Soundoff

I was so distraught at the outcome of the 2010 elections, that I have barely been able to even think about getting active politically again. However, there is so much at stake that I guess it’s time to get busy again.

The Republican Party has lost its way, or perhaps its collective mind and has been hijacked by the Tea Party, which is very much out of sync with the majority of Americans and suffering from too much of the Rush Limbaugh Kool-Aid. Propaganda and intransigence are not substitutes for facts and consensus building in a democracy.

So I intend to get back to work again, writing more frequently, focusing on finding expressive language to explain what I believe is really going on and trying to frame discussion according to my own perspective. In addition, I have invited a friend, Bryan Schefman, to submit his very clear and articluate thoughts several times a week. Democtrats STILL need help framing issues and developing powerful labels and talking points.

Hopefully, we can add something to the conversation and move the dialog forward.

I’m going off topic for moment here, but in another sense, maybe this little comment will turn  out to be right on track.

I just read that the Justice Department will be appealing the recent Federal District Court judge’s ruling that effectively strikes down “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” What the heck is THIS all about? I’m a loyal democrat and a life-long liberal (I refuse to cowed into referring to myself as a progressive), but I confess; I don’t understand this decision at all! I’m confused, and if I’m confused, I assume most people are, too.

I’m angry, and I’m disappointed. I feel this way, not so much because I feel the urgency for immediate change, but because the DEMOCRATS’ MESSAGING IS SO SCREWED UP! Is the president for or against DADT? Does the Justice Department report to him, Does it consult on policy, or what? It’s like saying Obama was against DADT before he was for it, but don’t worry, he’ll be against it again. Maybe.

Is it asking too much for the President of the United States, his administration and his party to settle on a message, adhere to it, repeat it and speak with one unified voice? The Dems messaging is an unqualified disaster, and, frankly, heads should roll.

More messaging failures…here’s a quote lifted from today’s “First Read” by NBC… 

The New York Times has this nugget: “Calculations by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and other independent fiscal experts show that the $1.1 trillion cost over the next 10 years of the Medicare prescription drug program, which the Republican-controlled Congress adopted in 2003, by itself would add more to the deficit than the combined costs of the bailout, the stimulus and the health care law.” And here’s Bloomberg: The TARP bailout “provided taxpayers with higher returns than they could have made buying 30-year Treasury bonds — enough money to fund the Securities and Exchange Commission for the next two decades. The government has earned $25.2 billion on its investment of $309 billion in banks and insurance companies, an 8.2 percent return over two years.”

So here’s the issue. Who knew? Does ANYONE in the administration know at the present time? If so, who’s discussing it and explaining it to the media and the electorate? The president, his administration and the democratic Congress have been getting bludgeoned for almost two years over wreckless spending yet they have accomplished so much, while the Republicans have been so frivolous and two-faced?!?

I’m proud to be a liberal, and I’m proud of our president, but democratic messaging is an embarrassment and nothing short of a disaster.

I remember it from my grade school history class…”In unity there is strength,” or “United we stand, divided we fall.” Wasn’t it Benjamin Franklin who said, ” Either we all hang together, or we all hang separately.” Once upon a time, we valued unity; we strived to attain it.

There was a time when unity was patritotic. There was a time when Americans would compromise with one another, settle their differences and move the nation forward. And WE DID MOVE THE NATION FORWARD. We succeeded…together. Now I fear that those days of greatness may have been squandered; lost to laziness, foolishness, ignorance, fear and greed.

Republican politics is all about dividing us up. Otherwise they cannot put together a majority. Instead of looking at the real issues regarding the security, well-being and needs of the country, trying to find the common denominators, we are repeatedly divided up by so-called “hot button” issues that continue the nastiness and keep us believing that our neighbors are DIFFERENT, HATEFUL and even  DANGEROUS. Newt Gingrich taught Republicans (who taught the rest of us) to use labels for everyday things that call forth the most ugly, frightening and polarizing images.

Who could possibly be be for something as ominous as Death Taxes? Who wouldn’t be afraid of Death Panels? Who could possibly respect a president who is daily portrayed as the biggest fascist since Hitler. Yet while culture war thugs murder doctors, their Republican backers and instigators are kindly referred to as “pro-life.” Like the rest of us are pro-death!

Try another example. Ever since Reagan, the Fool Me Twice guys have declared it New Testament scripture that ALL taxes are bad. They have rigged the system so that the wealthiest Americans keep accumulating more and more wealth while the middle class disappears and the poor lose nearly everything they have. When Democrats object, or seek policies that support the middle class, The Fool Me Twice Republicans scream, “Class warfare!” They become outraged, and we all buy it! Nobody wants class warfare, but it hs been going on in greater or lesser degree ever since the days of trickle down economics. Nothing trickles down, the upper two percent get an ever larger share of the pie, and the rest of us lose our jobs, homes, healthcare, ability to send our kids to college, lousy roads and crumbling bridges.

Making good decisions requires careful consideration. I would hope that one day the public would wake up and realize how they have been played. I thought they had done so in 2008, but I fear we have reverted to our old ways of sloppy thinking. Democrats need to recognize that the pure repetition of Republican talking points is killing them, in spite of the fact that they are often complete lies. They are simple, catchy and conjour hateful imagery. The Fool Me Twice Party never sleeps. They know how to stick with a winning strategy.

The dems need to retain a group of  TOP QUALITY word-smiths to develop power words of their own, and then they ought to use them every day until they stick. Until then, the once great movement that brought us so much progress in the 20th century will have to cower, hide and be satisfied with referring to themselves as progressives, because they allowed Republicans to brand them tax and spend liberals!

These Republicans play rough; democrats need to at least get in the game.

When will Democrats learn how to talk to the nation? It seems like nearly every day the Republican coalition in unison spouts some new outrage to the American public in loud, animated, colorful and succint terms, and the Democrats respond quietly, reasonably, slowly and meekly. What is this all about?

How many times has John Boehner said, “The American people want to know where are the jobs?” It seems to me that Democrats running in EVERY district should play the video in their own commercials and then answer, “The Republicans allowed and actually gave big business tax breaks to ship them to India and China! That’s where they are.”  Democrats should be screaming, “When will Republicans agree to help the American people bring their jobs back?” It takes much longer to build an economy strong enough to create jobs in industries that have been decimated by their own management. It takes longer to create jobs in industries that are just being created. But it is clear…if Republicans regain power, we should expect more of the same, jobs disappearing at an alarming rate.

Reagan was a tax cutter (even though he did actually raise taxes when convinced it was essential to do so). He cut taxes for the wealthy and advocated “trickle down” economics. Guess what? It didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now. Reagan ran up HUGE deficits. Republicans scream loudly that the governent cannot create jobs. Democrats should answer just as loudly and firmly, “Neither do tax cuts! Show us the empirical EVIDENCE that tax cuts under Reagan or under Bush created jobs. WHERE ARE THOSE JOBS?!?”

Republicans fooled us once. Shame on them. Frankly, we have let them fool us twice…shame on us. If we are too weak to stand up and call them out for their abuse of the American electorate, if we let them fool us a third time, well I guess we’ll fully deserve the consequences.

Following are the archived posts from Election Season 2008…

There was a time when I really admired John McCain. I distinctly remember him standing up to the “swiftboaters,” telling President Bush that they were way out of line, and that Bush should direct his supporters to stop these attacks. Of course Mr. Bush did not do so, in my opinion, to his undying shame.

During the early months of the campaign, I continued to think that McCain was basically an honorable guy. So when did things change for me? It was when Senator Obama made his tour of the Middle-East and Europe.

You will recall that Obama considered making a visit to a military hospital in Germany, but canceled his visit when then the military brass voiced their concern that the visit could wind up being perceived as political, which was against policy. Nobody wants injured veterans to be “used” for political purposes. The McCain camp criticized him roundly for canceling the visit, calling Obama unpatriotic and stating that McCain would never miss an opportunity to visit the troops. And there was a very powerful commercial put out almost immediately that really tore into Obama.

Then came the leak…to me the first and most devastating insight into the Republican strategy for the campaign. It turned out that there were actually two commercials written and produced. One was critical of Obama for NOT visiting the troops. There was a second one however, which had been intended to be critical of Obama if he had actually visited the troops, accusing him of using them for political purposes.

So here’s the point. the Republicans were going to criticize Obama no matter what he did. I realized that they were not just critical of specific positions; they were happy to criticize him for anything! The point was to destroy Obama’s reputation, his character. The plan was simply to criticize and create anger and outrage. It seems to be a failed strategy.

May it rest in peace.

I listened to the talking heads after last night’s final presidential debate. I was stunned by their comments. Many of them indicated that Obama seemed off, disengaged. They also uniformly felt that McCain seemed to be the aggressor, and gushed that it was his best performance and finest moment. What were they watching?

I saw a nervous, fidgety old guy who seemed incredibly uncomfortable in the auditorium, in his seat and in his own skin. He appeared angry…constantly searching for opportunities to insert his dozen or so prefabricated talking points and zingers, most of which were awkwardly placed into the conversation.

His comments were largely empty. He said he could balance the budget in his first term, but had no specifics on how he arrived at that conclusion except for, “I know how to do it.” His remarks on health care were off the mark, as were most of his tax ideas and his remarks about the preparedness of Sarah Palin to assume the presidency.

He made it seem that Obama had all the negative campaigning coming to him, because he declined McCain’s invitation to a series of town hall meetings. He vented his hurt about the remarks of Rep. Lewis’ accusing him of “sowing seeds of hatred” and blamed Obama for not rebuking Rep. Lewis (but Obama had distanced himself from certain aspects of those remarks, saying they were not correct). McCain dwelled on the William Ayers connection as Obama effortlessly turned the issue aside…you could just feel McCain’s support fading.

I hope it’s over soon. Perhaps McCain will grasp the inevitable and go out with grace. I doubt Sarah Palin EVER will. We need to end the politics of feigned outrage. We need to resurrect the idea of the loyal opposition. We can all be Americans, even if we have differernt ideas and different politcal persuasions.

Just when you think it cannot get any worse, the McCain campaign comes through and leads the way to new lows.

One thing is sure. Sarah Palin, who should not be too cocky about her role in national politics, based on her recent performances in giving interviews and in the debate. None the less, she seems to have NO RESERVATIONS about going on the attack and spewing vile and even incendiary comments about Barak Obama. But, in a way, I expected it. What else can she offer but shamelessness. If she had any real integrity, she’d would have declined the nomination or already stepped down. She is empty, and everyone knows it, but her. Or maybe dragging the political discourse of the nation into the gutter is her way of being patriotic. Or maybe it’s her way of showing her Christian values.

How people like this can call themselves Christians boggles the mind. But who could have thought that after all these months,  Cindy McCain would become a vociferous cog in the Republican lie machine, or maybe it’s the Republican outrage machine. That’s what it produces, not truth, not fact, just outrage.

She claimed Obama sent a chill down her spine for not voting for a troop funding bill (it did not contain a timetable that he had insisted on), but she omitted to say that her husband voted no a similar bill, because it DID contain a timetable. Not to mention the fact that John McCain is one of the primary reasons that we erroneously sent her son there in the first place. I guess she doesn’t care that Obama’s intent was to do the right thing but to perhaps bring her son home, too.

Cheap lies and half-truths. This is the McCain strategy. Dishonorable, which is why the Senator doesn’t stoop himself. He let’s the women get dirty.

I listen to all the Repulican talking heads complimenting Ms. Palin on doing such a great job in the Vice-Presidential debate, and I wonder why they lie to themselves. They couldn’t be serious…

Sure she is perky, charming, very photogenic (even beautiful), but if she were to be required to assume the office of the President, she would have to contend with the very brightest, most shrewd and sophisticated thinkers in the world. She would have to contend with Vladimir Putin, with his vast background in espionage, counter-intelligence and national security. SHE IS SIMPLY OUT OF HER LEAGUE.

She reminds me so much of George Bush, who was also out of his league. I remember thinking from the very outset, that Bush would be “managed” by a board of executives, whose will and ideas he would serve. We cannot risk this again. For me, Sarah Palin is enough of a reason to vote for Barak Obama. First because she is not ready and may forever be lacking the insight and sophistication needed to be President, and secondly because John McCain knew, or should have known that fact.

“Joe Six-Pack” may be a great guy; he might be the buddy we all want to hang out with, but a great President of the United States of America must be more. He or she she be the absolutely exceptional individual we can muster. The stakes are always that high.