Posted 6:23 AM by Scoobie Davis

What the Democrats Should Do

1. Relax. Their position is not as bad as some people would have us think. As others pointed out, if it weren’t for 9/11, the boy-king would have been trounced. On 9/10/01, George W. Bush had very low approval ratings—because he was out of touch with the American people. Ironically, 9/11 changed the American people tremendously, but it didn’t change George W. Bush one bit. Most of the victims weren’t even buried when Karl Rove announced his plans to exploit these horrific events to help the Republicans in the midterm elections. Soon thereafter, Criminal George W. Bush came up with the utterly tasteless Trifecta Lie/Joke. One would think that the news media should have given more ink to these stories (see point number three), and it would have discredited Bush and his henchmen. Go figure.

However, no big deal. Demography is destiny and short- and long-term trends are favoring us. Not-My-President Bush and his brother Jeb Crow may have won the battle in 2002, but let’s make sure they lose the long-term war. A good model is California in the 1990’s because what has happened demographically in California will occur nationally in the next decade or so. In 1994, GOP governor Pete Wilson scapegoated Hispanics in order to win re-election. Since then, demographic changes have made it impossible for the Golden State GOP to have any luck, even when Gray Davis is governor.
It’s no coincidence that this year Republicans around the country were suppressing the minority vote through noxious tactics. One thing that Democrats can’t afford to do about his is to let this voter intimidation go on without raising eight shades of holy hell. One of the big mistakes of the 1990’s was to ignore voter intimidation--such as that committed by the North Carolina Republican party to steal the election for Jesse Helms (Remember that? Probably not. If you didn’t, it was because the mainstream media didn’t let you know about it). Democrats should have howled then, but didn’t. Because of demographic changes, expect more GOP intimidation of voters. Catching them in the act and publicizing it will: 1) forever sour the GOP with minority voters; 2) Sour the GOP with fair-minded non-minorities.


2. Don’t listen to advice from the Right. For instance, Nooner has some insights:

My advice to the Democrats?
I don't know the answers to their essential questions. I wouldn't want to be them right now. There's no way out but through, and all the options contain some peril. At the moment they should probably do this. Sit down, breathe in, breathe out. You're not going to rush an answer to questions this big. You'll be fighting it out for the next decade. Maybe next week you'll choose a committed leftist to take the place of Dick Gephardt. Fine--see how it goes, whether it works. Don't worry so much right now about your base--they're not going anywhere, at least not soon.

And ponder the big question: Why does the party exist? To do what? The simple act of defining will help you. Do it together sometimes--have a lot of people at the table, but don't invite academics and intellectuals. They got you into a lot of this mess, and they don't know anything about America. They think it's a place with a lot of people. They have no idea.

First, let me say that the feeling is mutual: I wouldn’t want to be Nooner. No Dem should listen to this loon. The Dems won the last three presidential elections: the last one with a left candidate siphoning off votes. Things are going our way in the long run. Nooner claims to be giving advice; in fact, she is trying to dispirit Democrats. Ignore the Dolphin-Queen.

3. Jam the media. The right is winning the media wars. How? 1) By working the ref (Rich Bond’s term)--claiming liberal bias and causing the mainstream media to bend over backwards to give them the benefit of the doubt—something they never did to Bill Clinton or Al Gore (read the Daily Howler if you have any doubts) Also, note how the mainstream media, unlike the world media, has downplayed the fact that Bush stole the 2002 election; and 2) they created their own outlets to counter their mythical marginalization by the media (such as Faux News and hate radio). These are two very vulnerable targets. There is a tendency for progressives to encounter the nonsense on Fox News and talk radio (click here for a small sample of talk radio stupidity) and conclude that all of the fans of these outlets are hopeless mouthbreathers. Yes, it is true that a large portion of the Fox News and talk radio audience are dumbasses (note the ads for baldness cures and other nostrums on talk radio; advertisers know where the suckers are). However, a large number of them aren’t. If you hear something stupid on talk radio, call in and confront the host. It’s fun and it lets the isolated listener know that there are other opinions). These people are being lied to: let them know this. When you let someone know they’re being lied to, they will respect you and reject the liar.
Also, use the internet to confront the right’s lies. A good example: do a Google search of the terms, “ann coulter”+”slander” and you’ll find out how a doughty group of bloggers and journalists were able to expose a liar. Homework assignment: Read the article “How Slippery is Slander?” in the November/December Columbia Journalism Review (It's not available online).

4. Find other GOP weaknesses and use the big guns. One big target is Sun Myung Moon and his lame excuse for a newspaper. One important project for an ambitious person is to get Moon deported. The revelations from Moon’s former daughter-in-law are that Moon and his demented “Perfect Family” are responsible for her fraudulent entry into the United States and underage marriage to Moon’s son (this is statutory rape), which led to a decade and a half of pure hell. If the GOP cared about family values, Moon would have been arrested, or at least deported (immigration fraud and crimes involving moral turpitude are grounds for deportation).

Other big targets include questionable groups that fund the right such as Scamway (aka Amway). Amway is a vulnerable target. It would be loads of fun to investigate it.

5. Make more of an outreach to rank-and-file of the right’s core groups. In the goal of exposing and denouncing demagogues like Falwell and Robertson, progressives have often ignored their flock—or worse, they have lumped the flock together with the perpetrators. As with talk radio listeners, this is wrong; the followers of these cretins are the ones who are the biggest victims. They are manipulated and scammed so that these men can have money and wield power. Set them free with the truth about their corrupt and venal leaders.
6.I could include more tactics, but why should I bother? As I pointed out, both short- and long-term trends are favoring the Democrats.