The Field Negro has a must read post about the failed strategy of Don the Con in the final days of the 2018 Mid terms:
"In the Trump era, when every day brings fresh insanity, looking back is hard. But it’s worth remembering what Donald Trump did in the final days before Tuesday’s midterm elections. It’s worth remembering because it’s a template for what he may do in 2020. And for how mainstream conservatives will respond.
As anyone not living in a cave knows it was Racism in it’s purest form or Willie Horton on steroids. The soon to be ex-speaker of the House Paul Ryan begged DtC to talk about the economy. Fugetaboutit.
Trump does appear to have incited Republican fury over immigration...His strategy worked, in part, because he understood something about the respectable people in his party: They wouldn’t challenge his bigotry, no matter how blatant it was...They couldn’t clearly admit that Trump was peddling racism because that would have required them to repudiate him. But neither could they muster serious arguments for why the ad wasn’t racist. So they half-heartedly waved the whole thing away.
Which is just what Trump expects. Bullies can sense cowardice….
DtC brought out the Republican voters Trump collective but also POed everyone else coming out to vote (A record number of voters as even Fox News reported).
And because DCC Executive Director Dan Sena chose the strategy of ignoring Trump and focusing on the economy/health care it worked. Containment/oversight and not impeachment. In the words of then Leader Pelosi “Stick with lower health-care costs, bigger paychecks and cleaner government”. (In private she allegedly used more colorful language about DtC: “You can’t get in a tinkle contest with a skunk,”)
Message discipline, teamwork and the refusal to be baited into a fight with DtC resulted in a complete failure of the GOP’s efforts to paint Democrats as a screaming, violent mob of socialists and anarchists who would burn the flag, raise taxes, open the borders and impeach the president.
Come January 2019 the Democratic Majority must continue with the strategy of the triple I: Ignore, Investigate, Improve.
- Ignore DtC’s twitter rants and stunts he uses to bait people and generate outrage because this is what he craves, especially with the media (who would be well to follow this advice). Also important is to ignore the Republican Hissy fits and their rending of graments as they suddenly wail about deficit spending and the Country is too broke to spend money on Medicare expansion and the Social Safety Net.
- Investigate the graft and corruption that appear to be a feature and not a bug of this Whitehouse. Do it with strict adherence to the General Principles of Congressional Oversight (yes this was a thing) and the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970. The Whitehouse (and the Kremlin) will no longer have an Operative in Congress to protect their Assteroids but TS (2nd Definition), that’s just the way it moves.
- Lastly, and this is most important: Focus on Improving the finances of the Average Working Stiff or AWS. Despite a record low 3.7% unemployment the AWS is probably working 60, 70 or 80 hours a week and is barely keeping their family fed. If minimum wage were based on productivity (up 85% since 1979) it would be around $22.00 an hour. The Democratic majority must introduce legislation to capitalize on this theme of a living wage and AFFORDABLE healthcare, even though it may have no chance of passing in the Senate and would be vetoed by DtC. Let the Party of tax cuts for the rich explain their actions in the next election. This is not to say that actions by DtC and his R Lackeys should be ignored, especially those that affect People of Color, LBGTQ and Women. But History has shown that when the AWS has a full belly, a roof over their head and clean clothes on their back they then are less likely to buy into the racial BS pushed by DtC.
The Commander is ashamed to admit that he almost gave up on finding an effective strategy to neutralize DtC and his boss Putin. I feared that his smash the machinery of Government/Make America White Again approach that was so effective in 2016 would work again in 2018 (Massive GOP voter suppression did not help either).
I seemed to have seriously mis-underestimated how the majority of the voters actually felt about this drek.