Dems underestimate GOP strategy on unemployment

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2010/07/dems_underestimate_gop_strateg.html


Dems underestimate GOP strategy on unemployment
Greg Sargent


Senator Al Franken, in an interview with Think Progress, sounds the now-familiar refrain from Dems that Republicans are obstructing jobs-related legislation because they think mass economic suffering will benefit the GOP in the midterms:



But there's more to it than this, and Dems do themselves a disservice with this analysis, which doesn't really get to the core of what Republicans are doing here. The larger Republican strategy -- explained to me privately by Republican aides -- is rooted in the fact that they believe dragging out any discussion of unemployment helps the GOP in the long run.

Republicans privately admit that the standoff over joblessness may help Dems in the short term, by allowing them to scream about how heartless Republicans are. But their larger strategy is all about casting doubt on the efficacy of the stimulus in particular and on the failure of the Dems' big-spending ways in general.

Republicans think that it feeds their larger argument, particularly among independents, if Dems continue to ask for more money to help the jobless (drawing attention to the fact that Dem spending policies have yet to fix the economy) while Republicans continue to insist that government find the money to pay for it.

This isn't about Republicans banking on mass economic suffering to help them at the polls. Rather, they're dragging out the discussion of unemployment in the belief that the public will conclude that Dem policies have failed -- and that Dems have their heads in the sand about how much money they wasted on their pie-in-the-sky liberal dream schemes.

The idea is that the argument over who has better intentions towards the unemployed will have become a sideshow to the main narrative: That Dems, whatever their intentions, have lost control of the wheel. That's the real game plan here.

abandoning the NEW DEAL controls over business criminals have destroyed our economy.

REPEAL THE RAYGUN tax cuts.

turning every government-sponsored program into "welfare." If the GOP can convince enough people that the unemployed are simply lazy and shiftless (i.e., lazy "welfare queens" who milk the system and receive handouts), they win. The problem is that they get help from the talking heads and cowardly Democrats who don't hit back hard enough on this falsehood.

And it's not just Faux News. It's the ENTIRE corporate media that either continues to allow the GOP their talking points and don't hit back and/or Democrats who are not passionate, convincing and forceful enough in their challenge to the GOP.

You have to hit these people back and hit them HARD!! If I hear another soft-spoken, milquetoast Democrat on t.v., I'm going to pull out what's left of my hair.

We Democrats have to be more forceful and convincing. I'm not suggesting that we scream and yell over the top of these Republicans, but we need to speak with authority and passion.

Unemployment benefits are NOT welfare. All working Americans pay into the program. It is OUR money, not some "government handout for lazy, shiftless people."

The GOP is winning the war by defining the narrative.

We do ourselves a disservice by simply sitting back, hoping that they will implode.

No!!!!! We MUST fight back!

The name of the game in 2010-2012 is how to convince everyone who's hurting economically that it's "ecause the n-------s got all the jobs and money and goodies, while you good ol' white folks just don't have a chance - Vote Republican"

taking from whites makes me ill. To argue such a thing makes it seem as though whites are entitled. That in itself IS racist!

republicans are not the only ones....

the wrong-headed GOP argument regarding the deficit. That the GOP are fine with adding 1.3 trillion to the debt - and that was just ONE of the tax cuts they pushed through benefiting the upper crust - and balk at extending unemployment for a comparatively measly cost, something that STIMULATES the economy, is a fight Dems are chomping at the bit to have. They just need to make it over and over and over again.

honestly, they are just mean spirited demented ideologues who have LONG jumped the shark from highly partisan to being completely partisan with no interest whatsoever in actually doing the jobs they got elected for ...

There is no broad strategy for the GOP, they just live day to day, literally making shiite up as they go along, then defining things after the fact ...

People also strongly over estimate what control the dems have over the process ... YES, FAR too many Ds are maleable and agreeable, and not willing or able to go toe to toe with the the endless stream of shiite the right wing throws out ...

But, the media allows itself to be bullied by the right, it is considered the referee in the game and it is totally in the tank with the GOP ... Any D who stands up and fights get slandered by the right and the MSM carries it, and that person is run over like road kill ...

See Howard Dean ...