It looks as though we had a coordinated attack on our patriotism today, engineered by Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove.
Rove made his outrageous assertion about liberals and Democrats being against everything that is right and true about America (or something along those lines). Mehlman answered our outrage with a list meant to back up what Rove said.
And it seems their talking heads on all the shows are parroting the same talking points.
more below...
Friends, there are some things that we are going to have to come to grips with...
The conservative movement hates us!
Do we get that yet?
There will be no comity. There will be no bipartisanship. There will be no win/win. We are in a culture war between people of good will and people of ill will. We are in a culture war that one side is going to win and one side is going to lose.
Here is another thing we need to wrap our heads around...
The Republicans lie and play dirty tricks and the media lets them get away with it
Do we understand this?
A corollary to that is...
Facts don't matter, perception is reality
Huh? What that means is that you cannot score political points by stating facts!
Here is a little quiz just to see whether you get this concept:
Identify the more effective political statement:
- Democrats are weak on terrorism, but President Bush sticks to his principles!
- Republicans have done a terrible job defending us against terrorism. For example, they cut funds for first responders!
Answer: 1
What the hell is a first responder?
We need to understand the rules of engagement!
Here are the rules:
1. Perception is more important than facts.
We all buy into this. Ask a Democrat what our issues are and they'll answer: domestic issues.
We really don't think we're that good on issues of defense and diplomacy. We have started almost all of the wars over the past 100 years, yet we view ourselves as dovish.
Our worst terrorist attack took place under Republican watch, yet they're considered to be better on terrorism. That's because Republicans have succeeded in creating the perception that Democrats are weak on defense-related issues.
2. The media aren't interested in facts and discussion and truth.
If they were then Democrats would be in power right now.
The media are like referees during the NBA postseason, who will let most violations slide because the game is more interesting than the rules.
3. Never say that you were wrong.
We all understand the nuance of Dick Durbin's statements. We know that he wasn't criticizing American soldiers. However, when Durbin apologized the perception was that he agreed that what he said was wrong. So now the perception has been set that Durbin attacked American soldiers. And his weakass display of tearful remorse served to further enhance the perception that Democrats are weak people with no character and no values.
4. Republicans are not to be trusted.
My tinfoil hat is set firmly in place.
If you are getting a compliment from a Republican it is probably because they are aiming to play you off against another Democrat, or else you've gone along with them on something. An example is Frist complimenting Richard Durbin for his apology. That's when we really knew Durbin had blown it!
Remember that whatever they do, they do in the interest of advancing their cause, like when the President kissed Senator Lieberman.
5. Find a message, get everyone on board with it, and stick with it!
We need to know what we stand for right now! We're still stuck in the old rut of each individual candidate getting it figured it in time for the election. That doesn't work! We need a list of 3, 5, 10 principles and we need to have our candidates parroting them and framing their positions based upon those principles.
After all the corruption and all of the Republican failures if we don't have our own version of a contract with America for the 2006 campaign -- that every Democratic candidate is fully on board with -- then we are irresponsible, unprincipled losers.
Irresponsible because we will have allowed our love of intellectual freedom and nuance to get in the way of making hard decisions about what words to use in expressing what we stand for; and because we will have failed to fall in line on a set of shared principles.
6. No Democrat may publicly attack or disagree with another Democrat. No Democrat may speak against the Party.
7. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Bill Richardson are the leaders of our Party.
Through the 2006 campaign these people are our leaders:
Senate Minority Leader Reid
House Minority Leader Pelosi
Democratic Governors Association Chair Richardson
If we play the game right then we can make significant gains in the senate, house and in governor's mansions around the country! So, these folks must be in charge and they must set the message for us!
Reid, Pelosi and Richardson should formulate a neat, simple platform -- a set of cogent, common sense principles for 2006.
This set of principles should then be distributed to every candidate, talking-head, campaign consultant and grassroots organizer... really, to any Democrat that is ever within 10 miles of a news reporter or a telephone or a computer.
Anyone who stands for our cause should be able to say, by rote, what it is that we stand for, in no uncertain terms.
Is this too much to ask?
If we don't do these things, I ask you... how the hell else are we going to win? By waiting for the media and the rest of America to wake up and see the light? That's what our enemies are betting on...