Today’s New York Times Book Review features an interview with NPR’s Ira Glass, who was asked, “What’s the one book you wish someone else would write?” He gave the following answer:
“Could someone please write a book explaining why the Democratic Party and its allies are so much less effective at crafting a message and having a vision than their Republican counterparts? … I remember reading in The Times that as soon as Obama won, the Republicans were scheming about how they’d turn it around for the next election, and came up with the plan that won them the House, and wondered, did the House Dems even hold a similar meeting?”
You have to admire the scheme the Republicans crafted as soon as Obama won. Faced with a new president with a 65 percent approval rating and complete control of Congress, the Republicans held a meeting and came up with a brilliant plan:
Have the President spend nearly a trillion dollars on shovel-ready jobs that didn’t exist; use the money to benefit public-employee unions while the private sector hemorrhaged; pivot to a federal healthcare plan opposed by a majority of the public; assign oversight of the recovery effort to Joe Biden (because nobody messes with Joe); run up trillions of new public debt; propose budgets no one would vote for; ignore the presidential commission’s recommendations for solving the problem; adopt an apologetic foreign policy, intentionally putting daylight between America and its allies; trade the interests of European allies for magic reset beans; become impatient with the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” but exhibit endless patience with Iran; play a record number of rounds of golf but avoid press conferences; give himself an A- after his first year (conditioned on ramming his healthcare plan through Congress within a couple months).
And then the Republicans took advantage of the fact that, as Glass suggests, the Democrats did not even hold a similar meeting.
Although the Times has not reported it, the word is out that after the 2010 shellacking, the Republicans held another meeting, and came up with an even simpler scheme for 2012: have the President double down, explaining how in his first two years he got the policy right but didn’t tell a story to the American people; and then have him craft a one-word message to the people: Forward.
Ira Glass is a tool. n nHe, Cokie effin Roberts, Robert Reich and the rest of the self satisfied, smug but clueless never-left-the-college-mindset elitists at National Palestine Radio would drive this country over a cliff if someone gave them the keys to the car. n nOther than that, they're not a bad bunch. They never met an arab or muslim Jew hater they didn't celebrate as some sort of 'authentic' primitive worthy of being taken seriously. Celebrate diversity!
You're on a roll, buddy. Keep it up. I'd say vote early and often on November 6, but that's a Democratic Party trope.
Priceless. You have to wonder what wonderland Ira Glass resides in.
What has always amused me about this asinine rationale (?) – which isn't new – is that it implies sheer brilliance in a Party that had just been wiped out in the two previous elections, and whose president had approval ratings below 30%. To go from beyond stupid to beyond brilliant overnight – that IS impressive Mr. Glass!
Where does this lament that "We don't have a scheme or plan like those conservatives" come from? The Democrats and liberals have all kinds of think tanks and policy foundations where they get together to assemble a message or plan. Good grief, much of academia is a veritable ideological farm system for the Democratic Party. Is Mr. Glass not aware of any of this? n nNow liberals may have a more difficult time assembling a coherent message since their base is largely made up of groups practicing identity politics. In order to appease those groups, the Democrats have to offer a specific program or policy to each constituency and not produce something that transcends those groups differences. Not "out of many one", but "out of one many". Hyphenated Americans on steroids. n nBut Mr. Glass has to be blind not to see that Democrats "scheme" to defeat Republicans as much as Republicans "scheme" to defeat Democrats.
When the only alternative is admitting "Gee, our ideas aren't very good and people don't like them," the left will always go with "the other side is cheating."
"Now liberals may have a more difficult time assembling a coherent message since their base is largely made up of groups practicing identity politics." nWell said.
Why? Because Obama's base clearly stated that the only path to success beyond the 2008 election was dictatorship.
Liberals will think anything to avoid looking at their first principles. This is also why intent is so much more important to them than positive outcomes.
As Mr. Richman and others have alluded, the best thing happening for Republicans is the consistency with which Democrats exacerbate the problems they attempt to address. It is hard to formulate a visionary message for the future based on a foundation of consistent failure. When "let's conduct a war on poverty" costs billions of dollars and results in more poor people than ever who are not just economically impoverished as before, but now also culturally and socially impoverished, it becomes impossible to point to that legacy and plausibly advocate for more of the same.
Yeah, the Republicans’ scheme was brilliant: Invent Tea Parties! n nOh, but wait. They didn’t build that. They didn’t. Irate citizens that the RINO stiffed as well as the Dems built that. n nMeanwhile Beltway bubble types come and go talking of Michelangelo, and telling themselves that the Tea Party is dead. We'll see about that.
Nice narratives. And, who knew that Cokie Roberts was an anti-Zionist zealot.
Jonathan Chait calls it "the Wehner Fallacy" — the belief that disapproval of the Democrats is entirely a function of public revulsion at the liberal agenda. n nObama certainly did not cause the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression — he inherited it from George W. Bush & co. Yet the worst 4-5 years since the 1930s sure do affect the public's disposition toward the party in power. Fortunately for Obama, it seems a majority of Americans do understand all capitalist democracies (with the possible exception of Canada) are hurting right now, and that the solution is not to return to the failed policies of 2000-2008.
". . . disapproval of the Democrats is entirely a function of public revulsion at the liberal agenda. " n nAn excellent summary.
I love the 'inherited from Bush' mantra that Obama and his butt sniffers cling to. n nThe economic crisis was a direct result of Democratic policies implemented through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that ensured the only qualifications need for home ownership were a an active heartbeat and respiratory rate. n nFor proof of the above, look no farther than Canada, that did NOT suffer a housing bubble, and has maintained a growing economy and comparatively low unemployment all through the tenure of the Preezy of the United Steezy. n nYou see, up north, you actually have to demonstrate you can afford to own a home, and not just be Hispanic, black, or poor.