Tenchu's Thoughts: Democrats Should Do One Thing and One Thing Only - STOP TRUMP
Democrats Get Lowest Rating From Voters in 35 Years, WSJ Poll Finds (WSJ)
This should serve as a real wake-up call to Democrats. Despite how bad Trump is, voters consider Democrats to be worse by a small margin.
For example, the public's view of Trump handling the economy is overall negative. However, the same public also believes that the Democrats would not do any better; in fact, they give Democrats lower marks.
Same with immigration. Although Trump is now in negative territory with regard to immigration overall, voters still thinks he's "less bad" than Democrats on this key issue.
In other words, people are still angry over these issues, and they still prefer the wrecking ball over the so-called "establishment."
The History of "STOP OBAMA"
So how do Democrats deal with this?
After all, they are struggling right now. They can't unify their base, they can't generate enough energy, and they're too damned scared of the voters right now who flat out rejected "woke" politics.
I think the answer comes from something that Rush Limbaugh said to the Republicans back in 2010. At the time, the GOP was reeling from their defeat to Obama. They also lost both halves of Congress. Years of fighting two wars, combined with the 2008 financial crisis, dealt a huge blow to the GOP, and they were trying to figure out how to regain traction.
Rush pointed out that voters don't want socialism, and that the GOP should run on one idea and one idea only: STOP OBAMA.
That's how the GOP took back the House back in 2010, and eventually the Senate back in 2014.
That's how the GOP started to overcome the Obama personality cult. They didn't stand for anything positive. All they did was paint America's first Black president as a closeted socialist (anyone remember "spread the wealth"?) and as a Muslim sympathizer.
They successfully obstructed most of Obama's agenda, and later on Obama's judicial appointees, including Merrick Garland. They risked being seen as do-nothing politicians, a permanent minority party that only got power due to gerrymandering, and being on the "wrong side of history." And for the most part, these risks were real.
Of course, that wasn't enough. Eventually Trump came out of nowhere in the realm of politics, tapped into GOP anger over the Obama personality cult, and turned "Make America Great Again" into a personality cult of its own.
But the "STOP OBAMA" campaign worked in building up voter anger. People believed, rightly or wrongly, that Obama was on the verge of transforming America into a socialist state that will forever be subject to the whims of a globalist elite.
And once Trump came around, the GOP was able to emerge from their rear court defense and form an offense that successfully (and unexpectedly) "took back" America from the oh-so-evil socialists.
How to STOP TRUMP
So should the Democrats take a page from the GOP playbook and become nothing but obstructionists?
Without a doubt, I believe they should.
They need to rally around one uniting issue. And that issue should be simple and easy to understand for everyone who is already sick and tired of Trump's utter bullshit.
Forget about the environment. Democrats already tried running on the environment for several decades. No one cares*.
Forget about Gaza. Forget about Net-N-Yahoo and the question of whether he's committing genocide. No one cares*.
Forget about Ukraine as well. They're in good hands with Zelensky and the rest of NATO pushing back against the impotent PooTin. They already have contingency plans for when America withdraws aid.
Forget about the LGBBQ agenda. Or Critical Race Theory. Or the 1619 Project. Or the so-called "war on women."
Most of all, forget about trying to rescue the whole "woke" agenda.
Democrats need to make the message simple: Everything Trump touches turns to shit.
This does sound a lot like "Everything woke turns to shit," by the way. Look at how successful the GOP's "anti-woke" agenda turned out to be. Look at how the GOP is overplaying their "anti-woke" hand and turning to blatant fascism in order to kill any re-emergence of the "woke" agenda.
But if Trump was successful in tapping into the anger of MAGA voters, it shouldn't be too hard for the Democrats to tap into the anger of the rest of America. And not just Democrats, either, but also independents who are also largely opposed to Trump's agenda.
How to Deal With MAGA's Response to the "STOP TRUMP" Strategy
The MAGA cultists, of course, won't take this lying down. They will turn up their propaganda. They will try and further open up the valve that controls the firehose of lies. They will blatantly deny objective facts, such as the fact that gas is not $1.98/gallon anywhere in the nation.
But most importantly, they will resort to one of their favorite tactics, which is the "whataboutism."
They will try and point out that the Democrats are just as guilty as Trump is when it comes to anything.
Tariffs? But but whatabout Brandon's tariffs on Chinese EVs?
Epstein? But but whatabout all the Democrats that are certain to be mentioned in the Epstein files?
Fascism? But but whatabout all the times Democrats tried to seize power for themselves?
Inflation? But but whatabout the high inflation that happened under Brandon's watch?
Anti-science? But but whatabout Ketanji Jackson when she pretended not to know what a woman was?
They will tell themselves all of these whataboutisms to remind themselves why they voted for Trump in the first place.
But while that provides temporary relief from reality, the truth is that we now live in a Trumptatorship, and they have to own all of the shit that Trump is bringing to the nation as we speak.
And as they continue to run run run away from the facts, their own house of cards will begin to collapse.
"But ... but ... you suffer from tEe-dEe-eSs!!!"
There is one more attack that the MAGA cultists will resort to, and that is the tEe-dEe-eSs accusation.
"Ha ha, you suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome! Your opinion doesn't count!"
While they may have had a point back when the worst thing Trump did was post "mean tweets," it's a LOT different now, because Trump is actively causing a LOT of damage and destroying a LOT of lives.
All for the sadistic desires of an angry MAGA cult whose members are willing to pay any price just to "pwn the libs."
Remember, every accusation from MAGA is a confession. They are the masters of projection, as some of the regulars on this very thread have proven time and time again.
So when they accuse Democrats of tEe-dEe-eSs, they are only admitting that they suffer from it themselves.
Conclusion
The way for Democrats to overcome their disunity and their low morale is KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
I understand why Democrats don't want to KISS. They tend to succumb to their elitist tendencies where everything is "nuanced."
But in this case, there really is no room for "nuance" anymore. They have to rally around one theme and one theme only.
STOP TRUMP.
Tenchusatsu
*Just to clarify, when I say "No one cares" about Gaza or the environment, I'm not saying that these are issues that people should stop caring about. I'm just saying that these are issues that should not take priority over the immediate concern, which is Trump actively destroying American democracy. |
