GOP Attacks on 'Defund the Police' and 'Socialism' Worked

[comradebillyboy]

Cook Political Report: “Throughout the cycle, Democrats rolled their eyes at Republicans’ incessant ads on these themes. After all, a minuscule number of House Democrats actually identify as ‘democratic socialists’ or have advocated reducing police funding.”

“But relatively few Democratic challengers aired ads inoculating themselves against these attacks. Most chose to stay on ‘offense’ on healthcare and COVID in their messaging. And, many paid the price. Says one GOP consultant, ‘In 2018, Dems were seen as normal. But after the rise of AOC, the primaries and ‘defund the police,’ it was easier to paint them as radical.'”

https://politicalwire.com/2020/12/18/gop-attacks-on-defund-the-police-and-socialism-worked/

[greenjar_01]

1. So they say...

[comradebillyboy]

2. Do you think they are wrong about this?

[uponit7771]

40. No doubt, a slogan doesn't explain how down ballot dems who were **AHEAD** in polling lost

[d_b]

8. Defund Debbies

The new NASCAR dads

[TheBlackAdder]

35. I got a phone survey yesterday, revealing as a GOP push. Do you support Defund police or the Police?

.


The first dozen seemed to be normal. I was waiting for it to reveal itself.

I went through about 12 questions before they sprung "Do you support Defunding the Police or do you support the Police?" I selected Do Not Answer.

Then, they went on to a partisan Phil Murphy attack question and I hung up.




So the Defund the Police is a GOP attack point.

.

[redstatebluegirl]

3. I know it made a difference. Words matter and those did not work well for us.

[jonstl08]

31. It worked in my district

It work here in Missouri. Virtually every GOP ad said Democrats wanted to defund the police and install socialism in the US. Results complete GOP control of every statewide office plus only 2 US Rep seats. My district MO-02 (St. Louis suburbs) was winnable but like I said they hammered these phrases for the last three months of the campaign. Even friends I have know for years quoted this as why they voted against the Dems.

[uponit7771]

41. What was the Democratic party counter message to the attack? Thx In Advance

[arlyellowdog]

4. Doubt it's cause and effect

Most anti-Democratic voters I know grabbed onto Defund the Police as a put down of candidates they already opposed.

[uponit7771]

42. Right, if dtp was that big of a factor it would've showed up in polling BEFORE Nov 4th !!

[still_one]

5. The polls indicated before that, that most people did not support the "defund the

police” slogan

It doesn’t matter if that isn’t what they “really” meant

If you have to explain what you mean, it isn’t a good thing

Biden made it very clear, and keep repeating it, that he was not for defunding the police, but reform

Clyburn and Abrams did the same

[Turin_C3PO]

6. It did work.

But it can only be solved by Dems pushing their message harder. Because we can’t control what phrases are used at protests. But we can change how we respond to it.

[comradebillyboy]

18. Indeed. Ignoring the false attacks is a bad

strategy.

[Hoyt]

7. Hope it fails in Georgia because that's pretty much what GOPers are using against Warnock and Ossoff

Well, they also sprinkle in some video of Rev Jerimiah Wright yelling "God Damn the USA." It's totally out of context, but that's all GOPers have. Oh, and Ossoff is beholding to China because his company got $5,000 or so from them. No mention of Perdue working and living there for 2 years.

It's pretty ugly. I hope people see through it.

[Turin_C3PO]

9. Are Dems managing

to counter the Republican messaging on TV? I hope so.

[Demsrule86]

12. I don't think you can easily counter that message. Biden was fortunate that he had run on not

defunding the police in the primary and had decades for people to know who he is...other Democrats are not so fortunate.

[empedocles]

14. The primairies hurt us in Novembers

[Turin_C3PO]

22. I just mean

I hope Dems have the necessary funds to put up commercials blaming GOP for holding up the stimulus bill, etc.

[uponit7771]

43. Yes dems can counter that message!!! Like Kerry and swiftboating they don't react to it with a ....

.... focused message

[Hoyt]

20. As best they can. On broadcast channels the ads seem to run 4 times or so an hour. Most of

the TV stations show one by the GOPer, then right behind it one by a Democrat. The next 15 minutes the Democrat goes first.

I think Warnock and Ossoff have stuck to the issues as much as possible.

But the GOPers are really blasting defund, thugs, socialism (even showing photos of Fidel Castro), junk. Now there is a new Perdue ad that focuses on his face and he talks softly about they'll even defund the police, ruin our military and way of life, and AOC says if the Democrats win Georgia they won't even have to negotiate with Republicans. I'm sure the trumpsters are just crying all over themselves with Perdue's poor pitiful delivery.

My anxiety is already peaking with roughly 3 weeks to go.

[AmericanCanuck]

10. It worked splendidly for republicans

Why on earth anyone on our side would want a socialist label and display it like a badge of honor is beyond me.

I suppose it works in Vermont and some deep-deep-deep-blue districts.

Everywhere else, it is a disaster.

[Turin_C3PO]

11. Besides Bernie and the squad,

who in our party embraced that label?

[empedocles]

13. 'embraced', is well put

[AmericanCanuck]

15. That is enough

As long as Bernie was a low visibility senator the public ignored it. When he ran for POTUS, it got visibility and importance. Same thing with the squad - squad has a very high visibility - so that label can be used as a cudgel against all Democrats.

[uponit7771]

45. Not if he wasn't running !! No, poor messaging response shouldn't be scapegoated by end consultants

[AmericanCanuck]

51. His run and visibility has introduced socialism to a lot of voters

The stigma of socialism will last a long time -- whether Bernie is running or not is immaterial.

We as Democrats need to get rid of the label by aggressive messaging instead of having people who wear socialism as a badge of honor.

[uponit7771]

44. +1, No one !!! People want to attribute poor message response to a slogan that no one ran on.

[awesomerwb1]

16. Of course the attacks worked

Language matters. Defund should be retrain, or something along those lines considering “defunding” was never gonna happen to begin with.

[AleksS]

19. Fortunately, the GOP never ever ever called us socialists

before, and I’m sure any other slogan would definitely not have been twisted and attacked by the GOP, like how Black Lives Matter was never instantly twisted and incessantly attacked.

Shoot. It’s what the GOP does. There is no slogan that they won’t attack, and where those attacks, buoyed by the media and the self-devouring democratic membership, won’t have an impact.

We could chant “Good is good” and the GOP would attack on it, and there’d be at least 5 threads here and 100 media stories about how “Good is good” is hurting us.

[Dream Girl]

21. Defund the Police was a gift to the Republicans wrapped in a golden bow.

When I first heard the phase, I cringed. I totally expected it to be weaponized. And it was.

[AleksS]

25. Anything will be weaponized.

The fact that something will be weaponized is not a reason not to use it. Because everything, and anything, will be weaponized.

“We support good.” Will be weaponized.
“Cuddle puppies.” Will be weaponized.
“We are nice.” Will be weaponized.

If we perhaps stopped helping the GOP weaponize our phrases, and stopped leaping to help them criticize ourselves, that would be nice. But whatcha gonna do. As Roy Rodgers said: I’m not part of an organized party—I’m a Democrat!

[Hav]

26. A stupid slogan that loses elections and that even intends to express something else

is a good reason to throw it in the garbage bin. I don't get why people insist using awful messaging. It almost seems they partially do it because they cannot admit how stupid their slogan is.

Hiding behind "anything will be weaponized" is the same logic used by those who argue that everyone dies, why give a shit about Covid. It's not about an issue getting weaponized, it's about convincing the majority of voters.

[AleksS]

29. The person I replied to literally made the argument

That the phrase was bad because it would be weaponized by republicans.

So either that is or isn’t what it is about.

If it’s not what it’s about, then start a new thread, or reply somewhere else, because here, the post I’m replying to, made it clear that is what this particular reply-chain is about. So it is what I replied to.

Whether or not something will be weaponized by republicans is a bad reason to dump it—everything will be weaponized. Get better reasons to dump the phrase is all I’m saying. If all you’ve got is “The GOP will use it against us,” then you’ve got nothing. Likewise, “I don’t like it!” Is also no reason at all, since obviously other people do like it.

I have nothing against good reasons. But so far it’s only bad reasons and personal feelings all the way down. Get better reasons.

[Dream Girl]

27. It was the dumbest slogan ever. I have no doubt it cost us dearly. We lost seats and the Senate

Was within reach.

[uponit7771]

39. +1, look at what they're doing with Warnock in GA !!! They're twisting his words even more!!!

[d_b]

30. My other favorite

Is when the electorate supposedly has a goldfish memory for Republicans and an elephants’ memory for Democrats.

[uponit7771]

38. *** BINGO !!! *** folk post such without a shred of empirical evidence calling on "common sense" to

... override facts

[WyattKansas]

23. Until the Democratic Party LEARNS to counter 'socialism' with the Fascist label on Republicans...

Then they will continue getting their asses kicked and pummeled every time they try to do anything for the American People.

And until the Democratic Party counters 'deregulation' with the fact that it means stripping Americans of their rights, then more rights will be taken away.

And until the Democratic Party counters 'corporations' Republicans favor as Citizens, then actual human Citizens will continue being reduced to Subjects to our Republicanism Government.

How fucking hard is this? So drop the collegiate accolade chic smug attitude Democratic Party, because your shit stinks too and you lose miserably where it counts... For the American People that are being cannibalized by Corporate America.

For Christ's sake, the list goes on and on! For the Democratic Party to claim being intellectually superior to Republicans, while continuing to fail miserably for several decades at messaging is a fucking joke. Hell, just look at who had the best ads in the last election.

[Jspur]

50. Unfortunately I don't think Americans fear fascism the way

they fear socialism. I think a lot of them are pretty stupid and wouldn't know what fascism is.

[SWBTATTReg]

24. Well meaning people quoting the 'defund the police' motto actually caused us to go backwards

in ever getting support in resolving policing issues/etc. Now, far more has to be done in ever getting critical policing issues resolved.

[uponit7771]

37. Nah, racist will use any excuse to enable oppression including random people saying stuff

[The Mouth]

53. Exactly

Best gift we've given the Republicans in dec ades. Only a moron or a GOP operative would use that phrase.

[Polybius]

28. I'd also like to add backlash against all of the name changes this year (teams, products, etc.)

Democrats didn't do it, but liberals got the blame.

[Tarheel_Dem]

32. It won't make a bit of difference, but I'm glad a publication like CPR tells it like it is. I'm...

in NC, and I lost count of the number of ads that featured images of AOC as if she is, in any way, representative of NC Dems. It hurt us, and I don't care what's said to the contrary. I don't only blame her fans for making a celebrity out of her, the media lent a big ol' helping hand as well.

[comradebillyboy]

33. It was a sad day when the news morphed into infotainment.

I remember the good old days when Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in America.

[Jspur]

46. As a fellow North Carolinian Cunnigham being a dumbass really

hurt us. If that idiot didn't get involved in that stupid sexting scandal he probably would have won. The other thing that hurt us is that I felt Tillis had too many adds that came on TV every commercial break while Cunningham didn't have as many. Don't know how to combat the spending advantage republicans have on dems when it comes to TV adds.

[ck4829]

34. Can't attack Democrats if you deplatform them. Just sayin'.

[uponit7771]

36. Then how could down ballot Dems be leading in polls outside of MOE?!?! IF dtp hurt that bad it would

... show up somewhere in polling

Or

Dems would've reacted to it

It didn't, something went wrong either the US has the worst polling amongst developed countries out r the voting was off

[Jspur]

47. I think the republicans were going to succeed regardless because I saw

plenty of adds where Dems went on the offensive down here on NC to attack Republican ideas and they just didn't work. Some people will say the democrats should have defended themselves in their adds but that is always a losing formula. If you have to spend time defending yourself then your opponent always has the upper hand psychologically.

[Jspur]

48. What hurt the Democrats even more I would say is not being able to canvass due to Covid.

The republicans on the other hand benefiting from Covid in the sense they were willing to canvass and not care about getting it since they are idiots. I'm not even knocking the dems for not canvassing since it's stupid to risk your health.

[Jspur]

49. A few things I like to point out is that the map electorally does not favor the democrats

when it comes to a majority of these senate races and congress races. I look at the race in NC with Madison Cawthorne which was the district next door to mine. The district Madison ran in was super red and it was clear he was going to win regardless of the messaging. This guy is an open Nazi and racist. So I don't think defund the police was the reason why people voted for Madison but more so they were straight up racists.

Secondly republicans are going to scream the Democrats are socialists at every policy they propose even if it is a normal centrist policy. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it. The only positive thing I see in the long run is that people who are 40 or younger don't give a shit about the socialist messaging since they didn't grow up with the cold war. So over time this type of messaging will lose traction and people will just get tired of it. In the short run I don't know how you deal with it.

Thirdly not being able to canvass due to Covid really hurt the Democrats and gave the republicans huge advantage. I'm not upset at the democrats for not doing it since they are not stupid to risk their life and safety. The republicans on the other hand or ignorant and stupid so it benefited them in this situation since they were willing to canvass with the risk of getting Covid.

[frazzled]

52. The corollary is

That the far left-wing (not of the Democratic Party, but rather independent left-wingers and a handful of Democrats) are really, really bad at messaging. In some ways, they are doing real damage to the party.