Dear Democratic Senators, Representatives, and other notable Democrats:
The art of controlling and shaping the battlefield of ideas has traditionally been dominated by Republicans. "John Kerry is a flip-flopping coward" in the 2004 Elections, the ubiquitous meme of "Democrats are weak on security", and simplifying removing ourselves from another country's civil war as "cut-and-run" are clear-cut examples of where they have succeeded in propagating easy-to-digest message morsels that are spoon-fed to an eager "some say" media that then reinforce these ideas to the public.
Throughout the life of the bill that has just been vetoed by our Commander-in-Chief, the other side has consistently denigrated us for not "supporting the troops" and for "playing games" with our troops funding, and once again successfully setting the table by somehow convincing an uncritical media that the troops currently in Iraq would somehow be denied even an iota of the supplies and necessities they currently have, an error that Senator Feingold corrected recently.
The rest of us, like Senator Feingold, know the truth, and the truth is that it is, in fact, Mr. Bush that will be denying funding to the troops. The bill that he has vetoed would have provided funding to the troops, but not in the form of a blank check, unresponsive and ignorant to the wishes of a significant majority of Americans, but rather a recognition that this is a war that cannot be won militarily.
Subsequently, it is incumbant upon every single Democrat that will appear on any sort of news program, press conference, Op-Ed, or any other form of public communication to explicitly highlight the truth, so repeat after me:
After ignoring the will of the American people, George Bush has voted against funding our troops.
After ignoring the will of the American people, George Bush has voted against funding our troops.
After ignoring the will of the American people, George Bush has voted against funding our troops.
One more time, if you can't remember:
After ignoring the will of the American people, George Bush has voted against funding our troops.
There. Instead of simply rebutting Republican messages, let's try and get on the offensive and control the message this time, shall we? Listen to BarbInMD's wonderful framing as "Bush to Cut-Off Funding for Troops Today" or KagroX's "Bush abandons troops, blames brass" for examples as how to correctly frame this issue and for once put the Republicans on the defensive.
Thanks.
UPDATE: Thank you Keith Olbermann: "Troops Funding Denied"