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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (12703)	2/19/2006 9:28:36 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 541941

It's hard to gauge whether seniors will appreciate the the GOP tried to do something to help with the cost of medicine or be angry that they screwed it up. Here's something that I read yesterday but didn't post because it is more election oriented than I am but your post reminded me of it. "A Loser’s Guide For Democrats Many political analysts are hard pressed to see how the Democrats will lose this November’s congressional election. The American people are clearly fed up with one party rule in Washington, and most are no longer enamored with our Republican President. How, then, with victory so clearly in sight, will the Democrats manage to achieve yet another stinging defeat? Although the master losers of the left and center have shown they don’t need much help in this regard, here’s a few drop-the-ball tips they might nonetheless consider to enhance their natural proclivities: — Depend for campaign advice on consultants and self-anointed gurus who have given you the wrong advice in past elections. Along with their other gifts, these people are highly articulate repositories of the plausible excuses needed to justify another failure. —Shun the innovative. Having been defined by your opponents as burned out purveyors of an outmoded New Deal, any genuinely new ideas for governing that you come up with will only confuse the voters. — Run against Bush rather than against the Republican Congress you’re trying to replace. A President’s popular approval can be turned around very quickly by factors that he can control—at least for short periods. The record of a Congress takes longer to readjust. A pre-election Bush popularity turnaround, combined with a Democratic campaign that’s largely anti-Bush, can thus do wonders to ensure the kind of loss Democrats have learned to expect. — Don’t make clear to potential voters the difference between “Congress” and “a Republican Congress.” If Republicans are able to paint Abramoff-style corruption as a bi-partisan problem, and bad laws as the fault of an institutional legislature rather than one dominated by a single party, then a change in the makeup of that legislature will not seem all that important. A campaign that comes down to “they’re all bums” translates into yet another Republican victory. — Allow marginal issues to become the core issues of your campaign. Gay marriage worked well for the Republicans last time around. Why not let it do so again? —Knowing that “you can’t beat something with nothing,” offer nothing. Criticize copiously without seeming to have any attractive alternatives. — When you do put forth alternatives, make sure they are geared to the most extreme elements of your own party. Why waste time and effort appealing to middle-of-the-road independents when you can pander to vocal supporters who would back you anyway? —Along with unnecessary pandering to a base you already own, spend a lot of resources going after voters who won’t back you under any circumstances. In this regard, Democratic consultants will doubtless advise espousing religious and moral themes because they are very important to one segment of the American electorate. Since it’s extremely unlikely Democrats can ever get ahead of Republicans on these issues, such efforts are guaranteed to gain you nothing while making you appear to be opportunistic hypocrites. And for determined losers, what could be better than that? —If certain issues, such as environmental protection, are not currently deemed politically significant, ignore them completely this November. Making an issue such as the environment a “Democratic issue” at a time when polling doesn’t have it in the top six or seven things people care about, merely hints at leadership that isn’t afraid to promote new priorities. And what Democratic candidate would want to be burdened with that albatross? — When Republicans say that past mistakes in Iraq, with Katrina, on energy, et. al. are not fit subjects for discussion and we must look ahead instead, happily go along with this forward thinking. As 2006 Democrats, you understand that making opponents take responsibility and pay for their past mistakes, no matter how gross and inexcusable, is dirty politics. And that a past record of bungling is certainly no guarantee that keeping the same people in power will lead to future bungling. — Ignore mid-term election demographics in your campaigning. Traditionally, seniors account for a third of the voters who turn up at the polls in non-presidential elections. Most seniors are angry as hell about Medicare drug benefit foul-ups and Republican proposals to reduce future Medicare spending. A focus on these issues could cause a sharp pro-Democratic swing among the largest bloc of voters this November. Karl Rove, however, wants the upcoming election to focus on national security, and you wouldn’t want to disappoint Karl. Looking ahead to November, It’s not yet clear exactly how the Democrats will manage defeat this time around. But rest assured, manage it they will. ©2006" silverwoodinstitute.com