For months, I’ve been waiting. Waiting for the Democratic machine to throw the switch and come strong to defend its brand. My background’s in news. Media. Marketing. So I'm thing surely they have a counter-punch ready. Right? RIGHT???
Instead, as Republicans and the talk radio right pound relentlessly at the record of the most productive president of our age, Democrats who should know better are curled up in the corner sucking their thumbs.
Surely, I thought, they’d wake up after a voter stood up and told the president—THE PRESIDENT—that she was tired of defending him. Of course she is. She’s in a battle against 24 hours of lies from conservative talk radio, Fox News and email chains and she’s unarmed.
Come on D’s. Most of your supporters don’t have DKos bookmarked, nor do they have the time to research why they should support you. You need to take the message to them and you’re not.
Do I have to do everything myself?
Imagine seeing this billboard at a major intersection.
I know billboards are old school. And trust me, I love new media. Work with it everyday. But that’s not where the war is. D’s are being attacked everyday by talk radio. It is the major outlet for daily Republican talking points. People are in their cars getting filled with rightwing lies. So how do we reach into those same cars? With billboards like this. Plus, they have an advantage radio does not. It’s visual, which is more impactful than hours of talk talk talk. So while Rush and Sean go on about jobs going away, we can create some dandy cognitive dissonance with this messages like this. Incidentally, they’d make nice yard signs too.
It also demonstrates three of the most basic principles D’s seem to have forgotten, but would be well advised to remember with a month to go to the midterms:
- The face of the Democratic Party is Barack Obama. As he goes, so goes the party. The R’s know this. That’s why they’re trying to paint him as the next Jimmy Carter. You cannot divorce yourself from him and hope to win. He is the tide that raises all ships.
- The face of the Republican party isn’t George W. Bush anymore. It’s Boehner and McConnell. This sidesteps the whole "stop blaming Bush" meme from the right. Okay. We’ll happily blame the current obstructionists.
- People love accomplishments. You’ve accomplished plenty. Be proud. And tell them. Visually. Your base will be proud they put you in power, and will show up again in November.
Speaking of accomplishments, if the R’s take the House, there won’t be any for 2 long years. Then, the right will begin painting President Obama as a do-nothing president. So we need to be proactive, and challenge that message before it starts. We need to set a marker in people’s minds—much was accomplished in the first two years with D’s in Congress. To whit:
Maybe the next month will surprise me, and the national Democratic Party will actually take the field. Maybe they’re ready to strike back in defense of their brand. And maybe I just saw Christine O'Donnell fly by my window.