I was mildly surprised to hear
Hillary Clinton call the administration on their most successful tactic:
She said a speech by presidential adviser Karl Rove two weeks ago showed the GOP election message is: ''All we've got is fear and we're going to keep playing the fear card."
In that speech, Rove suggested Republicans can prevail in 2006 by showing Democrats had undermined terrorism-fighting efforts by questioning President Bush's authority to allow wiretapping without getting court approval first.
I'd suggest taking it one step further: instead of fearing to be singled out,
Democrats should all take pride in being accused of treason and treachery by the likes of Karl Rove. Considering the source, it puts them on the side of the angels.
But there's more that Democrats can (should do):
The conventional wisdom says that the voting public fears being
killed by terrorists. Similarly, the conventional wisdom says that the individual Democrat fears being
defeated in the next election.
It's time for the Democrats to create their own conventional wisdom:
- Yes, battling an enemy that uses terrorism is a challenge. But we've faced worse. The fact is, you are more likely to get killed by slipping and falling in the bathtub than you are to get killed by terrorists.
- Yes, standing up and telling truth to power seems like a risk until you realize that generic preference polling indicates that the public already favors the Democrats over the Republicans.
It's time that the Democrats spoke with one voice on these matters. It's time for the Democrats to hang together or else they will indeed hang separately.
Democrats need to finally acknowledge that the mood of the country is more in line with the Democrats' interests, not the Republicans'.
For example, polls indicate that the majority of people believe the Republicans lied about the war and have mishandled the economy, putting the country on the wrong track.
The solution should be simple and intuitive: the Democrats must speak with one voice. If they do this, there is safety in numbers. It's a simple message:
"Until we're in charge, the Congress will be a rubber stamp for an Executive who thinks he should be King. The Republican majority has a 5-year track record that shows what they will do when they're in charge. So if you keep voting like you always did, you'll keep getting what you always got.
"But if you'll put us in charge, we will work hard to uncover the facts behind the past five years of war, scandal, mismanagement. Put us in charge and we'll work hard to hold people accountable for their lies, incompetence and misleadership. Put us in charge and we'll work hard to make the homeland safer and win our allies back again. Put us in charge and we'll work hard to build a future of energy independence. Put us in charge and we'll work hard for universal health care. Put us in charge and we'll work hard to bring the budget back into balance. Put us in charge and we'll work for the country.
"Leave the Republicans in charge and they'll work hard ... for George W. Bush.
"Put us in charge and we'll work hard to defend the Constitution. Leave the Republicans in charge and they'll work hard...to defend George W. Bush."
Individual Democrats are scared of saying the wrong thing. But if all the Democrats hang together and say the right thing -- well, there's safety in numbers. One single Democrat can't stop the President. But a Democratic majority in the House and/or Senate could.