Progressives have reason to be upset right now. They are watching a Blue Wave in danger because of a Democratic Party attempting to coast to a win. Prevent defense always loses. And Americans like winners and fighters,
Democrats should have Trump on the defensive in Midterm 2018, yet it feels the primary GOP messaging is doing that to them.
The polls still look very good today for taking the House of Representatives. According to FiveThirtyEight, Democrats still have a 78% chance of taking over the House. But that leaves a 22% chance the Republicans could hold. The Republicans are building a message that will mobilize a large percentage of their base. They are giving a depressed GOP, even if smaller, hope.
In contrast, the Democratic Party unlike the Progressive Activists, in many areas, are virtually on the sideline. They seem to want to coast to a win because they fear the message their base and most Americans want.
Republicans should be entirely on the defensive on health care, a booming economy for the few, a tax cut that will force the reduction of Social Security and Medicare, the poisoning of their base with deregulations, low unemployment with no post-inflation wage gain, and much more. But they are building a clear message. In politics, one must put the opposition on the defensive first. Remember the phrase, “If you are explaining, then you are losing.”
Instead, Republicans are starting to build a cohesive, winning message that ALL Conservative & Right Wing Media, politicians, and pundits are rolling off of their tongue ad nauseam. And they are doing it in a smart, conniving manner.
Republicans were ready to confirm Brett Kavanaugh irrespective of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony. In hindsight that would have been a PR disaster. Long-suffering Jeff Flake threw Republicans, not Democrats or women, a lifeline. He got the confirmation delayed for a week for an FBI investigation. It turned out the FBI investigation was a farce but presented the necessary point to add to a winning Republican Midterm 2018 narrative.
Pre, during, and post-Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, Progressives have been peacefully protesting the ascension of a misogynist to the Supreme Court. They got more coverage on the mainstream media than they usually would get relative to the disproportionate coverage Right Wing small protests tend to get. And the Right Wing has decided to repackage it all into what they hope is a winning message in the closing weeks leading up to Midterm 2018.
My daughter sent me a tweet from her feed, forwarded by a family friend. The host of The Dan Bongino Show Podcast and former Secret Service Agent seem to have written the tweet on his Twitter account. It said the following.
– Kavanaugh #Winning – Gorsuch #Winning – Booming Economy #Winning – Tax Cuts #Winning – 3.7% Unemployment #Winning – Regulatory Reform #Winning – Galvanized,United GOP #Winning – Democrat/Media Complex Exposed #Winning – Deep State Panicking #Winning
https://twitter.com/dbongino/status/1048992092545015814
Any Progressive could deconstruct those wins into real losses. However, the tweet is concise and tight. Those who are predisposed to be Republican and Conservative can run with it because on the surface it seems accurate to the low information citizen.
Now the message every Republican Politician, media outlet, and pundits are pushing is clear. They repeat ad nauseam that the protesters were mobs while packaging videos deceivingly. Repeating lies sometime cauterize into truths in the psyche of the uninformed. The Republican bogus FBI investigation allowed Trump to go on National Cable and Broadcast News all at once during the Kanavaugh second swearing-in, to say that Kavanaugh was found innocent and that the Ford accusation was a hoax.
Did any significant leader of the Democratic Party fight his/her way to a microphone and TV camera to refute the lie? No. I will repeat what I’ve been saying ad nauseam that I wish every Democrat would adopt now.
Midterm 2018 must highlight what Progressives will do
All those people we mobilized for the Kavanaugh fight must be given hope that Midterm 2018 still matters. We have to remind them of all the issues a Progressive win will ultimately start mitigating. Let’s continue to remind folks of these five issues that we all support.
Progressives must define their opponents first so that it is them who are on the defensive. Then, tell poor and middle-class America in a district-specific manner, what is in it for them. It must be clear to them what they expect out of voting for Democrats.
- Democrats will fix the health care issue once and for all with a single-payer Medicare for All system.
- Democrats will provide student loan relief.
- Democrats will provide need-based subsidized child care for anyone who wants to work.
- Democrats will decriminalize marijuana and treat drug use as the disease that it is.
- Democrats will make the criminal justice system live up to the “Justice is Blind” motto.
Those five bullet points expressed in different terms will work in every district in America. It appeals to millennials, people of color, all working class people, parents, and every demographic in between. Most importantly these bullet points afford Americans a path to self-sufficiency It frees them from aberrations in the economy that stunts innovation, the inability to start one’s business, and the dependency and the enslavement to the corporation. One would hope that every Democrat who gets on Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, HLN, or any other network would steer every topic to these bullet points.
It is still not too late. However, anyone who remembers the Buffalo Bills comeback on the Houston Oilers should have pause. To date, it is still the largest comeback in NFL history. Democrats could themselves make history if they don’t stop being insane, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.