Paul, as always, "You De Man." THANKS for another column written with thunderbolts of blazing truth.
A zillion thoughts occur, but my bumper-sticker advice as a shellshocked Dem is STOP PANDERING, BLAST FASCISM. Dems are rightly perceived as a gaggle of bedwetting Myron Poindexters, too scared of our own shadows to plant a flag, take a firm position, answer a direct yes or no question, or actually risk offending some crosseyed suburban Karen who's going to hate us no matter what we decide to say. Need I point out that WE'RE ALREADY LOSING, so melting down our polling tabs with frenzied six sigma voodoo is no better than pulling the hood over our eyes after the parachute fails.
I don't think we NEED a lot of subtlety or guile to focus our death-ray on MAGA once and for all. These are the meanest, most hateful, defiantly imbecilic thugs and gun kooks EVER to bare their fangs so overtly & malignantly. Voting MAGA is voting Khmer Rouge, Rwandan genocide, Bosnia 1994, Oklahoma City Federal Building, Waco Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, Jimmy Swaggart, etc., etc. If we can't rally overwhelming majorities to our side, we need a lifeboat Plan B RIGHT NOW.
I just listened to Pitchfork Economics repeat of its podcast episode with Bruce Bartlett, a well known tax policy expert and adviser to several Republican administrations. Bartlett finally left the party after serving in the second Bush administration. Bartlett strongly denounced Republicans for pretending to care about deficits only as an excuse to cut social spending. He accused Republicans of deliberately driving up deficits with tax cuts for fat cats so they can cut even more.
Bartlett also slammed the media for continuing to promote the fairy tale that Republicans, not Democrats, are the party of fiscal responsibility. He also pointed out something that the media never acknowledges — Bill Clinton had a significant budget surplus that he was using to pay down the national debt and that Bush and the Republicans deliberately destroyed that surplus with tax cuts. (Bush actually made destroying the surplus an explicit campaign talking point). According to Bartlett if Bush had just left Clinton’s fiscal policies in place — as Gore had campaigned on — by the end of his 8 years in office the federal deficit would have disappeared. That’s a fact our mainstream “liberal” media will never tell the public.
As Steve Bannon told Joshua Green it’s the mainstream media that does the real damage to Democrats.
thanks, we needed that. but i think the real issue is Dems who think we need five more Joe Manchins. instead we need democrats who really understand the issues and care about them and can explain them to voters.
i have not seem dem politicians ignore the immigration issue, for example, they say immigration is a problem but we need to be humane...and i agree with them entirely, but the R's who are master liars turn that into "murdrers and rapists". and somehow appealing to the lizard brain is more effective than appealing to the part of the brain that understands the idea of civilization.
even here, the commenters, who i mostly agree with about policy, manage to turn to hate speech to satisfy their own lizard brain.
meanwhile the dem politicians seem to have no principles beyond winning elections. of course that is no different from the R's, but the R's are better at the game.
and it is entirely understandable because you can't do good things if you can't get elected
Paul, as always, "You De Man." THANKS for another column written with thunderbolts of blazing truth.
A zillion thoughts occur, but my bumper-sticker advice as a shellshocked Dem is STOP PANDERING, BLAST FASCISM. Dems are rightly perceived as a gaggle of bedwetting Myron Poindexters, too scared of our own shadows to plant a flag, take a firm position, answer a direct yes or no question, or actually risk offending some crosseyed suburban Karen who's going to hate us no matter what we decide to say. Need I point out that WE'RE ALREADY LOSING, so melting down our polling tabs with frenzied six sigma voodoo is no better than pulling the hood over our eyes after the parachute fails.
I don't think we NEED a lot of subtlety or guile to focus our death-ray on MAGA once and for all. These are the meanest, most hateful, defiantly imbecilic thugs and gun kooks EVER to bare their fangs so overtly & malignantly. Voting MAGA is voting Khmer Rouge, Rwandan genocide, Bosnia 1994, Oklahoma City Federal Building, Waco Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, Jimmy Swaggart, etc., etc. If we can't rally overwhelming majorities to our side, we need a lifeboat Plan B RIGHT NOW.
STEVEN MILLER STOMPS PUPPIES!
This was a strong insight. Thank you!
That truly explicated the multi-dimensional reality of campaigning. Thanks.
Hey don't forget your bottom line.
In the end, Dems hold to decency and principle.
Reps have been working for 50+ years to OWN and subvert your democracy.
The Trumpists are the reflection of that success.
The mechanisms of the American Experiment sold out and turned against itself.
I just listened to Pitchfork Economics repeat of its podcast episode with Bruce Bartlett, a well known tax policy expert and adviser to several Republican administrations. Bartlett finally left the party after serving in the second Bush administration. Bartlett strongly denounced Republicans for pretending to care about deficits only as an excuse to cut social spending. He accused Republicans of deliberately driving up deficits with tax cuts for fat cats so they can cut even more.
Bartlett also slammed the media for continuing to promote the fairy tale that Republicans, not Democrats, are the party of fiscal responsibility. He also pointed out something that the media never acknowledges — Bill Clinton had a significant budget surplus that he was using to pay down the national debt and that Bush and the Republicans deliberately destroyed that surplus with tax cuts. (Bush actually made destroying the surplus an explicit campaign talking point). According to Bartlett if Bush had just left Clinton’s fiscal policies in place — as Gore had campaigned on — by the end of his 8 years in office the federal deficit would have disappeared. That’s a fact our mainstream “liberal” media will never tell the public.
As Steve Bannon told Joshua Green it’s the mainstream media that does the real damage to Democrats.
thanks, we needed that. but i think the real issue is Dems who think we need five more Joe Manchins. instead we need democrats who really understand the issues and care about them and can explain them to voters.
i have not seem dem politicians ignore the immigration issue, for example, they say immigration is a problem but we need to be humane...and i agree with them entirely, but the R's who are master liars turn that into "murdrers and rapists". and somehow appealing to the lizard brain is more effective than appealing to the part of the brain that understands the idea of civilization.
even here, the commenters, who i mostly agree with about policy, manage to turn to hate speech to satisfy their own lizard brain.
meanwhile the dem politicians seem to have no principles beyond winning elections. of course that is no different from the R's, but the R's are better at the game.
and it is entirely understandable because you can't do good things if you can't get elected
GREAT analysis of polling and how it informs politics. Thank you!