It's all about "Message Discipline"

I was watching Hardball tonight, and the subject of Arnold Schwartzenneger's campaign commercials arose. One of the guests (don't remember his name, and don't recall ever seeing him) was talking about something that the republicans have over the democratic party in spades, and that was "MESSAGE DISCIPLINE."

It is the act of defining yourself as a candidate over and over, ad nauseum, until, no matter what the truth about you is, everyone in the country believes you are exactly how you portray yourself to be. As I said before, this is where the repubs bowl us over. Bush is a prime example, painting himself as a "compassionate Christian conservative" It is also the act of painting your opponent in an unfavorable light, usually with the use of a stream of commercials and political talk show shills hammering a negative personna until the point has been driven home. The repubs did a great job on Kerry using the "ultra liberal, weak on national security" strategy over and over and over again. The reality of the situation was so blurred that the myth became fact. Here we had a former AWOL Texas National Guardsman convincing Americans that a real, honest to goodness bona fide war hero was really not a war hero, and who was soft on National Defense. America bought it. Why? Because of "MESSAGE DISCIPLINE," something that us Dems just don't get.

I cannot stress enough to DU'ers and all Democrats how we MUST HAVE A SINGLE, OVERARCHING MESSAGE, and how we need to quit reacting to the many distracting issues that the repubs throw our way. We buy into it every time, like puppies who get fooled into going after a stick that was never thrown.

Bush is a criminal and needs to be impeached. We need to chant this mantra from now until we make impeachment a reality. Nixon was hounded out of office for a lot less. It should be to the point of when I pick up a news paper, every LTTE is calling for impeachment. I should be seeing more impeachment threads on DU than immigration threads. We, as Democrats always seem to be shooting ourselves in the foot and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, and I am tired of it.

IMPEACHMENT,IMPEACHMENT, IMPEACHMENT.

That is the bottom line of a message that focuses on utter failure, contempt of the constitution and corruption that knows no bounds.

NOW REPEAT AFTER ME......

are not robots!! They get it!! Stay on message!! :popcorn:

while making sure their Dem opponents can get very little access to airtime and a hostile interviewer when they do.

supports whatever Bush asks for.

Then, Bush adds signing statements to laws so he can attempt to circumvent them.

And the "Rubber-stamp Republican Congress" lets him do whatever he wants. No oversight, no control over what is happening to our laws and our Constitution. Not to mention that so many of them are unethical patsies.

I'm glued on the "Unethical rubber-stamp Republican Congress" term right now.

By all means, we need to impeach Bush. But first we must ensure that ethical, law-abiding men and women take control of the Senate and the House. Most Americans agree that our country is not doing well with the Republicans in charge of both houses of congress and the Presidency (not to mention the Supreme Court). We need to remind every on-the-fence American that this Congress is stock full of law-breaking, unethical bribed officials who rubber-stamp the President's decisions and don't hold anyone accountable for their actions.

Once the Democrats have their majority in the House and Senate, then the calls for Impeachment can be realized. Keep the "I word" in the public discourse (its certainly more appropriate than discussing illegal immigration, which is merely a diversionary tactic). We need to be most focused on recapturing the House and Senate.

And the lack of ethics, the lack of real reform after the lobbyist scandal.

from Firedoglake:
http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/03/28/citizen-action-steps-phase-two/

You can order a rubber stamp saying "Republican Rubber Stamp Congress" from this company before noon on Wednesday and they will drop ship an entire load of these stamps (purchased by people) to someone in DC. Firedoglake hasn't announced who will be the recipient of these boxes full of rubber stamps, as they want it to be a surprise.

Ooh, I love a good prank with a terrific message.

If I were a Democratic strategist, my mantra would be, concerning repubs up for re-election, "You can run, but you can't hide." The repubs can try to distance themselves from Bush's failed and corrupt administration, but we are going to hold them as close to the stench of their own blindly loyal, rubber-stamp complicity as we possibly can. There will be no running and hiding, or distancing, if you will from their own doings.

It's easy enough saying what you're against...

... but to win elections, you need to say what you're for.

Any suggestions?

Now, repeat after me...

IMPEACHMENT! IMPEACHMENT! IMPEACHMENT!

Democrats running for Congress are for upholding our Constitution.

Democrats running for Congress support following the laws of our land.

Democrats running for Congress are ethical and trustworthy.

They believe that our government must be managed with proper checks and balances of authority.

Democrats believe in taking decisive action, and believe in holding those who break our lawas accountable for their actions.

They believe in investigating the corrupt and the incompetent.

Democrats are working for a better America, where we all are safer and can trust our leaders.

Democrats believe that its citizens deserve respect.


EDIT: the short version could just be "Democrats won't lie to you like the Republicans have for the past six years". ;)

Those are some good thoughts, but notice how many of them are couched entirely in oppositional terms.

#s 1, 2, 4, 7: these are dictated by your feelings about Repugs. You're letting the enemy set the agenda.

#3: this has been tried many times by many parties in many countries, and political scientists have learned to see it as a sign of desperation. It always backfires. Even if everyone in the party really is as squeaky-clean as this suggests (which I don't believe for one moment), it's not hard to generate enough of the appearance of something wrong (remember Ken Starr?) to make this campaign blow up in your face.

#5: good. Could you be any more explicit about what you mean by "decisive action"?

#6: looks like a continuation of #5, but not as positive - adds connotations of witch-hunting. Also suffers from the same problem as #3: if it turns out that there are some corrupt/incompetent people whom it doesn't suit the Democrats to investigate (e.g., in the past, some union leaders would have come under this heading), then the Repugs will hunt them down and rub your face in it for the next four years.

#8: I like this, got a good ring. It's very vague, but as an underlying theme to tie together a package of ideas, it's got potential.

Thanks for the thoughts,

has to be about fixing the mess the Republicans brought. I also think they should pulverize the Republicans.

Then we can offer alternative to the evil, corrupt and incompetent republican led administration.

Like I said, and will continue to repeat, it's "MESSAGE DISCIPLINE."

First define yourself and your opponent, cement the symols you want to embed into people's minds, then offer alternative solutions.

Fuck, fuck, fuck all of this positive bullshit right now. There is nothing positive happening right now, and if the truth be told, I honestly don't think any democrat has the slightest idea as to go about fixing the hundreds of disasters of the Bush administration.

From August to November, the message is whatever the party says the message is. That is absolutely critical and you find the message you can support because the only other alternative is 2 more years of this shit.

Now you can lead an impeachment mantra if you want, but that isn't Message Discipline. Incompetent Presidency, Culture of Corruption, Rubber Stamp Republicans, that's the party message right now.

Feel free to create your own message and even take to the streets with it. But that doesn't make any of it Message Discipline.

Our illustrious dem leaders have no message! They are all over the roadmap< that the repug have given them. Like I said in my post, we follow their lead every time, like stupid puppies running after an imaginary stick.[br />
And I never said I controlled the message, but I have been around long enough to know how the game is played and what works. And believe me, a unified message, which is beaten into the heads of the general public is what works. Maybe you haven't been around long enough to notice. The democratic party, with the exception of Bill Clinton, has never quite understood this concept.

It damned sure isn't immigration, gay marriage or anything else we bite on.

And next time you criticize my post, maybe you should read it more carefully.

Now if you are supporting the message of some other party, then you're on target with message discipline. Message Discipline is knowing what the party message is and getting behind it, not fighting it every step of the way which is exactly what you're doing. It's accepting that various groups and individuals ALL have opinions, but during an election cycle, individual opinions have to be put on the shelf in order to echo the message. That's message discipline. You're advocating your own campaign, the exact opposite of message discipline.

same negative comments the repugs give us about our candidate, and we say them over and over and over

Same shit, different mouth.

Forget dead Americans, no blood for oil, Halliburton

THE WAR IS A LIE AND YOU KNOW IT

If you accept that then Bush is a liar who should be impeached follows. If you make it about Bush they will tune you out.

As I said in my post: "IMPEACHMENT,IMPEACHMENT, IMPEACHMENT!"

That is the bottom line of a message that focuses on utter failure, contempt of the constitution, and corruption that knows no bounds."

than illegal wiretaps. Go with the message that helps your cause.