Why won’t Democrats defend themselves?
If you read the news carefully, you will see where Republicans repeatedly trump up some phony issue, score a bunch of headlines, and move on to another issue before most people ever figure out just how phony it was. Polls seem to show that it’s working for them.
Here’s an example. During the health debate, Dems decided that we had to get to a vote so they started making senators stick to their time limits. The Republican moaning about it was thunderous. John McCain, “I’ve been around here 20-some years, first time I’ve ever seen a member denied an extra minute or two to finish his remarks.” You had to read political blogs for a couple of days to discover that McCain himself had done identically the same thing. (http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/18/mccain-hypocrisy-franken/) He shut down Democrat Senator Mark Dayton of Minnesota using the exact same words (dictated by Senate protocol, actually) that Democrat Al Franken of Minnesota used.
Here’s the point. If the situation were reversed, Republicans would have half a dozen people hyperventilating on talk shows. But did the Democrats make McCain look like a doddering old fool over the issue? No! A few bloggers … like me … are the ones pointing it out.
Other examples:
When President Obama waited for the facts and didn’t jump in front of the cameras immediately to comment about Abdulmutallab, the Detroit crotch bomber, Republican congressmen were all over the news about it. According to the blog, Politico, “Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the top Homeland Security Committee Republican, criticized the Obama administration for not going public more quickly to reassure Americans that the skies are safe. (Rep. Pete) Hoekstra (R-Mich.), for his part, blamed the president for ‘downplaying’ the threat of terrorism and slammed the White House for failing to provide detailed bipartisan briefings.” It has mainly fallen to us bloggers to point out that Bush waited six days before saying anything about Richard Reid, the shoe bomber. At the time, only the French news agency filed a report about the idiot Bush’s delay. Democrats were as quiet as field mice.
Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz is responsible for an amendment to the Homeland Security appropriations bill barring the use of image scans that are exactly what is necessary to detect the explosive where the Detroit crotch bomber hid it in his underwear.
A single conservative Republican congressman (Jim DeMint – S. Carolina) is blocking President Obama’s nomination to head the Transportation Security Administration.
The Washington Post reported that Republicans were even willing to block the Defense appropriations bill as part of a last ditch effort to stop the health bill. (See Note 1)
If Democrats had done ANY of those things, Hannity and Limbaugh would be having hissy fits about it for a month.
Here’s the question: Should Democrats join Republicans in the mud hole or is taking the high road eventually going to pay off?
————-
Note 1: Washington Post, Friday, December 18, 2009, “Senate Republicans failed early Friday in their bid to filibuster a massive Pentagon bill that funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an unusual move designed to delay President Obama’s health-care legislation.”
I believe the Democrats have to defend themselves and keep the record accurate. Keeping to the high road may have worked for some politicians but no names come immediately to mind. As we have seen during the debate on health care reform, politics ain’t beanbag. The hard core left wing base is always going to support the Democrats and the hard core right wing base never will. The vote bloc at play are those in the middle whether affiliated with a political party or not. The Democrats will not benefit if that bloc hears only from one side on a variety of issues. The conventional wisdom is that while the public says it opposes negative political advertising, it really does work.
A problem the Democrats must deal with is their seeming inability to give effective counterweight to the most histrionic Republicans. The lefts versions of Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck don’t seem to get much attention. Who is the counter to Cheney – Al Gore?
I’m an avid news watcher. So I watch a lot of TV News . As such I’m probably a good representation of the average voter.
Right now I’m feeling a bit edgy. We won W.W.Two partly because we all pulled together . I realize of course that a lot of information is needed when making a decision and we need the best of thinkers to make those decisions . So that’s what I think when I listen to either party. It’s information needed for us to make those decisions and it’s my job to decide who is the best thinker as far as making the right decision for the survival of my country . Lena
You have a right to feel edgy. There is no question that we’re badly polarized. In the words of Matthew 12:25, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
The real dilemma is that it’s hard for me to support the kind of lies and hypocrisy that Republicans practice daily; yet, as RP states, “negative political advertising, it really does work.” So what is the alternative?
That’s why I was so glad when Obama made it quite clear that he wasn’t going to pretend that Faux News was (as one of their biggest lies states) “fair and unbiased”. While I can’t support outright lies, I do think Dem’s need to develop a more aggressive battle strategy and stop pretending that the Republicans are playing by the same rules. The alternative will be that America sinks into a kind of “Taliban” government using the rules of the radical Christian right.
———–
ps … Mormons ought to be afraid. The best representation of the “radical Christian right” is Southern Baptists and they don’t like Mormons one bit. They’re willing to tolerate Mormons right now under the “enemy of my enemy” doctrine, but if they ever really get the bit in their teeth, we’ll be back to the 1870’s as far as the Mormons are concerned. Who kills the most Shite Moslems? Sunni Moslems, that’s who.
This Letter to the Editor, from today’s Standard Examiner (Ogden, Utah) seems to follow the theme of this blog: Why don’t the Democrats try to pierce holes in what Hatch does? – Probably the reason is because there aren’t enough Democrats in Utah to launch a successful campaign to do this. – But still, it goes along with what you’ve written above, the Republicans aren’t held responsible for what they do and say by the Democrats – and, in Utah and nationally, votes are cast for incumbents without knowing why, exactly.
Please see Untitled Article on Page 6A of Friday, January 01, 2010 issue of Standard-Examiner Digital Edition