I have been a member of the DailyKos community for 8 1/2 years and there is no other time than now where I have been frustrated with its messaging. There has never been a time than I have been more frustrated with the Democratic Party messaging. There was a time that the Democratic Party was perceived as protectors of the working person and the middle class. I believe that is still true but it does not matter what I believe. What matters is the public perception. The public believes that we have abandoned the middle class and really only care about the poor, women’s rights, taking away peoples guns and illegal aliens. The Republicans have a very effective messaging system that is greatly aided by an utter lack of conscience. Witness their campaign to demonize the poor and say they are the reason for the pressure the middle class feels pressure financially. We have let them in the minds of many of the middle class present themselves as the protectors of the middle class. It is nonsense, of course, but people do not vote for someone because of what is the truth but what they think is the truth.
How do we change that? It is actually quite simple. You have to have an issue. It has to simple and understandable by the average voter. Then you have to get everyone together and hammer it home. The last is the hardest.
There is no question with the possible exception of climate change the greatest challenge we face is income inequality. When Kos and the other front pagers talk about this I want to tear my hair out. They are basically singing to the choir and if they talked to the average person it would take about 10 seconds for their eyes to glaze over. If it was not for Hunter, Charlie Pierce and Robert Reich I think I would just give up. Even my heroine Elizabeth Warren does not know how to get the message across. You gotta make it simple and personal.
I am very good at this. In every conversation whether at a store or any chance meeting I always ask the same question. Are you obeying the rules? They will reply, what rules? I always say rule #1 is to have fun and rule #2 is never vote for a Republican. The other day I was at the VA and had to park at an outer parking lot and they have people on little carts that come along and take you to the main entrance. I laid my rule thing out and this nice young lady stopped the cart and laughingly told me to get off and kept going. It was all in good humor. By time she got to the main entrance she knew that she paid a far greater percentage of her income to the government than people like Mitt Romney did as did anyone on minimum wage. She got it and she will probably still vote for the evil ones but a seed was planted. This happens a lot. My message is simple and understandable and most important I made it personal.
I write many LTE’s to our conservative local newspaper. the last on published was here. The issue is simple. Why do the uber rich pay less to the government that a minimum wage worker? I also point out the tax burden that a true small businessman has to pay. If you look at all the LTE’s you will find that I always create a controversy and have the most comments than anyone else. The comments now are pre modulated and only put up twice a day. My letter used to get over two hundred comments but now it usually stops at about a hundred. Obviously I am not singing to the choir.
This is my next letter:
The interesting thing about Mr Baumbach's reply to my recent LTE was that he never answered my main point which was the ultra rich in this country like Mr. Romney pays less in percentage in taxes than a minimum wage worker. Like most right wing ideologues when confronted with facts that cannot be disputed they ignore them and go straight to their talking points. I doubt he even heard the argument. In this way ideologues of all stripes resemble addicts. They cannot hear anything against their substance of choice.
A country’s economy produces so much income. To keep an economy going a certain percentage of that income must go to keeping the engine in shape so it is able to keep producing income. The uber rich through an army of lobbyists and bought politicians has skewered the way we pay taxes that they pay less in percentage than people who work at Walmart and certainly the middle class which is getting hit the hardest.
Their standard canard is that if the rich pay less in taxes they will invest more and we will be awash in jobs. We have been down this road for 33 years since Reagan. How has this worked out?
I think the cruelest and meanest talking point is that many minimum wage workers pay no income tax and need to get some “skin” in the game. The fact that more of their money goes to the government as a percentage of other taxes than the uber rich is lost on them.
The Pope and the President have both spoken out eloquently on the problem of income inequality. The Republican party through its lobbyists and bought politicians with a little help from certain Democrats has created a situation where the wealth of this nation is being funneled to the uber rich by letting them get away with not paying their fair share of taxes needed to keep the engine of our economy going. This is politically controlled wealth distribution at its finest.
Why do we put up with it?
You can read Mr Baumbach’s letter
here. It is basically an ode to Ronald Reagan who I trash at ever given opportunity part of the reason being just to set people like Mr Baumbach’s pants on fire. Molly Ivans said we should have some fun too.
My psychologist sister taught me the “I want my meat” idea. If we want to win the midterms and win back the house this is the issue that will do it for us. If a Democrat gets asked any question on any of the shows the answer should always include. “ Why do the rich have to pay less percentage of their income to the government than a person on minimum wage? Why does the middle class have to carry the burden caused by the uber wealthy not paying their fair share?”
Right now the Republicans have started a campaign to demonize the poor. They want us to get bogged down in a message war we cannot win. We should ignore this and go with our own message. The message is clear, true and will resonate with those in the middle class. I have never seen a petition on this. I do not see our party asking these questions. I repeat:
“ Why do the rich have to pay less percentage of their income to the government than a person on minimum wage? Why does the middle class have to carry the burden caused by the uber wealthy not paying their fair share?”
Short, simple, true. This is the issue. This is where we have to go. We have to go after them with this every goddamn day until election day. They have no answer. We cannot let ourselves be sidelined by any of their rhetoric. Our mantra needs to be “I want my meat”