Stop being negative about Republicans. We need to stress positives about the Democratic party!
We need more than “we’re not Trump”; tell people what we are FOR!
Just tell people what we will do if they vote for us and appeal to their self interest.
It only took 100,000 of them in three states to give us the political nightmare we are all living through now.
Since then there have been countless articles about people who voted for DJT in spite of the fact that they KNEW it was a vote against their practical interests: health care interests, job creation interests, international peacekeeping interests, etc.
Deplorables chose the Republicon party because their fear-driven interests are more psychologically important to them:
- fear that people of color are taking over, so they must cling ever tighter to the security blanket of white supremacy
- fear (of PoC and foreigners) that makes them seek the protection of the biggest bully available
- fear of crime (and fear of the government making them obey tolerance laws) that makes them cry don’ take ma gunz ah need moar GUNZ
- fear that drives their obedience to fear-based religious doctrine (and drives their contempt for love-based religious doctrine)
- fear that everyone else is getting special treatment (because they were blind to their privilege until others tried to claim a share)
They know what we stand for. They don’t want it.
The ideas that mean the most to us frighten them at their core.
As a result, deplorables will never vote for us.
They know we disagree with them about racism, isolationism, gun safety, forced pregnancy, religious freedom and freedom from religion, LGBTQI rights, patriarchy, and similar ideas.
These beliefs are CENTRAL to their personal identity. Even if they are not self-reflective people, they can tell who is on their side with respect to these issues, and they will never embrace anyone who challenges them.
They are willing to lose jobs, money, respect, international standing, everything, in exchange for a leader who will say it is OK for them to cling to their fear-based attitudes.
Fortunately, we outnumber them.
We really do.
How do I know? Because “your enemy will teach you how to defeat him.”
If Republicons thought they had the majority, they would be making voting easier and encouraging everyone to vote.
But they do not and they are not.
They know that when everyone votes, they lose. That’s why they spend so much effort on voter suppression.
And by voter suppression I mean more than the stuff they are doing with gerrymandering, vote caging, sending broken voting machines to urban/black/Democratic areas, making registration difficult, dropping people with similar names from voting rolls, cumbersome ID requirements, the horrendous Ohio decision about striking people from the rolls for not voting, criminal “justice” system disenfranchisement, and other denials of voting rights.
That stuff is horrible, but the REAL voter suppression technique is baked into GOPropaganda. Bathing folks in bothsiderism. “Don’t vote, that only encourages them.” “It doesn’t matter who you vote for, nothing changes.” People say that crap even here at DK.
Voter suppression is also the explanation for unprecedented Republicon obstructionism. The answer to the question “why won’t Rs pass any laws or do anything to help the country” is obvious. If neither party helps the people, that makes anti-government Rs look good. So when Rs are in control, they do nothing, and when Ds are in control, Rs block everything. Congressional gridlock reinforces the GOPropaganda message that “government doesn’t work” and encourages people to give up on democracy.
If HRC were president today, she’d be facing obstruction in the same way they obstructed Obama, and possibly even WORSE, because they would have found some bogus reason to try to impeach her by now.
So I continue to believe that our simplest emotional message for 2018 and 2020 is the “Enough is Enough” “We Can Do Better” “STOP the Madness” angle. Even normally politically apathetic people are getting involved and realizing their vote matters because of the cray cray coming out of the DJT administration.
Deplorables are unreachable because they can’t see the crazy, or think DJT is doing a great job, or are narrowly focused on single-issue litmus tests. I would rather abandon them than abandon basic Democratic values in order to appeal to them. I am not interested in bending the arc of justice in the wrong direction. Time and demographics are on our side—by Republicons’ own admission, we outnumber them.
“We are not Trump” *IS* a powerful message to a lot of people who already vote with us, and millions who never realized before now that there IS a difference between the parties.
As for everyone else: Sure we can tell voters what we will do, but most voters’ eyes glaze over when we talk policy because we don’t have enough (any?) plain speakers among our current Democratic leaders.
Mueller’s investigation is too complex for the average person to understand. But tearing kids away from crying mothers’ arms and housing them in WalMarts with blacked out windows and no impartial observers allowed is an emotional issue that moves everyone except the deplorables. Making nice with dictators who starve their people and have their own relatives killed and force women to have abortions? That won’t fly. Swampy Pruitt-level corruption, obvious waste of taxpayer funds, commercializing the presidency? Makes regular Joes and Janes furious. Broken promises about job creation? Will work in exactly the states we need most.
Right now there’s a monster living under our bed, whispering in our ear. And it’s natural to be afraid.
But it's not okay to let them win.
And it’s not OK to turn ourselves into one of them just to get their votes.
Honestly, I’m not even sure we CAN turn ourselves into them. Truth and lies are fundamentally incompatible. Rs have married themselves to lies and show no signs of wanting a divorce. Meanwhile the Blue Team brings the light of truth with us. We are the ones who really love this country. We are the ones who will save it from the worst of what the deplorables have done and would like to do.
2018 and 2020 MUST be a referendum on DJT: exposing the con job, the broken promises, the corruption, and the madness of wannabe King Donald.
We can also talk about the good we will do, but it is just as important to RELENTLESSLY shine a light on the worst of what Republicons have done, and make it an albatross around the neck of every R who may have talked a good game but took no action to stand up to the evils of the DJT administration.
I’ve heard some good slogans lately.
Stop the Madness. Vote Democratic.
WE DESERVE BETTER. Vote Democratic.
Health. Justice. Jobs. Vote Democratic.
Vote D for DECENCY; Vote D for DIPLOMACY; Vote D for DEMOCRACY.
And of course, my old sig line favorite:
And of course, my old sig line favorite:
Politics is like driving. To go backward, put it in R. To go forward, put it in D!
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