A poll released on August 12th by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reports “With Bush holding the advantage on most personal qualities and Kerry on most issues, the horse race itself is about as deadlocked as it was prior to the Democratic Convention, with 47% of registered voters favoring the Kerry/Edwards ticket, and 45% favoring Bush and Cheney. Just 2% say they would vote for Nader if the election were being held today.”
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TDS Strategy Memos
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Editor’s Corner
By Ed Kilgore
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December 18: Democratic Strategies for Coping With a Newly Trumpified Washington
After looking at various Democratic utterances about dealing with Trump 2.0, I wrote up a brief typology for New York:
The reaction among Democrats to Donald Trump’s return to power has been significantly more subdued than what we saw in 2016 after the mogul’s first shocking electoral win. The old-school “resistance” is dead, and it’s not clear what will replace it. But Democratic elected officials are developing new strategies for dealing with the new realities in Washington. Here are five distinct approaches that have emerged, even before Trump’s second administration has begun.
If you can’t beat ’em, (partially) join ’em
Some Democrats are so thoroughly impressed by the current power of the MAGA movement they are choosing to surrender to it in significant respects. The prime example is Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, the onetime fiery populist politician who is now becoming conspicuous in his desire to admit his party’s weaknesses and snuggle up to the new regime. The freshman and one-time ally of Bernie Sanders has been drifting away from the left wing of his party for a good while, particularly via his vocally unconditional backing for Israel during its war in Gaza. But now he’s making news regularly for taking steps in Trump’s direction.
Quite a few Democrats publicly expressed dismay over Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter, but Fetterman distinguished himself by calling for a corresponding pardon for Trump over his hush-money conviction in New York. Similarly, many Democrats have discussed ways to reach out to the voters they have lost to Trump. Fetterman’s approach was to join Trump’s Truth Social platform, which is a fever swamp for the president-elect’s most passionate supporters. Various Democrats are cautiously circling Elon Musk, Trump’s new best friend and potential slayer of the civil-service system and the New Deal–Great Society legacy of federal programs. But Fetterman seems to want to become Musk’s buddy, too, exchanging compliments with him in a sort of weird courtship. Fetterman has also gone out of his way to exhibit openness to support for Trump’s controversial Cabinet nominees even as nearly every other Senate Democrat takes the tack of forcing Republicans to take a stand on people like Pete Hegseth before weighing in themselves.
It’s probably germane to Fetterman’s conduct that he will be up for reelection in 2028, a presidential-election year in a state Trump carried on November 5. Or maybe he’s just burnishing his credentials as the maverick who blew up the Senate dress code.
Join ’em (very selectively) to beat ’em
Other Democrats are being much more selectively friendly to Trump, searching for “common ground” on issues where they believe he will be cross-pressured by his wealthy backers and more conventional Republicans. Like Fetterman, these Democrats — including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — tend to come from the progressive wing of the party and have longed chafed at the centrist economic policies advanced by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and, to some extent, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They’ve talked about strategically encouraging Trump’s “populist” impulses on such issues as credit-card interest and big-tech regulation, partly as a matter of forcing the new president and his congressional allies to put up or shut up.
So the idea is to push off a discredited Democratic Establishment, at least on economic issues, and either accomplish things for working-class voters in alliance with Trump or prove the hollowness of his “populism.”
Colorado governor Jared Solis has offered a similar strategy of selective cooperation by praising the potential agenda of Trump HHS secretary nominee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as helpfully “shaking up” the medical and scientific Establishment.
Aim at the dead center
At the other end of the spectrum, some centrist Democrats are pushing off what they perceive as a discredited progressive ascendancy in the party, especially on culture-war issues and immigration. The most outspoken of them showed up at last week’s annual meeting of the avowedly nonpartisan No Labels organization, which was otherwise dominated by Republicans seeking to demonstrate a bit of independence from the next administration. These include vocal critics of the 2024 Democratic message like House members Jared Golden, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Ritchie Torres, and Seth Moulton, along with wannabe 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Josh Gottheimer (his Virginia counterpart, Abigail Spanberger, wasn’t at the No Labels confab but is similarly positioned ideologically).
From a strategic point of view, these militant centrists appear to envision a 2028 presidential campaign that will take back the voters Biden won in 2020 and Harris lost this year.
Cut a few deals to mitigate the damage
We’re beginning to see the emergence of a faction of Democrats that is willing to cut policy or legislative deals with Team Trump in order to protect some vulnerable constituencies from MAGA wrath. This is particularly visible on the immigration front; some congressional Democrats are talking about cutting a deal to support some of Trump’s agenda in exchange for continued protection from deportation of DREAMers. Politico reports:
“The prize that many Democrats would like to secure is protecting Dreamers — Americans who came with their families to the U.S. at a young age and have since been protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program created by President Barack Obama in 2012.
“Trump himself expressed an openness to ‘do something about the Dreamers’ in a recent ‘Meet the Press’ interview. But he would almost certainly want significant policy concessions in return, including border security measures and changes to asylum law that Democrats have historically resisted.”
On a broader front, the New York Times has found significant support among Democratic governors to selectively cooperate with the new administration’s “mass deportation” plans in exchange for concessions:
“In interviews, 11 Democratic governors, governors-elect and candidates for the office often expressed defiance toward Mr. Trump’s expected immigration crackdown — but were also strikingly willing to highlight areas of potential cooperation.
“Several balanced messages of compassion for struggling migrants with a tough-on-crime tone. They said that they were willing to work with the Trump administration to deport people who had been convicted of serious crimes and that they wanted stricter border control, even as they vowed to defend migrant families and those fleeing violence in their home countries, as well as businesses that rely on immigrant labor.”
Hang tough and aim for a Democratic comeback
While the Democrats planning strategic cooperation with Trump are getting a lot of attention, it’s clear the bulk of elected officials and activists are more quietly waiting for the initial fallout from the new regime to develop while planning ahead for a Democratic comeback. This is particularly true among the House Democratic leadership, which hopes to exploit the extremely narrow Republican majority in the chamber (which will be exacerbated by vacancies for several months until Trump appointees can be replaced in special elections) on must-pass House votes going forward, while looking ahead with a plan to aggressively contest marginal Republican-held seats in the 2026 midterms. Historical precedents indicate very high odds that Democrats can flip the House in 2026, bringing a relatively quick end to any Republican legislative steamrolling on Trump’s behalf and signaling good vibes for 2028.
This will probably be the Convention:
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Official GOP Chaplain to lead convention prayer
The General was pleased to see that Jerry Falwell has been tapped to give the opening prayer at the Republican Convention. As the following quotes demonstrate, there is no other pastor in this country who better embodies the values of Our Leader, the Anointed One.
“The idea that religion and politics don’t mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country.
If you’re not a born-again Christian, you’re a failure as a human being.
It appears that America’s anti-Biblical feminist movement is at last dying, thank God, and is possibly being replaced by a Christ-centered men’s movement which may become the foundation for a desperately needed national spiritual awakening.
The Bible is the inerrant … word of the living God. It is absolutely infallible,without error in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as well as in areas such as geography, science, history, etc.
Grown men should not be having sex with prostitutes unless they are married to them.
I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won’t have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!
AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.
God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.
The ACLU’s got to take a lot of blame for this [terrorist attacks].
And, I know that I’ll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say, “You helped this [terrorist attacks] happen.”
Eldon and rachel, I love your approach with a certain amount of intensity. Its very reassuring, please pass the word around so that the other democrats and kerry supporters can get some of these butterflies outta their stomachs. This level of anxiety can lead to stress.
I also agree that Bush really has no issues on which to run. I have posted this several times and hence I think Kerry supporters need not worry so much. In the final analysis, I am pretty certain that America will vote with its heart and mind. If this is the case, then Bush has no platform on which to run and certainly none on which to win.
I just cant wait to hear and see the contents of this convention. I perceive a meeting full of hype and rhetoric and begging. What’s new that BUsh can bring to the public domain now? He had his chance, he made his promises and he failed. Is he going to outline a whole new batch of promises? Who wll consume these promises this time?
All that Bush has any choice of saying is that “we have turned the corner and we cant turn back now” and any fool can see thats a generic statement and can mean just about anything.. and I mean anything. It can even mean that Bush has turned the corner outta the white house and cant turn back now too.
I await the convention and I join with other believers to say that Kerry and Edwards will win and I have no qualms about saying it either. The moral fibre of the American people is at stake here and Bush has scuttled it so badly over the past four years thats its important for the people to simply get it back because they know that Bush does not know what on earth the term “moral fibre” means.
Lets also note that the world needs a change. Pay attention to the quality of the results in athens, the international press coverage and the crowd responses and you will see how much the US needs to change this president and reubuild its alliances. Its needed sooooooooooooo badly that it hurts.
Go campaign for your team..
Cheers
I agree with rachelrachel. People are underestimating Kerry’s shrewdness. He set himself up, for instance, as a target for the Swift Boat Liars, and they fell for it, looking in the final analysis like third string basketball players who should be back on the bench. All of their best chances for slinging slime will be yesterday’s news on the bottom of the birdcage, and Bush will be left with nothing to talk about except the issues, which is hard to do when you can’t put a sentence together with both a subject and a verb.
The Kerry camp immediately came back with speeches where Bush talked about the importance of being sensitive, the excerpt of which was played on the networks, the effect of which is that Cheney no longer lashes out at Kerry for his “sensitive” remark. Like any candidate in a competitive race, Kerry sometimes has to play defense, and here he did it effectively.
The swift boat attacks seem to have fizzled out.
No matter how emotionally satisfying some people find it, the AWOL stuff is useless against Bush, about whom most voters already have an opinion.
Anybody who has been following Kerry knows that (even though he has vowed to stay positive) he has been attacking Bush on his record.
Kerry knows what he’s doing, and unless the dynamic changes dramatically before November, he will be the next occupant of the White House.
“Both Kerry and Edwards voted to send troops into harm’s way and then voted against the funds to support troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with supplies like body armor and ammunition,” said Jones.
To the casual reader, the above statement by Jones of the GOP seems like an indictment on both Kerry and Edwards but technically, its not. Its fuel for the DEMS.
Its really an acceptance and admission by the GOP that the president did send the troops in harms way. Add this to the many revelations regarding this invasion, then add it again to the many untruths from the president and his cohorts and then add it again, for good measure, to the shifting reasons for the invasion and you will see that the president, knowingly sent the troops into harms way, knowing also that the reasons were unjustified, knowing also that he concopted his stories, knowing also that he never intended to pursure the perpetrators of 9/11.
So, this statement is not a negative but an open admission by the president’s men that he failed this country and its people, yet again.
Can the democrats ask for more fodder and fuel than this? They have all the amunition they need at their finger tips, their fingers are on the triggers, they just need to act decisively on the information and fuel which they have in hand… and trust me, they have arsenals of it.
I am not really sure what they are waiting for.. but I think they are holding until after the convention and hence nullify any possible responses that the GOP might want to make at the convention.
But even then, it might not be a bad idea to pepper the GOP so badly, that they need to be on the defensive at the convention.. it might not be bad idea to have them gasping for breath while they speak and literally seek to throw them off topic.
If only the democrats had strategists and real PR people and such… they could have considered a two pronged approach, where they give the GOP tons of questions to answer just about the time they go into the convention… and then.. as soon as the convention is over, have a blitz to refute every plan of action which they propose.
Its always a good idea to keep your opponent on the back foot, on the defensive, wondering whats next, breathing heavy and gasping for air.
Ask Al Quaida about this method of winning battles. These guys still have the world second guessing, still wondering where next, still looking over its shoulders and yet, they live such a primitive life. Its so fascinating. hmm
It would do the democrats a good to try hitting the GOP around the knees and throwing them off balance just before and during the convention… they should not leave that up to the protestors.
Cheers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3562470.stm
when you read the above, you will find that Kerry can easily be the next president. I cant see how he can lose it. The electorate wants to have a change and they will get one.
From reading and receiving the many comments on this wild wild web, its obvious that every person who wants a change in the white house is a bit worried about the methods of the kerry campaign.
I have e-chatted with people in the US and other places around the world and just about everyone, who fits the above mold, is kinda concerned.
My response however is that I dont genuinely think that there should be a whole lots of butterflies and those squelchy feelings which we tend to get in our stomachs when we are anxious. I think that we need to do the analysis and not the complex analyses which we get from the polls but that simple analysis which we get from the human heart.
I cannot think of any right minded, right thinking american who would want to live thru what this adminstration has created for its people in the past four years. Forget about pandering to the rich, forget about invading Iraq for sinister reasons and you will still realise that this administration has taken its people on a horrific ride of failures, lies, deceit and hair splitting explanations.
While I am quick to admit that the GOP functions in the same mode as AL Quaida and hence, it will rally around its man, I think that there are enough angry and disillusioned republicans who will either vote for Kerry or, will simply stay at home and not vote.
I know that the press is thinking twice about giving Kerry good and open publicity but its not the press that decides the outcome of the elections, its the electorate. The fact that the polls keep showing the two prospects in a tight neck and neck race is a clear indicator that the electorate is not following the press’ leads and are making up their own minds based on their own experiences and real life visuals of the situation in the US today.
I am not even convinced that those being polled are giving the polsters accurate information or that the polsters are offering balanced questions.
In any event, I dont think that kerry supporters or whitehouse changers need to catch butterflies during this election period because I have enogh confidence in the peoples of the US to vote with their hearts and minds and experiences.
I feel pretty sure that the GOP will fall on a surprise in November.
For those who are not so convinced, start beating the pavements and canvas for you man.
Cheers
Well… its good that the dems are getting their own to talk… the next steop now will be to find the best media and use them.
I too wonder if it wont be better to keep targetting local media as they are more inclined to do the actual reporting.
Sometimes it doesnt hurt to pay for PR either..
Cheers
Does Kerry have surrogates in the swing states? While the national media seem to be ignoring the nuances and lies of the Bush/Cheney team, the local media seem to eat up local visits with more in depth coverage. Are Howard Dean, Wes Clark and Gephardt speaking to local groups and finding their comments reported?
Are the local media in swing states more important than national media in winning this election?
Polling is one indication. I am wondering about the larger than usual crowds that come to see Kerry. Is this an energized base? Or are the polls missing something?
This site always calms my nerves:
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
The kerry camp doesnt seem to care…. how could they allow Cheney and wife to talk so much nonsense about being sensitive in war and not blanket the media with stern rebuttals?
How could they let them get away with this crap?
The media does not care to report the truth either and they certain are not interested in investigative journalism. I am yet to hear a single journalist confront the GOP or even Cheney to expand on his rant about Kerry and sensitive wars. Are they really this afraid of Cheney, Bush and the GOP?
Why are the journalist always asking Kerry to define and defend his position and never asking Bush or Cheney to define and explain their variants on the truth. When are the journalists going to call these people on their lies?
What a weak democratic camp and what a woeful bunch of journalists.
cheers
you are right warp resident.. if kerry and crew cant push bush onto the back foot and onto the floor because of his four year record, then he really does not deserve to be president.. and I mean that. He wont be able to contain the four years of relentless attacks from the GOP during his presidency. They wont let him run the place.. so I agree…. if he cant knock this guy off based on his presidency, then he dont deserve the position..
cheers
Few have mentioned that Kerry may have a strategy in mind. He may have made a blunder with his phrasing of the response to the question of supporting the war knowing what we now know. But his campaign has said that it won’t shrink back from taking on negative attacks. The question is when and how. My guess is they think it is still too early to attack Bush on his record. Kerry is still trying to define himself and his platform to the undecided voters. Once they have laid out the foundation he will come out swinging. There is no need to bring up old attacks like the AWOL charge or Bush’s oil ties. This administation has a four year record to answer for. If Kerry doesn’t make that record an issue and hit back hard with the incompetence charge he doesn’t deserve to be elected.
Bel, was there ever a time when Christians wouldn’t lie, steal, murder and pillage to get their way? Ever hear of a little thing called the Crusades? Or the Thirty Years War? More recently, the most “Christian” part of this country held their fellow men in slavery for 246 years, then erected an apartheid system whose effects are still in evidence today.
Bush and his thugs are much more steeped in the 2000-year history of Christianity than the Quakerish pacifist tradition that only began in the 17th Century.
The Washington Post has an article declaring that Al Quaida seems to be showing new signs of life. I cannot fathom how intelligent people can write articles of this nature. Where do we get the idea that Al Quaida was dieing?
Organisations of this type, with their level of organisations dont die. They go thru phases and as such, they become dormant, hibernate and in some instances, they mutate. One thing is certain, they dont die. These organisations conform very snuggly with the laws of nature and hence, those very laws perpetuate their survival. So no one should talk about the death of Al Quaida. We will all be dead and gone and they will still be hanging around in whatever form they have mutated towards in that ear, and fighting whatever is the current cause.
Dont be misled by Bush and his crew that they have done something about Al Quaida and terrorism. Its a silly statement and its not true. I cant be true. There may be latent periods, there may be a batch of docile leaders but Bush has not and will not impact on Al Quaida to the extent that they are dead.
Its like telling me that the PLO is dead… it wont die.
Cheers
If Kerry is behind in the personality arena, then I think the party should push and sell the team concept. In other words, take some of the heat from Kerry by using the edwards persona… let kerry stay focussed on the issues.
It will be very important what will be the net results of the hurricane in FLorda as it related to the elections. I am sure bush will be down there as soon as the hurricane passes, trying to show how much he cares and why they need to vote for him. I am sure he will use this event to muster more votes for himself… and the thing is, the democrats wont be able to do anything about it… no more than to use the media to higlight the possibilit of Bush politicizing the hurricane.. hmm
Again, I still dont think that Kerry is losing anything at this point. I think he has to worry after the convention. Its at that point that the worse attack dogs of the GOP will be released because it will be the last lap. I dont have enough confidence in the democrats to be prepared to counter their onslaught so I guess we have to fuel the other grass root organisations to counter their onslaught.. but it will be ravenous. Thats what I believe.
I cant help but be fascinated by the GOP…. as christian as they pretend to be, they will do anything to get their own way. Its hard to see people classify Bush as a devout christian by yet he wont denounce adverts that are distinct lies and I wont be surprised of most of those he puts his name on aint untruths too…. the GOP must be commended.
Cheers
Even if there’s some slippage for Kerry in the national polls, what matters is the swing states. Bush is getting 68% in Wyoming but 41% in Florida.
I wonder how much money and attention the Bush brothers will throw at Florida in the name of disaster relief. I guess if you’re in a swing state and you’ve got to have a disaster, now’s the time to have it.
Dismissing things as dirty politics is all well and good, but as numerous bloggers have pointed out today, the Kerry camp hasn’t explained WHY its dirty politics.
I wish RT were here to provide some analysis of the Swiftboat vet attacks. It sure seems to me that the story is dying already. I think the end result of these attacks will be to clarify that Kerry’s service record was stellar. By the way, I think Kerry is wise to avoid going so far as to mention the AWOL charge now. He is riding the high road, and that has its own advantages, because he can dismiss attacks as “dirty politics”—especially since several attacks have been shown to be baseless already.
It’s better to keep the AWOL charge for later in the campaign, if necessary. Look, the whole problem with the swiftboat ads is that they came WAY too early, which Kerry forced by emphasizing his military record. The single thing that would help Kerry most is to articulate a clear difference with Bush on Iraq; this is quite difficult to do without limiting h is options once he is President.
Shit. Don’t say that I’m going to get a drink now.
I think both camps are just throwing money and time to the wind. The polls have not changed much for months and the R convention will not make them change much either. The voters have made up thair minds and the few people who vote that haven’t don’t care untill election day is almost here. That’s why I think the debates are going to be what desides our next President. They should forget this campaining and concentrate on the debates. who ever wins those will be our next President.
According to Josh Marshall the Swift Boat Lies are getting some traction and are the primary culprit for these numbers.
I don’t think there is slipping in the Pew poll. Kerry leads by the same margin as the last.
This is two polls showing Kerry slipping. It might be right. Bush has got a clear, well-defined political strategy. He and his team are ruthless executing it.
It doesn’t appear that Kerry is ready to let the negative campaign go. He’s got his positive message, but boy is he passing up some huge opportunities by refusing to fire away.
For example, is he sure now it was a good idea not to let Democrats go after the National Guard business in the Spring? When the story had some traction.
And who’s speaking for the campaign? Does he have someone like Carville to let fly those nasty quips that reporters love to print?
You need both a good offense and defense.