General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHit 'em Where It Hurts: Rachel Bitecofer on How to Stop Trump, MAGA -- and Save Democracy
https://washingtonspectator.org/rachel-bitecofer-on-how-to-stop-trump-maga-save-democracy/
Despite a surprisingly good showing by many Democrats in 2022 and recent special elections due in part to the backlash against the Supreme Courts 2022 abortion ruling and extremist GOP candidates there are good reasons to fear the very real possibility of a Trump victory in November. Just look at Trumps lead in polling in seven swing states as just one sign of the trouble the incumbent President is facing and the wishful thinking of some pundits like Ezra Klein and nearly half the electorate that Biden should leave the race. That sentiment, at least for now, has lost some of its momentum after last weeks robust State of the Union speech. Even so, Democrats are still struggling to respond to negative views of Joe Bidens memory and age. This was heightened by the gratuitous smears about the Presidents memory in the investigation filed by special counsel Robert Hur into Hunter Bidens business activities, which recommended that no charges be brought against either father or son. These findings were notable in part because Hur had been nominated in 2017 by then president Trump to serve as US Attorney for the District of Maryland.
Underlying all this political skirmishing are decades of generally feckless, wonky Democratic responses to effective, emotional Republican messaging which has persistently branded Democrats as dangerous, big-spending, soft-on-crime socialists. More recently, as the prescient political scientist and strategist Rachel Bitecofer has observed, GOP labeling has been updated to include a new emphasis: Democrats are pedophiles and are going to turn your male children into girls. In her important new book, Hit Em Where it Hurts: How to Save Democracy By Beating Republicans At Their Own Game, Bitecofer argues for a no-holds-barred counter-offensive in election races at all levels, painting in stark terms the Democrats as the party of freedom and the Republicans as the party of, yes, fascism. If everybody is pounding the theme of waking America up to the threat that is the modern Republican party, then Democrats should be able to survive. And if we survive, that means democracy can survive, she told The Washington Spectator in a recent interview. (You can hear an audio of our conversation here.)
Her model for much of this strategy? The Republican Party itself, minus the brazen lies and nutty conspiracy theories. For example, she recommends that the Biden-Harris campaign get out of its weak defensive crouch over age-related issues. Instead, she says, go after Trump and undermine the negative portrayals with ad buys, more close-up news appearances and targeted counter-attacks. Rather than defending Bidens age, other than the jokes he makes about it, what they should be doing is spending money making sure America sees how deranged Donald Trump is, she argues. Heres the tactic that should be deployed: You have to pivot and attack and make them regret bringing up mental fitness every time they mention it because then they get barraged with Trumps rantings. (A step in that direction was taken last week when the Biden campaigns X account posted video snippets of Trumps chaotic verbal stumbles. And Biden in his State of the Union remarks was credited with repeated attacks on his predecessor that painted Trump and the GOP as threats to democracy and freedom, while undermining their arguments that he was too impaired to serve as president.)
Link to tweet
Bitecofer is not just another progressive pundit wringing her hands and hoping that the Democrats get tougher. She has earned her reputation as The Election Whisperer, in large part because of her eerily accurate prediction of the Blue Wave in the 2018 mid-terms after Trumps first years in office. She forecast a 42-seat gain, very close to the final Democratic pick-up of 40 seats. She beat virtually all conventional pollsters with a prediction made four months before that Novembers election. Bitecofers forecasts and prescriptions are shaped by a deep study of actual voting behavior. For example, she punctures the myth that large swaths of the public are truly independent, follow politics and are open to persuasion across party lines. What dictates voter choice is partisanship, she notes. All I need to know: Are you a Democrat or do you lean to the Democratic party or are you a Republican or do you lean to the Republican party? You take away those people who nine out of 10 times are going to vote for the party that they lean towards or are in and once you take them out of the pool, youre talking about 15% of the electorate that is kind of really persuadable. Based on your views of the two parties, she says, I will be able to predict your vote choice a year away from the next election.
snip
Poiuyt
(18,133 posts)B.See
(1,343 posts)You can't be civil with incivility. Gunfights require guns.
Sky Jewels
(7,194 posts)we go high. That blew up in our faces once again. Americans do not do subtlety and nuance. Fight back, fight hard, and, better yet, go on the offensive first, like you said. Throw them off balance and crush their lies before they can gain traction.
NanaCat
(1,452 posts)That 'going high when they go low' was never meant to ignore injustice or wrongdoing, or let either go unchallenged, but instead is a basis for finding a positive way to combat the bad things that happen out there.
One can get enraged and riot about an injustice, or else find nonviolent and more constructive ways to fight back. As an example, MLK went high by leading a boycott of buses in Montgomery, rather than going low and blowing them up. Does anyone really thing that the latter choice would have made the situation better? Come on. It would have made everything worse, and we all know it.
That's the kind of 'going high' she meant, not being a holier-than-thou ninny and doormat.
Sky Jewels
(7,194 posts)The problem with refusing to fight back, in the sense of giving out tit for tat with messaging, is that only one sides message gets out, and tens of millions of Americans believe it. A classic case is Kerry being Swiftboated and letting the Republican smears dominate the run up to the 2004 election with very little pushback. And we know how that election turned out.
President Obama was also way too willing to ignore the the rights propaganda. He was always so eager to appease that side and the base wasnt inspired to turn out in 2010 because in part they perceived he had given up on being an advocate for change and was more concerned about not rocking the boat for fear of getting smeared as an angry black commie by Fox News.
NanaCat
(1,452 posts)I was using a general example of how going low might have negative repercussions.
And I didn't say anything about not responding to messaging. Just the opposite.
You seem intent on putting words in my mouth that I never said.
B.See
(1,343 posts)Sounded too much like "turn the other cheek" bullshit to me.
calimary
(81,566 posts)This is a guy whose brain is rotting - live, and in living color. EVERYBODY needs to see and hear the disturbing and increasingly unavoidable senility that wants to move back into the White House.
Prairie_Seagull
(3,344 posts)Really they don't
BaronChocula
(1,626 posts)I'm hearing less about Biden's age after seeing a barrage of trermp blooper reels. But this piece looks to be from a week or so ago.