There are a few simple points about Republicans including trump for us to make over and over during his presidency.
They are things like how his policies are against the people and at odds with the lies he tells, and the Republican corruption to the powerful interests.
I was talking to my furnace repairman today (this is the CA bay area), and he indicated he didn’t like trump or Hillary but agreed with what he said a little more than her.
So I talked to him a bit. To make a long story short, by talking about Republicans total sellout, which he agreed with, I was able to get him really animated that the ‘real problem’ are the few at the top far more than the poor who ‘get benefits he has to pay for from his low salary’ he’d been complaining about just before. These people are winnable to a Democratic agenda.
Republicans can do this.
Think about how much mileage they get from two simple issues.
One is Reagan’s broad demonizing of the government of the people. How much did that get him? The other is this resentment of the poor workers that any of their money goes to the people who are not employed. It just makes them lose their mind — with the fans flamed by right-wing media.
That’s why they cheer the Republican austerity policies — because they think it’ll somehow mean taking less of their money to help the very poor they think are undeserving.
Those are two simply topics the Republicans have largely ridden to power in 34 states and every branch of the federal government, topics on which they are wrong.
Today, I saw stories about trump calling Conway ‘baby’ and saying how he doesn’t like to tweet, with lots of liberals reacting.
He has hundreds of stories like that before. He’ll have thousands more.
For years, liberals can react to those smaller incidents, and in the process, win over probably about zero people to their side. Just as we did with Bush. “He said nukyooler again the idiot!!!!”
I’m not saying to totally ignore the wrongs. But we need to get a lot better at having OUR version of ‘the government is the problem, not the solution’ that gets wide public support.
Because we’re right and they’re wrong and they don’t deserve the support of the people they're screwing, and having a thousand little incidents we complain about help him, not us.
He’s a troll, among many other things, understanding how our reacting to that instead of sticking to the important issues helps him.
Think about it. How much was Carter hurt by every single night being called weak for the hostage crisis, something he did everything right on, which could be explained if they didn’t control the story?
How much was Gore hurt — after having been the leading politician supporting the creation of the internet — attacked by the lie that he’d falsely claimed to having invented it?
They’re able to dominate the coverage — crooked Hillary — with their distortions better than we have been able to have actual real issues — people need healthcare, the climate is in danger.
So let’s remember we can win if we can get two to five real issues repeated over and over and over showing the people Republicans are seriously their enemies — which they do but with lies.
They’re good at this garbage. For example, I see a lot of trump supporters using the word “snowflake” for his opponents now, to dismiss hundreds of complaints of the sort ranging from calling Conway ‘baby’ to the incident I saw today where asked about Hispanics in his cabinet, his press secretary pointed to his Asian and black appointees.
They don’t care about those things, because they think he’s ‘their guy’. He’s not, and that’s the political battle we need to win.
Once they are convinced he’s not on their side, they will drop him like a hot potato. Same for any Republican.
Healthcare matters, and they’re vulnerable. “Obamacare” which hundreds of millions were spent to demonize now has an overall positive view from a majority for the first time. Take advantage.
So let’s try to make the points over and over and over how they are serving the very wealthy, totally, and the rest is lies. trump supporters understand that and don’t like it all, if we make it the issue.
People are going to treat something as the enemy. If Republicans get their way that enemy is poor people the working class think are taking their money. But that enemy can be the very wealthy very easily, if we get the truth told more often and more loudly. That repairman told me he was disgusted the best we could do were those two candidates and he though the cat he had just seen would be elected before trump. These people are winnable if we get them thinking of the very wealthy Republicans as their enemy more than the poor.
Seriously, I can’t remember the last time in years I saw any Democrat begin a sentence with “The reason the [food stamps/Department of Education/ Department of Energy/many other examples] are good programs is...”. But I can think of many times Republicans have begun sentences with why they’re not. How do you get the public not to side with the critics if they don’t hear one sentence on why the programs are good for years?
Democrats are on the side of the people. Republicans are not. That’s the message. It happens to have the advantage of being correct — it not widely understood.
If we don’t win that message, we’re going to see even further declines for Democrats.
Remember, Massachusetts elected Scott Brown as Ted Kennedy’s replacement. California elected a string of Republican governors. New York elected Republicans as mayor and governor not long ago.
It can get worse.
We’re not winning by not winning the ‘who is on your side’ messaging — and in the case of Republicans, propaganda — war.
Simple message, repeated. Democrats are with the people, Republicans are not. Where Democrats are elected, the people believe that. Where they aren’t, the people don’t.
We’re not really losing because people are racist (who was just elected twice? That repairman voted for Obama in 2012) or Russia hacked information or Comey leaked. It’s the war of who is with them.
Republicans have no business winning that war, but trump’s trolling helps them win it, stealing the messaging.
Imagine if Jimmy Carter had said something that outraged Republicans every night, trolling them, the rest of the country didn’t care much about and got the hostage issue to be little noticed — and won.
That’s what they’re doing. It’s a big business scientifically pursued by them, finding the ‘messages’ and spreading them with a powerful media machine so people don’t notice what they do.
Is ANYONE going to change their vote because trump called Conway “baby”? Is a woman who voted for trump going to say, “OK, that is the straw that broke the camel’s back, give me a Democrat”?
No. But if she is persuaded Democrats and not Republicans are on her side — that will.
This is what Republicans do: attack Democrats with propaganda. The group who supported Democrats most was unions — now they’ve been mostly destroyed.
Even a far smaller target — the demographic who supports Democrats the most are black voters. So when they’re not preventing them from voting, look at an example of propaganda:
Clik here to view.
A lot of people will fall for that. Not that many black voters, some, but a lot of white voters who are against discrimination, but are able to be convinced the Republicans aren’t really bigoted.
Note the perversity of the message, turning helping the poor into an attack on the poor. It works.
Now, they say, it’s racist to increase equality and fight discrimination. Just wow.
Just as they convince the working class they and not the Democrats are the party on their side.
As we do too much reacting to the less important incidents and not enough reminding of the few simple messages.
*No one* had any question Reagan was ‘against bad government’ as his position. Lots of people have a question which party is for the working class, and they shouldn’t.