Eugene Robinson: Democrats need to use Republicans' playbook to make sure Trump loses

[brooklynite]

Washington Post

Democrats, learn from your former Republican foes: Pull heartstrings, wave the flag and go straight for the jugular.

Political warfare in this country has long been asymmetrical. Democrats tend to appeal to voters with arguments based on reason, fairness and economic self-interest. There’s nothing wrong with any of that, but defeating President Trump and his GOP enablers is too important to leave any weapons on the shelf. Democrats need to learn to use the tools that Republicans have long wielded with tremendous skill and success: emotion, patriotism and cultural affinity.

Not to be overly anatomical about it, but Democrats tend to target the head while Republicans go for the heart and the gut.

Fortunately, some veteran Republican strategists are giving a master class in GOP-style political communication. It is imperative that Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee sit up and pay close attention.

“Mourning in America” is a one-minute political ad released Monday by the Lincoln Project, a group of prominent never-Trump Republicans and former Republicans (including Washington Post Opinions contributing columnist George T. Conway III). The 60-second spot is a devastating indictment of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, and it is safe to say that it drove the president around the bend: He was up until nearly 1 a.m. hate-tweeting at the Lincoln Project’s members.

[uponit7771]

1. K&R, Democrats need to use Republican play book all the time. They fight angry

[lagomorph777]

19. Go for the heart and the gut, and KICK HIM IN THE BALLS.

It's time we stopped laying down and taking it.

[ehrnst]

30. Speak for yourself. I haven't been "lying down and taking it" and neither

have my reps.

[lastlib]

34. By going for his balls, we'll have to employ a surgical strike.........

We can do it, but it won't be easy--we'll have to go between Lindsey Graham's and Mike Pence's faces.

[lagomorph777]

39. Use a tiny ball peen hammer

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Greed Over People always uses FEAR to pick their suckers' pockets. D need to use emotions too. . .nt

[Roy Rolling]

38. Branding/Business

Republicans have been better at business branding and marketing—it’s how they dominated world commercial markets.

All of their political success has been in employing those principles, while Democrats employ academic responses like we’re in a classroom.

Bad and failing businesses lose to other businesses who are keen on branding and marketing, not sales. Nobody likes to be sold anything directly anymore they like to be subliminally influenced by the pressure of others to live in fear and greed.

When Democrats read “Positioning” by Reis and Trout they will learn they are fighting the game Republicans have told them to fight.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

57. +1 . . . nt

[azureblue]

45. and emphasize the fact

that the rich run the GOP and they are stealing your money, Show graphs of how rich and how they get rich after every tax break, vs, how everybody else is basically making the same amount of money while expenses go up, and the tax burden gets shifted down.

This is really about the rich vs the poor. The GOP goes to great lengths to hide that fact. We should do things like expose how much money a GOPer makes in congress, and show his salary vs how much he is worth then ask where did the money come from?

And I would expose the whole scheme all the way back to REagan and ask the public: "The GOP and their rich buddies have gotten rich with your money, they have driven you into debt because they won't pay you enough, and they want you to fall for their con again? Look at how good your life would be today if the Eisenhower era tax rates were still in place (Show example)

If there is one thing that will rile people up, it's finding out they are getting suckered, especially while they are struggling to make ends meet.

So frame this just like back in the 20's when the rich were exposed as robber barons, ruining America and its people. It will work.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

56. +1. thx . . . nt

[dalton99a]

3. Attack often and fiercely. Repeat. Do not let up.

And then repeat at every opportunity.

If it is not illegal, do it. Forget the high road.

[Freddie]

4. Enough of this "we go high" crap. We're angry, show it!

Show the photos and stories in an endless loop. Body bags being loaded on a truck. People on ventilators. The young nurses who died. Elderly people with canes, wearing masks, waiting to vote in Wisconsin. The true small businesses that get nothing while the huge corporations rake in millions. So many things. The endless scandals.

[dalton99a]

9. Absolutely. Republicans own this atrocity.

Republicans owns this monster.

Anyone says a fucking word about the ads, they can go fuck themselves

[Celerity]

13. Fuckbook can go FUCK ITSELF!!! FUCK Suckerberg!! Outfuckingrageous they banned Mourning in America!!

FUCK POLITIFACT TOO!!!!!

Politigaslight


both are Rump nob-licks

[dalton99a]

15. +1. Utterly and thoroughly

[Celerity]

18. I hope Biden uses Max Rose as a battering ram against Trump, that bloke has the jacobs to

rip out a pound of fleshy Rump flab every time he attacks

[Thekaspervote]

44. BOYCOTT FB!! Please..there are lots of ways to stay in touch with F&F..using FB is helping repukes

[Celerity]

50. I no longer have a FB, have not had one for years, long before I joined DU, I do not care for

social media, that alones makes me a rare Zennial, lolol.

[Solomon]

10. To do all you say is not going "low". It's all true so it's not incompatible with going "high."

Fighting back k is not necessarily going "low".

[Dave in VA]

22. To me, going low

means hitting below the belt. It does not mean you can't punch back!

As the old college football cheer goes, "Hit 'em again, HARDER, HARDER!"

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. "We go high" crap. Didn't agree with that approach then, can't

afford it to now.

[azureblue]

46. show pictures of Rich People's houses

especially GOPers who got rich in congress. You don't have to ID the houses, but the point will be made. Show lists of their possessions, cars, multiple houses, boats, etc. And ask where did they get that money?

[SoonerPride]

48. +1,000,000

kick em in the face and keep kicking! (metaphorically, of course)

[Pacifist Patriot]

5. The tactics are anathema to some on the left, however...

They are effective and can be deployed in both positive and negative campaigning.

There is no reason why candidates cannot have excellent well-reasoned policies and direct their appeal to our sentiments rather than our logic. Most voters are not political junkies. And most humans don't take their reason and critical thinking skills to the polls.

We need voters voting for Democrats, period. And frankly, I don't care if that is because they are enamored with a particular policy or if it is because they feel instinctively that voting for the Democrat is the patriotic thing to do.

[Takket]

6. We should be speaking to "morality" too

Pretty sure this “the gop is the party of morality” is total bullshit. They are open advocating to kill Americans to open up the economy. We need to declare ourselves the party if morality.

[dlk]

7. The Obamas were in a unique and often precarious position-They had to go high

However, this is open warfare on our Constitutional and democracy. t’s time to change tactics.

[JI7]

8. Biden being a white man will mean he could do some things which Obama and Hillary couldn't

We already saw this when he said he would physically attack Trump and told some gun nut he was full of shit.

[dlk]

49. My concern with Joe is his overeagerness to "work across the aisle"

We are in treacherous new territory and using a kumbaya approach to counter Republican scorched earth tactics is naive and ultimately harmful. We need a warrior.

[JI7]

52. he has never done that so im not worried about him

im more concerned with the types who attacked Hillary for calling the thugs deplorable going after Biden for being too mean. The ones who went after Biden for telling some gun nut he was full of shit.

[dlk]

53. I would disagree

Although I will be voting for Joe in November because we are in such challenging times, he’s much too much like Republican-lite for my liking.

[JI7]

54. that is a meaningless statement

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. Yes, saw him talk about this on MoJoe. Guess for someone

as thoughtful and kind-hearted as he is, this was a novel idea. But we've been saying it for the last couple years. Is there anyone in our party who would put this idea into action? Lincoln Project isn't ours. Only two I have seen are Bloomberg (semi-Dem who lost) and Michael Avenatti (in prison I think).

[dalton99a]

14. +1. Heck, Dick Cheney told Patrick Leahy to fuck himself on the Senate floor without repercussions

but when Beto used the f word during the summer of mass shootings, hmm, well, Beto, that wasn't nice, that wasn't civil - mind your manners

This attitude has to end. I'm not talking about specific language items

[Celerity]

24. Cheney is another who fully deserves the hangman's noose reserved only for global war criminals

I am almost always against the death penalty, but global crimes against humanity perpetrators and/or pure traitors like Bush, Blair, Cheney, Barr, Trump, McTurtle, Kushner, Ivanka, etc, well, I will hold my tongue.

I will lose my mind if Biden doesn't retroactively go after the main traitorous fucks of the Rump regime. If we let them skate, it will set a potentially nation-ending precedent the next time the Rethugs steal their way back into power.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

25. Perfect example...you KNEW that that happened, that Cheney

said that. That's what seems missing. The instant recall of relevant comebacks, defenses, counterpoints. How many hundreds of times have we seen Dems on TV and think, jeez l, why didn't they say this or that? It's either a completely different mindset or lack of knowledge, staff?

[dewsgirl]

12. Rick Wilson's book, Running Against the Devil says essentially

the same thing.

[Celerity]

17. that was a great read! many uncomfortable truths, which is always a good sign

How to dump Trump: Rick Wilson on Running Against the Devil

He was a Republican ad man but now he’s a bestselling author out to bring down a president. He says Democrats must listen

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/11/donald-trump-rick-wilson-running-against-the-devil

Democratic voters should read Rick Wilson’s new book, he says, and heed his advice about how to beat Donald Trump. Why? “Unless your candidate is a generational superstar like Barack Obama or Bill Clinton” – and it’s not a push to say there is no such Democrat this year – “we know all the tricks to beating them and we’ve used them over and over again.” By “we” he means the Republican party. Wilson is a top Republican strategist with 30 years’ experience. He has made myriad attack ads, notorious among them efforts in support of Rudy Giuliani in New York in 1998 and against Obama 10 years later. But Wilson’s first book, a bestseller released in 2018, was called Everything Trump Touches Dies. The sequel, out next week, is Running Against the Devil. The GOP enjoyed success after success but it has fallen under the sway of Trump. Wilson wants no more.

“We control 38 state legislatures right now and there’s a reason for that: it’s because of guys like me,” he says, on the phone from Florida. “I helped to build some of the tools in the toolbox for how you go out and exploit the cultural divisions in the country, and the political divisions, to win for Republicans in blue and purple areas. On paper it looks hard but we worked hard and recognised that the way to win is sometimes to not tell people who you really are.” Wilson’s new book is a guide to how he thinks Trump can be beaten. The chief way to do it, he says, is to make the election a referendum on the president. He thinks impeachment and the Iran crisis, which happened after he went to press, only help prove Trump isn’t fit for office.

He thinks Democrats are making a huge mistake in the campaign so far – by telling voters who they really are. The main candidates are veering too far left, he thinks, away from the disaffected Trump voters they will have to turn. Among progressives, the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren is praised for her detailed policy plans. But to Wilson, Democratic “policy is the enemy”, whether it concerns Medicare for All, gun control or women’s right to choose. “Guys like me who still work on the Trump side of the fence can always turn it into something that is a millstone around their neck. It’s not even that hard. Elizabeth Warren produces a 600-page healthcare plan and my research geeks can’t find, I don’t know, 30 things in there that I can’t demagogue the hell out of? Because I can. Or the guys that are me now can.”

Away from the coasts and the college towns, Wilson contends, America is still a conservative place. Accordingly, Running Against the Devil contains a lot of what its author calls “tough love”, telling harsh truths and demanding Democrats put party purity aside. After all, the general election against Trump is going to be dirty as hell. “Democrats tend to believe the country is completely homogenous politically,” Wilson says. “No matter how meritorious their position may be on gun control, for example, or not, it just kills them in rural areas. It just destroys them. “No matter how much they want to talk about choice and reproductive rights, when you go into Catholic communities it is still a burden on them and they don’t have this ability to say, ‘Maybe rural Michigan isn’t the same thing as San Jose, California.’”

snip


any man that is a fucking pitbull AND confident enough to wear a pink blazer (love pink on men if done correctly) is aces in my book!

we need more pitbulls to take down the rabid bear Trump

fuck playing nice, we bollocks up this election, and the nation is more than likely fucked for good

[HotTeaBag]

55. If Biden's camp isn't making that book mandatory reading for everyone involved

in the campaign they are missing a huge opportunity.

In fact, they should be hiring Wilson either as a consultant or to lead their strategic team.

[dewsgirl]

58. Indeed.

[SheltieLover]

16. K&R!

[mfcorey1]

20. I have always felt this way. When I encounter them wrapped in the flag, I

let them know that my brother fought in Vietnam for the United States of America. That flag belongs to him and his family too. I know the controversy and all the representations of it but we as "liberals" need to fly it higher than they do. They prostitute the flag to make them look like the only patriots in this country. We should beat them at their own game and fly it with dignity and without the taint of the confederacy displayed along side it.

[treestar]

21. Interesting issue; we are becoming convinced

that reason does not prevail in this country, which is something we need as a goal to get back to one day.

I did notice that ad was a bit unfair in that it had so many depictions of poor areas, empty factories, and America does not look like that everywhere. But that's Republicans for you. That Lincoln project is Republicans after all. Shows how we can use their tactics against them. We can learn a lot from them about how to do dishonest appeals to emotion, and if that's what works for most Americans, it's what works.

But not a thing to be happy about at all. This is what we've come to - that first was a world leader in science and new discoveries. The country that had the inventors of flying, electricity, telephones now denies reality.

[Hortensis]

23. HUGE difference: We can go for the jugular with the TRUTH,

where they're forced to use lies against us.

Those Lincoln Project ads are doing that.

[iluvtennis]

26. As Eugene Robinson says, we Dems need to use every weapon available to us! nt

[marble falls]

28. All except the big lies and character assassination stuff.

[ehrnst]

29. I've carried a red white and blue "This is what a patriot looks like!" sign to every march.

[theaocp]

31. And when in office, don't fucking let up.

You don’t work with Republicans. You TELL them how it’s going to be and then negotiate as needed.

[bucolic_frolic]

32. I don't think we're driving home the budding Dictatorship angle very well

People are vague on the concept of Rule of Law. Some laws they don't like. But if you tell them Trump is trying to be a Dictator, that's something they understand.

[Hotler]

42. The orange one, Barr, Pompeo, and that little fucker Stephen Miller are fascist.

I yell at Rachael Madow and Chris Hayes once a week to stop sugar coating it and call the orange one a fascist on air.

[bucolic_frolic]

47. Can't do that

Their employer is 1/2 of the state-corporate formula

[duforsure]

33. As long as Democrats in power refuse holding corrupt Republicans accountable

Makes it much worse the next time, as we've seen under W Bush and Chenny then now with trump, it continues to escalate the corruption, and the amount of crimes they carry out. They need to go after then or we need people that will, or there is no equal justice.

[James48]

35. WRAP JOE HEAD TO TOE IN THE AMERICAN FLAG

PUT AN AMERICAN FLAG IN EVERY PICTURE OF JOE FROM TODAY FORWARD.

MAKE THE MESSAGE "JOE LOVES AMERICA."


Because you know damn well that (R)'s are going to continue to pound on the fact that no American flags are anywhere to be seen in any "Demoncrat" events..


Turn the tables on them. Have JOE walk up and HUG the flag. Again. And Again. And Again .And Again.

Put it right in their face. ALL the symbolism. Turn that right around on them.

MAKE THIS CHANGE INTO A BIDEN PHOTO. DO IT EVERYEWHERE_ BUT WITH JOE.

[sunonmars]

36. Yup I think we need to go real dirty to save the country, fight fire with fire.

[Hotler]

37. I'll summarize. Democrats, stop playing nice. nt

[Bleacher Creature]

40. I adore Michelle Obama, but when they go low, we need to go lower.

There's just too much at stake.

[qwlauren35]

41. Not the entire playbook.

Part of the Republican playbook is gerrymandering and voter suppression. Part of the Republican playbook is vote tampering and miscounting. Part of the Republican playbook is lies and deceit. Part of the Republican playbook is scapegoating minorities to rile up the base.

Do you really want Democrats to do this.

[questionseverything]

59. miscounting is being polite

the repubs own the vote counting machines and the vote reporting software so democrats have to win by HUGE margins or their victories are stolen

we need paper ballots, counted by hand ,openly, transparently with a tight chain of custody for the reporting of results

we need to count our own precincts, house by house, block by block

[cry baby]

43. I hope we finally learn this lesson. It's imperative for

our very survival.

[Baclava]

51. Labels, use them, "Trump's Great Depression" and "War Criminal President", for starters

[Hekate]

60. Damn right. The members of the Lincoln Project could teach us Dems a ton about WINNING. nt