From TPM Reader JB …
Quick point. Democrats have a hard time attacking Republicans personally. Whereas Republicans will call people out by name, Democrats (with the exception of the last President) generally will just use aggregating pronouns to complain the “other side” won’t do this or that. In trying to provide a crutch to our boys, I think it can be easily said that many things that the Republicans want to do are “bad for America and bad for you.” In fact, I think an entire campaign can be made out of this and, more than that, a long series of one-liners that could be repeated by large crowds. For example:
“Republicans want to allow health insurance companies to sell insurance like credit card companies sell credit cards — to their advantage, not yours. That’s bad for America and bad for you.”
“Republicans want to keep our dependence on oil, you know “drill baby, drill.” This means we have to rely on the middle east, Russia, and Venezuela for oil. That’s bad for America and bad for you.”
“Republicans want to scale down Medicare and privatize Social Security. Leaving seniors unprotected is bad for America and bad for you.”
“Republicans want to give rich people tax breaks instead of spending that same money to put people back to work. That’s good for multimillionaires, but bad for America and bad for you.”
You get the idea. It is hard for me to say this, but despite the presence of historic majorities in both houses, the Democrats stink at politics. You could shoot yourself in the head. Or wonder if they really believe what they say. To quote EJ Dionne: the only thing worse than being a socialist, is being an ineffective socialist.
A lot of this stuff is really pretty basic. And to a degree I start feeling funny about passing on so many readers’ advice to the solons and operatives on the Hill. But no amount of it seems to be enough.
