Messaging has never been the Democrats strong suit. In recent polling on major issues, Americans seem to share more ideology with Dennis Kucinich than Paul Ryan. Yet much of the nation continues to vote Republican, a party that represents only 2% of the nation's interests. Republicans manage to split the nations votes because they are very good at what they do; and that is selling the American people a load of goods. They dress their ideas up as the finest gold; when in reality they are lead, painted with gold colored paint. There is no reason why the party of 2% should be a force of reckoning in the American political system; and the only way to put them in their place is to beat them at their own game, messaging. Democrats have to sell their ideas to the American people while revealing Republican ideas as the sack of soot it really is.
Democrats have already started their messaging campaign for 2012 with attacks on Paul Ryan's Medicare killing bill. That isn't the only place where Republicans have handed Democrats a golden opportunity. Republicans across the country have been waging war on unions, proposing several union busting bills in the past five months. Also, rather than focusing on creating even one new job, they've picked fights with Planned Parenthood and Roe v. Wade. While abortion rights might have the country split, right now more Americans are worried about where their next meal will be coming from than the girl up the street getting an abortion. Republicans have handed Democrats all the ammunition (metaphorically speaking) they need to win by a landslide in 2012. All the Democrats need to do is perfect their messaging.
Imagine if you will a commercial like this. The screen is showing an old lady at her kitchen table clipping out coupons, while a narrative voice talks about the security Medicare has provided seniors. Suddenly, the music shifts a bit more menacing as the narrator starts talking about Paul Ryan's plans for Medicare. The voice says that Paul Ryan's plan would turn Medicare into a coupon program for buying insurance. Then the camera shifts to the coupons the woman is cutting out. The coupons include $30 off wheel chair; $20 off cancer screening; and 10% off liver transplant. Then it shows the face of the Republican running for office and tells how he or her supported Paul Ryan's coupon program for Medicare. That's powerful imagery. Suddenly the Republican is the one who wants to make granny clip coupons for 10% off her liver transplant. Now, that might not actually be what Paul Ryan's plan does, but that's not the point. You've just portrayed the Republican as the villain of the election, and he or she will spend the rest of the election trying to fight off that imagery while the Democrat can portray his or herself as the one with serious solutions.
I'm not saying we have to lie to beat the Republicans, but we have to beat them in messaging. We have to portray to the American people who the Republicans really are. We have to expose to the American people that Republicans aren't really looking out for their best interests. We can't get dragged into the distraction of whether or not the federal government has a role to play. All it does is bring more attention to the ideas of smaller government. The American people need to be thinking about what the government can do for this country, rather than thinking of if the government should even have a role. All that does is further distract them and we play right into the Republicans hand. Democrats need to be seen as the party that makes government work for the people.