LENNY0229
LENNY0229's JournalThe R party has gone full Nazi. Why would ANYONE bash Dems who ARE doing the right things??
First, Dems overwhelmingly ARE doing what the country wants, and TRYING HARD to do MORE! Too many folks don't know how it works. There is an evenly divided Senate with a filibuster rule. How much can they get done with the Nazi R's blocking almost everything???
Next, there are just TWO Dems in the Senate who are holding some things up. TWO. Just TWO. Not the whole Dem Party.
Biden and the other Dems don't have a magic wand. And those criticizing Biden and Dems for "not doing enough" need to get that clear. They are TRYING, and TRYING hard. But there is a SYSTEM. And again, they do not have a magic legislation wand.
No one on this planet should be bashing Dems when the R's have gone full on facist Nazi.
Want more done? ELECT MORE DEMS! DO NOT BASH THEM WHEN THERE IS A 50-50 SENATE WITH A FILIBUSTER RULE AND 60 VOTES NEEDED TO MOVE MOST LEGISLATION!
Contact the White House and tell them to stand by what the President said about Doocy. Here's how:
Email at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Tell the President not to apologize for a damn thing! Doocy and Fox damn well deserve it! It is about time!!
Weakness NEVER wins!
(True, these emails are just seen by staffers, but it matters. They will count letters of support.)
ELECTIONS ARE WON ON EMOTIONAL MESSAGING! This is what our side needs to do better.
If you don't talk to people's GUTS and EMOTIONS then you LOSE.
Yes, talk about the policy accomplishments, but make it EMOTIONAL AND PERSONAL. i.e. "Tens of millions of kids are now out of poverty, if you're a parent you have more resources to provide for your kids and more breathing room, the the roads and bridges you need to drive on are being built, millions of you are back to work, Americans' wages are up across the board, our kids are now learning again in classrooms and we going to keep it that way." etc. etc.
"And what are the Republicans FOR? They say NO to dealing with climate change. They say NO to lowering the cost of prescription drugs for the eldery. They say NO to reducing student loan debt for stuggling students and families. They say NO to voting rights, and women's rights, and civil rights and NO to presesrving democracy. What are THEIR plans for dealing with Covid? What are THEIR plans for lowering inflation? What are they FOR??? They have NO plans except voter suppression and giving tax cuts to billionaires."
And then keep going with the BRANDING of the R's EMOTIONALLY: "They are attacking democracy all over the country as we speak, and they are coming after YOU. If you want to make sure you have the right to vote, THEY ARE COMING AFTER YOU. If you are woman who thinks you should make your own choices around reproduction THEY ARE COMING AFTER YOU. If you are struggling with the high cost of prescription medicine, high student loans, or childcare, THEY ARE COMING AFTER YOU. WE MUST SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY AND OUR COUNTRY FROM THIS ASSAULT."
Absolutely loudly and clearly make this year's elections about SAVING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.
Yes, we need to TOUT THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS and FORCEFULLY TALK ABOUT THE BREAD AND BUTTER ISSUES AND OUR PLANS!
On the other side, we must also BRAND THE TRUMP-PUBLICANS AS THE "ANTI-DEMOCRACY RADICALS WITHOUT ANY GOOD PLAN FOR THE NATION" that they are.
A campaign always MUST have TWO parts, the positive message and the negative message.
You LOSE if you play nicey-nice, hold hands, sing Kumbaya, and try to "be the better person". That is WEAK and you LOSE!
The Trumpists play nasty and for keeps. Just ask Mike Dukakis, John Kerry, and MANY others. WINNING CAMPAIGNS GO ON OFFENSE AND STAY THERE!
Their whole message this year is going to be "THINGS ARE BAD AND BIDEN AND DEMS HAVE FAILED." That is IT. Just an endless attack message. They will not say what they are FOR. They will not say how THEY plan to fix the virus, how THEY plan to deal with inflation, how THEY play to lower medicine prices, how THEY plan to deal with the climate crisis, how THEY plan to lower the cost of education. how THEY plan to lower the cost of childcare, how THEY plan to lower the cost of college and student loans...etc. etc. etc. and ALL of which are WANTED and NEEDED by the middle class. WILDLY POPULAR!
WE WIN BIGIME ON THOSE ISSUES. With a smart and strong campaign, we can blunt their attacks by relentlessly touting the accomplishments (jobs, wages, reduction in child poverty, vaccines, etc.) and presenting our plans on those WILDLY POPULAR MIDDLE CLASS BREAD AND BUTTER ISSUES.
At the same time, we must make it a REFERNDUM on THEM!!! They are an ULTRA RADICAL GANG OF VOTE-SUPPRESSING ANTI-DEMOCRACY CRAZIES out to END DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA. Make it a referendum on THEM (i.e. just as Gavin Newsom spun it around and made his recall campaign a referendum on the NUTJOB RIGHT WING LOONEY TOON who wanted to replace him). WE MUST INDICT THE CRAZY TRUMP CULT PARTY! People need to know the stakes, LOUD AND CLEAR! And we have LOADS of ammunition.
Run ads showing Jan. 6th, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boehbert, Matt Gaetz, GYM Jordan, and other nutjobs on that side.
Run ads showing all the voter suppression they are doing. Run ads showing how they will keep the pandemic going and going and going. Run ads saying that if these RADICALS are elected, they are COMING AFTER US! Run ads saying "DEMOCRACTS ARE OUT TO SAVE DEMOCRACY AS WE KNOW IT!"
Let's be clear as crystal. The R was FAVORED by historical trend to win VA in 2021. Period.
We need to get it straight as people bemoan what is now going on in Virginia.
With one exception in 2013 THANKS to Terry McCaulliffe, over the last 40 or more years the party in the White House has LOST the Virgina election for governor. The R winning this year was disappointing but not a surprise. Dems just had it for two terms (they do one four-year term there, no consecutive second term), a Dem was in the White House which gins up the other party, and many people simply wanted change. In addition, there were very strong national headwinds especially around the issue of price inflation.
Terry McCauliffe did make some mistakes, and maybe could have EKED out a slight win had he not. HOWEVER, at the end of the day
it was also up to more Dems and Progressive Indies showing up.
What happened was you had a ginned up R party and moderate to conservative Indies went way over to the R side, mainly out of and issues around inflation and education.
Still McCauliffe got more votes than any other Dem in history. The problem was the Indy swing. Yes, maybe McCauliffe's education gaffe (about parents being involved in running schools) fueled that to a point, but historical trends and national headwinds also fueled it. In addition, no can just blame McCauliffe as there were still plenty of Dems and Dem leaners who SAT OUT. Had some more just shown up, that would have swung it the few points that would have been needed to eke out a win.
McCauliffe was not a "tired re-tread". He won the primary by a lot and had only served ONE term prior to this. He didn't run a perfect campaign, but not a "bad" one either. No "bad" campaign gets the most votes of any Dem in VA history and loses by just 2.5% while also enduring a swing of Indies over to the R side by a whopping 18%. He turned out a very good number of voters against strong headwinds.
Mad at someone about VA? Be mad at INDIES who went with SLICK YOUNGKIN who spoke "moderate" but has right wing views which McCauliffe CLEARLY pointed out time and again. (And also place some fair blame on Dems and Progressive Indies who sat on their butts and didn't vote.)
HEY DUers, HERE IS WHAT YOU SAY TO THOSE WHO SAY THEY AREN'T HAPPY WITH BIDEN/DEMS:
Biden was great with this in the presser. Biggest point on the issue of what to say to Republicans AND, more importantly, what to say to all voters.
The Trump Cultists in Congress are mainly AGAINST everything. Just block block block and do nothing nothing nothing all just to make Biden and Dems "fail."
So when someone says they are not happy enough with Biden and Dems, say this:
"Well, just what are the Republicans going to do for you? WHAT ARE THEY FOR? How are THEY going to stop Covid? What are THEY going to do about INFLATION? What is THEIR plan? What are THEY going to do about student debt? What are THEY going to do about expanding healthcare, supporting education, and helping with childcare? Please TELL ME! Because Dems ARE doing things and trying like hell to do a lot more. Heck, most Republicans didn't even support the Amrican Rescue Plan OR the Infrastructure Bill. Seriously, they won't even support building roads and bridges. So again, tell me, in detail, WHAT ARE THE REPUBLICANS' PLANS?? Besides tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, increasing pollution, starting culture wars, blocking everything the Democrats are trying to do, and attacking voting rights, WHAT ARE THEY FOR? WHAT ARE THEIR PLANS? WHAT ARE THEIR NEW IDEAS FOR DEALING WITH OUR PROBLEMS?? TELL ME. WHAT ARE THEY FOR??"
WHY OUR VERY RECENT SPECIAL ELECTION WINS MATTER
(We had special election wins in Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Florida last week. The first three were state legislature races and the FL race was for U.S. House.)
First, a correction from my earlier post about our special election wins last week. The Massachusetts HOUSE win was on Dec. 1st, not last week. That an honest mistake. I cited the wrong one. However, THAT win was the first time a Dem won that seat since the mid 1850's. It was contested and the Dem won by a decent margin. The one last week in Massachusetts was a Massachusetts Senate Dem hold.
Some people responding to my earlier post said things like "These were heavily Dem areas so the Dems were supposed to win and were predicted to win." etc.
First, I clearly said that most of these were HOLDS and NOT flips. (Sorry about the Massachusetts error, though again, in Dec. in Massachusetts there was a Dem FLIP and also a Dem FLIP in Maine in November which is also damn good news and also supports my statements here that it doesn't have to be doom and gloom for us this year.)
Next, these victories matter because, as others have noted, if it was doomsday time for Dems there could, and likely SHOULD, have been an upset or at least the R's should have OVERperformed even if they lost. NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. Special elections in the dead of winter can be very UNPREDICTABLE. It all depends on who is motivated to GET OUT AND VOTE. We did not see ANY significant R margin gains as far as I could detect. Same dynamics last month in Massachusetts and in Maine in November where Dems FLIPPED that Maine House seat.
I stand by my statement that the Maine race last week was a potential flip from blue to red, and it could have happened had the D's not mounted a strong effort taking nothing for granted. The R's had a good candidate, and if Dems hadn't shown up it could have gone Red. So it was a doable upset in favor of the R's. But the Dem still won with 57% and in a 3-way race where the Indy no doubt took more from the D than the R as that person leaned more progressive than right wing. Certainly if it was doomsday for Dems then the R should have at least been able to make it a CLOSER race. But who came out and voted? Dems did, not ultra motivated R's or Indies wanting "change". It was Dems who came out. Sure, low turnout as always in these kinds of races, but who DID bother to come out? Dems!
So, as said in my other OP, Dems won because they SHOWED UP and R's didn't. They CAMPAIGNED. They didn't take anything for granted even in these Dem-leaning areas.
Now, I know next November is a different situation, and by historical trends it is ours to win and theirs to lose. But we CAN do well, at all levels, IF we do the things I said:
* Campaign hard on local bread and butter issues.
* Define the other side as the RADICAL RIGHT WING democracy attackers that they are who are coming after us.
* Tout the accomplishments (jobs, wages, infrastructure, etc.)
* Run a strong ground game starting early and with energy.
I also want to make one more comment, and this is about last November and all the doom and gloom talk. NJ Governor was theirs to lose and ours to win according to all historical trends. We won that reversing the historical trend. R's did perform very well, but they still lost when history says they should have won. Also, VA was ours to win and theirs to lose, and it was only lost by 2.5% and that is with losing Indies there by 18% (which WAS scary and what we REALLY need to reverse elsewhere). Losing Indies was the MAIN reason we lost in VA. Huge historical and national headwinds did that, along with a McCauliffe's education issue gaffe and the R's doing better focusing on local issues. Yet in VA McCauliffe still won the most votes of any Dem and damn near won the election and COULD have, I believe, if not for the gaffe and some other campaign errors (slow groundgame and a too unfocused issues message). So last November did NOT necessarily spell complete "doom and gloom" for us, and we can blunt the historical trends IF we run a strong, smart campaign.
DEMS WON FOUR SPECIAL ELECTIONS LAST WEEK!!
We won special election in Maine for Maine House (suburban district that could have gone red), Massachusetts for Massachusetts House (a FLIP from Red to Blue - No Dem had held this seat since the mid 1800's), Virginia for Virginia House, and Florida for U.S. House. Again, one of these was a FLIP and one (the one in my home state of Maine) could very welll have gone red. There were no guarantees. In ALL cases, the Dems won by BIG margins.
These offer insights into 2022 which due to historical trends is obviously a challenging year. It ALWAYS is for the party in the White House. But these are unique times and we have a GOP that is now the INSANE and ULTRA RADICAL DEMOCRACY-HATING GQP aka THE TRUMP CULT and if we run SMART and STRONG campaigns we CAN win. Here is what I recommend and what I saw in these races we won last week.
* FOCUS HEAVILY ON THE LOCAL BREAD AND BUTTER ISSUES (Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,; help with childcare, increasing wages, supporting in person education, beating down the virus, infrastructure including broadband, etc.)
* TOUT DEMOCRATIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS (hundreds of millions of vaccines administered, free covid tests, American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Bill (projects starting THIS YEAR), strong and steady job and wage growth, unemployment under 4%, etc.)
* BRAND THE GQP AS RADICAL ANTI-DEMOCRACY RIGHT WINGERS (WHICH THEY ARE) WHO ARE WAGING AN ALL OUT ASSAULT ON VOTING RIGHTS, WOMEN'S RIGHTS, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND OTHER RIGHTS. (There must always be both a postitive message and negative message to show the stakes of the election. If the GQP gets in, THEY ARE COMING AFTER US AND ARE ALREADY DOING IT ALL OVER THE COUNTRY.
* GROUND GAME GROUND GAME GROUND GAME. Work the ground EARLY and HARD.
Anti-vax anti-science CovIDIOTS blather about their "liberties". What about OUR "liberties"??!!
These anti vax anti science CovIDIOTS are violating everyone else's rights!!
They are keeping the pandemic going.
They are cooking up new variants.
And then, when these FOOLS get sick with Covid they run to hospitals and deny others needed hospital beds.
What about everyone else's rights to health and needed hospital beds and to stop being inconvenienced all because of the CovIDIOTS???
No more coddling the CovIDIOTS!! They are the minority, and THEY are the problem! They are willfully IGNORANT and SELFISH!
I wish hospitals could send them home! IF THEY DIDN'T TRUST SCIENCE TO PREVENT THE ILLNESS, WHY SHOULD THEY TRUST SCIENCE TO CURE THEM OF IT??!!
I PRAISE brave doctors in private practice who have said, "NOT VAXXED? NO TREATMENT!" As well as businesses that have
strict vaccine requirements for their employees.
Enough of the "liberties" of the CovIDIOTS!! What about everyone else's "liberties" in this pandemic?
Just what is "Conservative" about today's Republicans? What exactly do they "Conserve"?
If we need to do better communication, then just why the hell do we say "Conservative" when referring to today's Republicans?
Seriously, can anyone please explain to me why in hell we say "conservative" to describe them? In the past they were about "conserving" tradition and money. Nowadays just what do they "conserve"?
They sure as helll don't conserve money. It's massive and endless budget busting tax cuts for billionaires. They don't conserve traditional American institutions and values. They attack them relentlessly. They don't conserve decency, honesty, or a belief in science and reason. They sure don't conserve the environment.
So just what the hell is "conservative" about them?
They are Trump Personality Cultists and Radical Right Wingers. That's what they are. They sure as all hell are not "conservative."
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Member since: Sat Jan 15, 2022, 06:48 AMNumber of posts: 185
