Yesterday morning brought the millionth, nay the billionth example of how Democrats customarily lose the message war.
It came on NBC's "Meet the Press," where host David Gregory does his damnedest every Sunday to be aggressive in nakedly conspicuous gotcha moments -- those in which the utter conspicuousness renders his aggression entirely unnecessary; those anticipated moments for which he has already plucked some juicy, contradictory quote from the past to prove his guest an insufferable hypocrite.
The experienced Beltway guest easily overcomes this gotcha-ness simply by answering an unasked question -- at filibustering length -- and since the Sunday shows invite only experienced Beltway guests, their parrying never fails to eviscerate the examiner's intent.
But that, I suppose, is another topic for another column for another day.
More to the point: Yesterday, White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett happened to mention, in passing -- to mention, in passing -- to Mr. Gregory that a recent poll (a Washington Post poll) revealed that when the components of the president's health-care bill are explained to voters, they like it.
They like it that they and their children can't be denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition, for example; they like it that there are personal-expense caps in place; they like it that insurers will no longer to able to huckster subprime policies that just happen to specifically skirt your specific illness.
No, Ms. Jarrett didn't mention these policy particulars; she was busy answering Mr. Gregory's political questions, the sensationalist fireworks of which always dominate. Can you sell this? can you win? can you overcome GOP opposition? can you muster a majority in Congress? can you reconcile your liberal and moderate members?
She also didn't tell Mr. Gregory to shut the hell up so that she could explain these policy particulars, and thus move general public opinion in a similar direction to the Post poll. The delicate reasons for this are, again, yet another topic for another column for another day.
The point is that Ms. Jarrett came across as defensive, when in policy fact -- and therefore from a broader political standpoint -- she had little reason to be.
Then came Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who really knows how to play the "public-affairs" talk-show game: Offense, offense, offense -- and the more outrageously offensive, the better.
What caught my offended ear was this: Said Mr. McConnell, "From a policy, from a policy point of view, what this ended up being was a $2.5 trillion bill."
Whoa. Republicans in their fanciful little world had already magically converted $900 billion to one trillion -- true, both of them staggering sums, but still, a $100 billion difference -- and now, absent any explanation whatsoever, their top man in the Senate was inflating the first fraudulent amount by an additionally fraudulent 150 percent.
Naturally, Mr. Gregory did not ask Mr. McConnell how this magical figure was contrived, any more than he asked Ms. Jarrett about the consensus-upending components of the Washington Post poll. Yet while both -- Republican fraudulence and White House veracity -- are essential to any comprehensive understanding of the health-care debate, only one will stick: the negative one, because that' what the human mind retains -- negativity.
Obviously, none of this comes as news to the White House. As Ms. Jarrett observed yesterday: [P]art of the problem is ... that there's been such a distortion and such rhetoric and such misinformation that clutters the media, that it is hard to get our message through. Well, do we have to do a better job with that? Absolutely."
We've heard this refrain before. And before. And before. Which leads many to ask: Just when is the White House going to start doing a better job with that?
No whining, no whimpering, no woe is they -- poor misunderstood them. They've got to attack; they've got to bellow and thunder and bray about inherently unAmerican Republican designs in their unAmerican desire to see America fail.
That sort of thundering rodomontade is perhaps not my political cup of tea, but that's how the GOP has transmogrified American politics and it's winning at it -- again.
Specifically the White House and Democrats in general have got to turn populist rage against populist rage, declaring every waking moment: When Republicans stop lying, we'll stop attacking.
Buzz this on Buzzflash.net
OBAMA ATTACKS!
The news just leaked of the imminent Obama onslaught in the SOTU tomorrow. He is going to take it to the lying republicans by declaring a spending freeze on domestic programs. Not to worry though! The freeze wont effect the Military, homeland security, or the state dept! So we will still be safe from the boogey ma....I mean, terrorists, while we fight for space under an overpass. Cutting spending during the worst recession scince the great depression. Isnt that what Hoover did? Whats next? "Obamavilles". I wonder if he will throw in some tax cuts for billionaires too, while hes at it. I hope this is the straw that breaks the back of the denial crowd, but I doubt it.
I still can't believe
I still can't believe this. I hope beyond reason that it is just a clever ploy; a feint in Obama's 3D Vulcan chess game with our enemies - but what are the chances of that, really?
Last night Rachel Maddow had Jared Bernstein, Biden's chief economic advisor, on and really cut into him on this. His stammered, repetitive rejoinders ("...its not an across-the-board freeze. Only wasteful programs bad for America will be frozen") proved that they have no reason for what they did beyond cheap political pandering - and apparent rank stupidity.
I can't even see how this benefits Obama's corporate masters, other than by driving one more nail in the coffin of popular governance. I think they are simply bedazzled by the right wing political media's invented Tea Bag phenomenon, and are reacting in fear to placate the mob. It really is quite amazing.
Maddow hit Bernstein at least twice with a full in the face accusation of "Stupid Hooverism". Whatever legitimate criticism MSNBC may get for politicization, you cannot deny that Maddow brings an honesty and critical analysis that is nowhere else to be found on the television.
Alan8 always the same
For Alan8 the answer is always to vote Green. He says it's because they don't take any corporate money. That is because, wasteful corporate spending notwithstanding, corporations are not going to give anything to the powerless. The Green party exists so that some can nurse the illusion of taking action without worry of affecting reality.
Yes, but...
Is this not the type of "leadership" you have been defending from this administration since they took office? In fact, if memory serves, you explicitly wrote not too long ago that it would be a "shame" if Obama had to resort to "populism" to present his message and excoriated liberals who thought otherwise. Is that not true? What changed?
Ah, Massechussetts. Glad to see you got the real message.
Can we now all say it together--the real progressives on this site were right and you were dead wrong?
All along.
I have said in various forums for months that the dems should hire a cognitive scientist to help the dems craft a message to woo independents--and wouldn't you know it, George Lakoff has another messaging article for dems out just today--but to this point the arrogance and sheer stupidity of the Democratic Party apparatus has allowed them to ignore such professionals.
Meh.
At this point, though, a populist message will not be enough. All this "I'll never stop fighting for you!" bullshit falls on deaf ears. You actually have to fight. And lead. It isn't enough to simply say you'll do it. You must do it. And from what I have seen over the last 12 months, Barack Obama simply does not have the constitutional makeup to pull it off.
"The president is feeling fiesty," says David Axelrod. Good, good! He's ready to fight now! And he's picked his first battle.
The re-nomination of Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman.
Now that's a fight we can all believe in...right, Carp?
Standards for Wednesday night
Obama should fire Geithner and Summers and Bernanke early in his address Wednesday, and announce the appoinment of real progressives, and at least one socialist, in their places. Shit-canning Rahm would also seem to be a requisite gesture toward actual good faith - perhaps offering the job to Howard Dean. He also needs to declare war on corporate influence; promising to limit the size and power of corporations to approximate the temporary, shackled role promulgated for them by the factional spokemen for our founders, Madison and Hamilton. He needs to quote Lincoln:
As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless. 1864
and Jefferson:
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. 1812
...and he needs to explain what the two Roosevelts did in the interests of preserving democracy from oligarchy, and explain how well it worked. He needs to explain how the policies of Reagan and the Bushes destroyed the wealth and well-being of our nation, and outline the demographic distributon of the costs and benefits resulting from their economic policies.
He needs to lay out in detail an Apollo program for a more localized, green economy, explaining that this is the only place where American entreprenuership and American liberty can both prosper.
He needs to explain that taxes are how we pay for civilization, and how allowing massive fortunes to accumulate is how you ensure that your civilization is looted to the ground. He needs to firmly state his intent to revert our country to the highly progressive rates of taxation of the Roosevelts and Eisenhower.
If he does all of this I will be back on his bandwagon enthusiastically, actively, and energetically. Otherwise, I'm writing-in Nader from here on out.
When Carpy stops lying...
Once again, Carpy joins in parroting the propaganda with the rest of the bird brained talking heads.
Trying to put all the blame on Republicans is quite preposterous, given the pathetic performance of the Blue Dog DINO-Fascists over the past year.
The shouting match between DINOs and GOPs, including the MSM and their shouting heads, is just a show, and is as entertaining and real as a chair throwing studio wrestling match. Obama and his Congressional DINO minions have proven that over the past year by bringing us change that remains the same we just can't believe in, while the GOPs shout at the DINOs for not changing the faux change the GOP previously didn't change.
The upper 1% plutocratic fascists don't care which party is in power, just as long as enough Blue Dog DINO-Fascist Democrats and Neocon-Fascist Republicans continue to pass legislation mostly for the benefit of the glorious overlord class, instead of for us unwashed WE THE PEOPLE serfs.
Carpy, have you considered upping the outrage by throwing a few chairs for instance?
It's really sad when fake studio wrestling is more real and less outrageous than fake, outrageous U.S. political discourse.
Sure, but....
Of course the corporate media plays a role steeped in mecenary partisan bias; of course the Republicans do little but spout corrosive lies that would melt upon meeting a critical question. These are dangerous examles of the corruption of our system, and they need to change.
...but its not only David Gregory et. al. that cause this constipation of our national discourse. What do you call it when Obama and his team propose bipartisan compromise with such blatant liars? .... and base so much of their policies in regard to HCR, the economy, and escallating war in Afghanistan on the intrinsically discredited premises promulgated by the right wing corporatists served by so many of our elected representatives? Remember - Obama and his team are intelligent and educated. They know the truth, and they could make remarkable progress if only they would embrace rational arguments and earnestly promote measures that have actually been shown to work amazingly well.
I agree Alan8
And thanks to the recent supreme (idiot) court, we'll soon have blatantly staged elections like in Fahrenheit 451. Remember the dimwitted friends of Montag's wife asking how any group could put up a candidate as awful as "Mr. Hogg"?
Richard
It's by design.
It's supposed to be like this. The Democrats only play an opposition party on TV. Actually passing a health-care bill would be offensive to many of the corporations that fund the Democrats, but they have to go through the motions to maintain their image.
They're putting on an act for the public. This nonsense will only continue while we keep voting for parties on the corporate payroll. Want real change? Vote for the Green Party, which doesn't accept ANY corporate money, and which will fight for citizens' interests.
Alan8 is a Liar, Again
Stop implying all Democrats are alike. You cannot possibly believe that someone like Dennis Kucinich or Howard Dean could reasonably be grouped with Blue Dog DINO-Fascists like Rahmbo, Bacus, Pelosi and Reid.
You and the rest of your failed Green Party lack any credibility. That is why only 1 in 10,000 voters, if that many, ever vote for Greens.
Stop blaming the candidates and political parties. The real problem is with the K Street lobbyists and the corporate controlled MSM propaganda machine. As long as they are in power, it won't matter who gets elected into office or which political party is in the majority, the upper 1% plutocratic Fascists will always get their way with Congress, either through legalized bribery, and/or character assassination of anyone who would dare stand in their way.
The Paluka Party
They are hack boxers taking ungraceful dives in the second round.