As they gear up for 2020, Republicans are resurrecting their go-to campaign strategy: fearmongering. They didn't have to spend any time dusting it off after grinding it home on immigration throughout the 2018 midterm elections, which did not end well for them. So what's the scary demon emerging in 2020? "Socialism" and a supposed compendium of Radical Left-ness that threatens to swallow the republic whole. Gasp!
“A far left fringe party pushing a socialist platform,” charged Chris Pack, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee. Donald Trump has also taken to routinely invoking the phrase "Radical Left" in tweets and elsewhere.
On the ticker of GOP talking points proving Democrats' radical bonafides are talk of Medicare for all, taxing the extremely rich at higher levels, and the recently introduced Green New Deal, among others.
Republicans are so giddy over the wellspring of aspirational ideas from Democrats, they can't wait to put them on trial. Yep. After failing to have a fresh thought since the Reagan era, the GOP is allergic to newness. The struggle is real, folks. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who panned taking "pointless" show votes on government funding last month, now wants to put the squeeze on Democrats by forcing them to vote on the Green New Deal, which is a nonbinding resolution.
"We're going to be voting on that in the Senate to give everybody an opportunity to go on record," McConnell gleefully told reporters Tuesday.
Absolutely, let's do that, Mitch. Let's get Republicans on record for the do-nothing policies of yesteryear that landed our planet in this hot mess in the first place.
Democrats shouldn't bat an eye. The Green New Deal is a 13-page document with the apparently controversial goal of achieving “net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers.” It's not perfect and it's not complete—it's a work in progress. The mere act of introducing such a resolution is meant to spark discussion and debate about how to engineer a sea change in our dependence on fossil fuels. And thank goodness Democrats are refocusing the nation's attention on a problem that the U.N. is warning will have dire, potentially irreversible consequences unless a major course correction is undertaken in the next 12 years.
The fact of the matter is, the broad policy goals behind most of these "fringe" ideas enjoy popular support. Just last month, taxing the rich at higher levels was quickly labeled "radical" just as soon as it was given life by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Then pollsters went out in the field and found Americans broadly supportive of it, with 76 percent of registered voters agreeing that America's wealthiest should be paying more in taxes. Even Fox News was forced to report its own poll found 70 percent support for raising taxes on people making more than $10 million a year. Oops.
Support for Medicare for all proposals notched a similarly high 70 percent with Americans last year. But the substance of such a plan is far from settled and more recent polling suggests support does differ depending on the details of the plan.
But this type of public debate and policy vetting is exactly what should be happening as the nation begins to grapple with its future and, in this case, how to continue expanding health care access in the country.
Meanwhile Republicans, permanently wed to their golden oldies, used their power trifecta to deliver the nation a tax cut for the rich that has proven deeply unpopular. That didn’t go well. And in fact, the closest thing to a new idea coming from Republican quarters is Trump's obsession with building a border wall. Guess how that forward-thinking concept is polling? About 20 points underwater.
Republicans haven't offered a single new idea or viable solution to the nation's most vexing problems in at least a decade or more. Ever since Barack Obama became president, the only issues they have talked about are cutting taxes, cutting government programs, and overturning the Affordable Care Act. The first two have been decades-old aims for the GOP and the latest entrant on their priorities radar only came about in response to a Democratic accomplishment. In other words, it was reactive, not proactive.
The GOP is honestly a sad little party, well past its prime and even its midlife crisis, wasting away as it longs for the glory days of long ago. In the meantime, the party intends to impose its fear of the future on the nation at large, lest it be forgotten as the rest of us plan for a new day.