Why the Democratic victory in NY26 may not be productive for the Democrats?

Republicans, when they feel threatened, tend to gather their forces and fight as a united front. If indeed they do feel threatened, after the defeat last night, it may become more difficult to communicate with those Republicans that are deeply concerned about the direction their Party is going.

It may become more difficult to get them to understand that their Party intends to dismantle Medicare and Social Security if they see the opportunity. At the same time, their Party intends to cut the top tax rate from 35% to 25%. Even though there are as many Republicans as Democrats that benefit from Medicare, their Party would like for them to concentrate on the Democratic enemy and not the end goal of destroying Medicare.

Unfortunately, Republicans have been very successful at diverting the attention of their supporters from looking at issues in their own interest to, instead, directing their attention to defeating the Democrats.

It is important that Democrats communicate with these Republicans that support keeping and strengthening Medicare. It is for the good of all of us, Democrats and Republicans. Their Party showed their true colors with their votes on dismantling Medicare. They did not vote to fix it. They did not vote to make it better. They voted to kill it. Make no mistake. And at the same time, they voted to decrease the top tax rate to 25% on hte very wealthy. Almost half of all the debt of the last ten years was created by the Bush taxcuts and the unpaid for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, they want their supporters to believe that cutting taxes again will be different?

We need to communicate with those Republicans that support Medicare. They need to know the facts and the truth. Their Party will feed them a steady diet of how evil the Democrats are and how evil "socialism" is, etc. The purpose is not to divide the Republican Party but if it happens, then so be it.

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...completely afraid their luck will change next time if -- gasp! -- they dare be "too liberal..."

Of course we should help nervous Republicans to keep their seats.

Read it again....slowly.

I've always thought of "thank you for your concern" as being snobbishly arrogant.

:-) (Brushing my shoulder)

is that even if a democrat wins that democrat will mostly be a republican. They might not be as crazy as the alternative but non the less still pretty fucking crazy.

Then they are no Democrat and not deserving of our vote.

doesn't mean they aren't crazy in other places. I worry a bit that this cutting medicare schtick is concentrating on the wrong thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the democrats are going after republicans on this issue as much as they have. But this also allows them to put other things on the back burner when in reality the republicans have no chance in hell to do what they want to do with medicare, they never had.

But with all the attention on medicare social security may very well get thrown under the bus while nobody is paying attention. The debt-ceiling vote will be coming up soon, and republicans will demand all kinds of crazy things. And unfortunately I feel like democrats will give in to some of them such as raising the social security retirement age.

they are a conniving bunch of critters.

they gathered their forces and dumped millions of dollars into the district. If this is their tactic for success they will have to spend a whole lot of money in 2012 to hold on to the House.

At some point message matters. They didn't have one in 2008 and the one they used in 2010 ended up being a lie and people are starting to notice. I think the Republican Party is starting to break up on its own. The old school Republicans hitched their wagons to the Tea Party and now have to deal with the consequences. It will be a good show.

That doesn't mean the Democrats should get complacent. I wish they were better on message and would play offense a bit more. They need to be more proactive and not just reactive. I suspect there will be plenty of ads in GOP districts hammering home the votes for the Ryan plan.

If we can get a good percentage of Republicans to support Medicare against their own Party's wishes, then we will successfully divide their Party even further. That is not a bad thing, considering their plans to destroy peoples' lives, both Democrats and Republicans.

was questioned about his former membership in the Democratic Party, he said that he didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left him - or something similar to that.

I am hoping that enough Republicans will come to the realization that the current Republican Party has changed to the point that it is nearly unrecognizable from the party of Nixon or Eisenhower. I grew up in a Republican family and I know I have some family members who are not amused with what is going on. Hopefully there are many families like mine out there who aren't liking what they are seeing, either. This Medicare fiasco may be the last straw.

Their Party has left them.

As for as Republicans, they ALL would love to get rid of the social programs for the middle class and poor. They like social programs for business and the ruling class. That's why they are Republicans. Duh!

As we saw with the Tea Party people in the last eleciton, they do not want the government messing with their Medicare. So all Republicans are not against social programs that they themselves benefit from.

Includes parts of Rochester and Buffalo. I.E. Not ENTIRELY red. ;-)

The vibe I got this past weekend and into yesterday was absolutely amazing. These folks – the OLDER ones down to those in their Mid 30’s – watched their children and friends move away for jobs (myself included). They get it . . . I think. I really truly believe they get that they’ve been against their own interests for far too long. I know in Scottsville yesterday my dad and mom reported that every bumper sticker was reading Hochul. That’s huge.

In the 1980’s my dad was an underdog candidate on the school board as a Dem and won . . . ditto my mom in the greater surrounding town as a council woman. If Wheatland/Scottsville can go upside down – that entire district can go upside down . . . and stay that way for a few election cycles. Jobs are imperative up there and Hochul has great ideas on bringing back industry to that community. I also think she’s serve as a nice compliment to Louise Slaughter in that neck of the woods.

Includes parts of Rochester and Buffalo. I.E. Not ENTIRELY red. ;-)

The vibe I got this past weekend and into yesterday was absolutely amazing. These folks – the OLDER ones down to those in their Mid 30’s – watched their children and friends move away for jobs (myself included). They get it . . . I think. I really truly believe they get that they’ve been against their own interests for far too long. I know in Scottsville yesterday my dad and mom reported that every bumper sticker was reading Hochul. That’s huge.

In the 1980’s my dad was an underdog candidate on the school board as a Dem and won . . . ditto my mom in the greater surrounding town as a council woman. If Wheatland/Scottsville can go upside down – that entire district can go upside down . . . and stay that way for a few election cycles. Jobs are imperative up there and Hochul has great ideas on bringing back industry to that community. I also think she’s serve as a nice compliment to Louise Slaughter in that neck of the woods.

We have to keep those Republicans that support Medicare focused on the fact that their Party plans on destroying it.

Not according to NY-26.

on the issue.