As we all know, the right wing echo-chamber is going into overdrive, trying to figure out which excuse to make stick, and what they tend to say is their typical garbage. The deniers tote out Hurricane Sandy and the one that they are clearly latching onto is that President Obama has been re-elected because of a bunch of lazy people that want stuff from the government. Rove and company at Faux News are working on overdrive with this one and Democrats need to act.
Living in Metro Atlanta, outside of Fulton and Dekalb counties, it's a sea of red. I'm in a county that at last look went 81% for Romney and to even speak to most anyone about politics is an exercise in needing to know personal safety. I'm reading it in their newspaper letters, I'm hearing the chatter, and they're latching onto the narrative, people vote for Democrats because they want stuff and they are losers.
My wife's Facebook is loaded up with people she went to school with here and one after another, it's screaming about giving stuff, welfare, food stamps (it's been called EBT for how long?), unemployment, you name it. The irony isn't lost on my wife and I that us and many of our liberal friends here are high income earners and pay significantly more into the system than the same ones screaming about the government. Plus, many of them are getting assistance including state health benefits. My wife's own aunt had a medical condition, the government paid for the surgery, she's fully able to work, but quite simply, she's too lazy to do so. She got an attorney to get her on disability and she collects monthly. AND, she votes Republican. So, it's OK for her to live off of the government because she's lazy, but according to the crowd around here, anyone who isn't white lives off the government.
So here it is, the narrative: "They're voting for President Obama and the Democrats because they want stuff." It's our job to take their narrative and turn it around on them. We vote for Democrats for women's rights, we vote for Democrats for equality of all types, we vote for Democrats to protect the citizens from corporate interests that destroy our environment, poison our food supply, and we vote for Democrats for the invaluable resources of science while keeping religion out of our government.
Phase one of the GOP civil war began with the Tea Party and now they are onto phase two. How will that end up? It'll be interesting to watch. They can further retrench and become more marginalized or move to center. With their track record, moving to the center will be awfully high and according to them, all of us government sponges will keep making them loose.
P.S. - It's my first diary, so I tried! :)