk about smart v stupid.
can you see the absurd stupidity in the following 2 sentences?
" Joseph has Leigh syndrome, a fatal neurological condition that has left him in a vegetative state.
Canadian doctors said they believed surgery to open Joseph's windpipe and attach a ventilator could delay Joseph's death by a few months but was too risky and invasive for a child with a fatal illness."
Let's see. He has a fatal disease and is vegetative but a minor
surgery is too risky. To risky for what? They have all but declared him dead but that cant risk it cause it might kill him. That is logic for you. These Canadian docs and bureaucrats should be taken
out and publicly beaten Singapore style.
@ Tom - Please tell me how this is not a death panel. The is s fact. Not supposition. Not hyperbole. The kind of thing one might hear on Fux news. Maybe that is why Canada has a problem with Fox. They don't seem to want to say much at the Canadian hospital.
We live in the MOST obese country on the planet, healthcare costs are ridiculous and the answer is "healthcare reform"....really? How about we look at our food industry? How about we take personal responsibility of what we put in our mouths and how we take care of ourselves.
Oh, wait....that is too much work.
"Democrats" likely won't follow any of these recommendations, due mainly to their severely narrow scope: do what officially worked in the past. They are similar to the "Republicans" in that they think the voters are to be hustled, manipulated, fooled, and bought off. "Triangulation" is the du jour operating slogan these days.
I think for this next campaign we need to push them very hard, make it clear we will go Green or other alternative unless they quit playing us. I for one will not vote for Obama again. I believe he is a man without principle, a complete triangulator and hustler.
For what's coming between now and 2017 we need someone new. Obama will break, just like the "Republicans" want him to over the span of an eight-year presidency, and he won't have a clue why.
How in the world did you NOT see in Obama what you see now.
I have asked many of liberal friends how they could not see the obvious politician in Obama. I know thwy are liberal so they were going to vote for him anyway. But they swore up and down
he was the most honest, intelligent straight talking candidate in the history of politics. They be;believed every word like gospel. He was incapable og lying or spinning. He had the solution for all that ills society. And certainly he would stand on his principles.
He would never sell out for his own selfish reasons. He would never
do something lile bail out GM union workers as a political favor.
It is all just for the good of the country;
nothing to do with buying votes.
What they cold nt see was obvious to me. He was just the opposite. One of the smoothest talking , bullshitting politicians I have ever seen. All his deep thought when answering questions mistaken for
being so introspective and wise. When all he was dong was trying to give the right answer to the public that didnt jive with his true ideology. A liberal liberal friend out his foot in his mouth while have a discussion about human behavior. the topic was not political, but it was the only conservative in the group. My best friend already knew what I thought about Obamas deep thinking and disagreed with me. My friend happens to be well studied in human behavior as swore to me Obama's were always sincere
and never political calculating. This particular group looks up to
him as they are novices to he teachings of analyzing behavior.
One asked of him," Have you ever noticed how people will intentionally pause as a way to make you think they are a deep thinker and they are wiser than you?" My friend an I eyes met.
I so badly wanted yo ask the yung questioner "Do you mean like Obama?". I did not as we agreed this campfire outing was not to become a political debate. I wonder if the young guy connected Obama as one of those that use that very behavior.
Now he is going to let down the liberals for the sake of his legacy.
He has no integrity. Just narcissism.
How did you all miss it? It was as obvious as the sun rising.