Now is the time for Democrats to cripple the GOP and pre-sweep 2012. Opportunities like this come rarely. The Republican budget plan to kill Medicare is wildly unpopular. Americans overwhelmingly favor raising taxes on the super rich conservative creeps who fund the most reactionary wing, the nuttiest of the wingnuts, in the Republican Party. Wall Street, the Bankstas, the US Chamber of Commerce, progressives, democrats, and even a huge chunk of Republicans all agree the debt ceiling must be raised.
GOP governors are about as popular as rabies -- all the Koch's whores and all the Koch's men cannot put the lipstick on the pig again. The leading wingnut primary contenders are a guy social conservatives consider a flip-flopping cult member and an unlectable flaked out harpy. A yawning chasm has opened up between the Teaparty wing and the GOP funding arm. It's begging to be widened, the wedge to do has been dropped precisely into place by fate, it is bearing down with an immediate, unstoppable force. And the empircal facts are lined up on our side like rows of marble statues.
This is the time when Democrats, metaphorically, politically, stomp these assholes into the dirt and light the bloody mush on fire.
All over cable news conservatie extremists sputter and mispeak when confronted with the simplest facts. The Saudi-Murdoch owned propaganda vector they rely on for protection has made enemies far and wide, and it now finds itself embroiled in an ugly scandal the likes of which most decent people could not imagine. The knives are out.
What might a full out offensive on the Republicans look like? Something we have, so far at least, seen precious little of from this White house: media, lots of it, starting at the top. The bully pulpit. The one conservative pundits can't shout down and have to cover.
This is the kind of environment, these are the kind of stakes, where a President credibly can -- and in a democracy should -- go straight to the people in a prime-time national address, or two, and drive home a few facts, maybe starting with GOP priorities which cause most Americans to gag. Mention that because of these Republican priorities, Social Security, Medicare, Veteran's Benefits, and Homeland Security, just to name a few, will have to be shut down (The President obiously hit bone with that, hit it again). A simple chart clearly showing where the debt came from, when tax cuts were enacted, and the effect they had on jobs, might come in handy here. Then, when the post address prognosis is in full swing, Democrats appear everywhere and repeat those simple, dire points. Over and over and over even more harshly. On TV, online, and in newspapers.
Leave no doubt who caused this trainwreck of an economy, who created this mountian of debt, who is trying to clean up the mess, and what happens if the GOP "wins." Leave the Grand Old Cult with no option but playing defense, because 1) they suck at it, and 2) this shit is indefensible.
So, let's put our collective heads together, what should those points be, how should they be stated, and what kind of graphs or charts would be best?
Think of the talking points, the corporate jets, big oil, how about the "Murdoch controlled Republicans want to .." Suggestion for brainstorming: assume you had 15 seconds to make a single statement of headline or lede graf length, and/or one chart, the President was going to use. What would it be?
Oh, and one more thing, the prospect of establishment Republicans being primaried by unelectable Teaparty nuts is not something Democrats should avoid. But they better not fuck around: this opportunity will not last long. In fact, it's just a matter of time until the GOP and Fox figure out a line of bullshit that helps them claw their way out of the hole they put themselves in, and probably blame everyone and anyone else in the bargain.
Opportunity knocks, loudly, waiting to be seized. Carpe Diem, Mr. President.