In the last six weeks, the Democrats have demonized the Koch Brothers 117 times on the floor of the United States senate. Clearly, this is not about two businessmen using their fortune to champion libertarian, free market principles… even though the Democrats hate those things. This is about the Democrats needing a demon to drive their dumb, low information, emotion-driven base to the polls.
Obviously, Democrats can’t run on their policies. Obamacare is a disaster. The Chevy Volt is a disaster (and, by the way, Government Motors has been literally killing people and the Obama Regime has been covering it up). The Obama Regime’s “Speak Like a Pompous Idiot and Carry a Tiny Twig” foreign policy is a disaster. Once Democrats get beyond their basic “We’re going to take money away from people you don’t like and give it to you” appeals to the FSA (e.g. the Minimum Wage increase, “Paycheck Protection”), the Democrats don’t have any ideas or successes to run on; and so, they have chosen to make a pair of Libertarian businessmen into demons, and use the awesome power of hate to get their people to the polls.
And Republicans make a mistake if they look at the deranged rants of Harry Reid and say, “Who could possibly believe this crazy sh-t?” Sane people asked the same question in 2012 when Harry Reid was ranting that Mitt Romney didn’t pay his taxes, and the Obama campaign accused Mitt Romney of giving a woman cancer and wanting to outlaw tampons and contraceptives. “Who could possibly believe this crazy sh-t?” we asked.
And then we got our answer: 51% of the electorate bought into the Democrats crazy sh-t.
It worked before it could work again. It helps a lot when the MFM are also in on the act. Just yesterday, the left-wing media was spreading the bald-faced lie that Mitch McConnell said the Demcorats had a “crazy obsession” with equal pay for women. And the MFM will do their best to help the Democrats in 2014; seizing on the gaffes of Republicans and ignoring the outright corruption of Democrats like Mr. Charlie Rangel, Mr. Elijah Cummings, Senator Bob Menendez, and the felonies of Democrats like Leland Yee.
And the Republicans are doing their best to help the Democrats with their strategy of … proposing no policy alternatives, quietly caving to Obama on any potentially contentious issue, and picking unnecessary fights with the conservative wing of the party and, in some cases, even actively helping to advance advance the Democrat “narrative” that Republicans are racist.
The Republicans should have learned in 2012; crazy, angry, and stupid can win elections if it isn’t countered.
Occam’s Razor, folks. the simplest answer is probably the correct one. If the Republicans are simply stupid, how did they get their jobs? Military, business, law: idiots do not rise to the positions in those fields that Republicans do.
The simpler answer is that the Republicans are in collusion with the Democrats, and they only pretend to oppose them to deceive us.
Democratic voter base is easily mislead.
Talk about dog whistles.
I don’t think it’s going to work though. I suspect the Democrats are going to have a hard time getting the turn out they will need to win. Not sure the GOP can retake the senate but I bet their majority at the very least gets smaller.
GOP’s problem is they keep choosing weak candidates themselves. Politics has hit the point where the good men and women avoid it.
“This is about the Democrats needing a demon to drive their dumb, low information, emotion-driven base to the polls.”
I disagree. The target is other Republican donors. “Look what we’re doing to a couple of billionaires and imagine what we’d do to you.”
It’s also the artifact of the Dems/Far Left’s view of campaign finance. Their causes are funded almost entirely by rich people giving lots of money and hiring professional staff. These pros then gather a patina of “grassroots” to cover their Astroturf, but the reality is that they are just a few well paid professional activists running most of the Left’s pet projects.
Naturally these Leftists believe that their enemies (ie. the rest of us) operate the same way. They cannot conceive that we have actual grassroots activist groups. For the Left it’s always a conspiracy because all of their stuff is a conspiracy. That’s also why we keep treating them as if their groups are actual grassroots efforts, because we see how little coordination our efforts have and assume that the Left is the same.
Ever wonder why the Left always seems to be marching to the exact same drumbeat no matter what the issue? Because they are.
@ Just Me: The Republicans’ consistent choosing of bad candidates is either chronic incompetence, or intentional self-sabotage. Which is simpler?
The “moderate” Republicans are nervous around conservatives. They may not like the Progressives, either, but they firmly believe that the Progressive demagoguery will crush conservative “dogma” every time. They keep hoping that a moderate nice guy will finally overwhelm the Progressive dogma. And the Progressives keep kvetching with moderates about how the conservatives are blocking cooperation and bipartisanship.
The moderates keep believing that “reaching across the aisle” is just a handshake away and they obediently bend over for a pat on the head.
The moderate Republican “strategists” make their campaign money win or lose. They can always blame it on Sarah Palin or fundamentalists and, now, the TEA Party. The moderate candidates choose the known losing “strategist” over the risk taker.
It is the permanent “strategist” class that is trying to get their cash cow nominated. They are promoting Jeb Bush and other country club types who can be packaged and manipulated.
Carter put his own group together in 1976. Ditto Reagan in 1980. Ditto Clinton in 1992. Ditto Obama in 2008.
If it is Ted Cruz or Rand Paul in 2016, they will put their own team in play. That will sideline a lot of full-time Republican “strategists.” T
The DemonizingRats can run against a moderate like Lucy holding the football for Charlie to kick. What they fear most is a Republican candidate who will call them out and shoot nails at them. Oftentimes, that is the only way the truth gets out and triumphs.
The narrative has entirely changed. We have large government socialism with the moderates at one extreme and the Progressives at the other extreme. To the right of the moderates are fakirs, lunatics and clowns. Ask any liberal.
Heliotrope, did you note that last year the “Moderates-Who-Will-Never-Vote-Republican” were rallying around Chris Christie. Now, they are rallying around Jeb Bush. Makes one go, “Hmmmmm…”