Fox News, of all places, has an interesting web post, “Senate Dems Unfurl New Electoral Strategy: Divide and Conquer GOP,” reporting on a new memo from The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. According to the unsigned Fox post, the memo urges Democratic campaign managers to “define their Republican opponents early and to highlight the differences between moderate voters and tea party-style conservatives.” The Fox post quotes from the memo:
Given the pressure Republican candidates feel from the extreme right in their party, there is a critical — yet time-sensitive — opportunity for Democratic candidates,” the DSCC wrote in the memo, which was obtained by FoxNews.com. “We have a finite window when Republican candidates will feel susceptible to the extremists in their party. Given the urgent nature of this dynamic, we suggest an aggressive effort to get your opponents on the record
The DSCC memo rolls out some provocative questions for Democratic candidates to ask their Republican opponents, including:
Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen? Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards? Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place? Do you think President Obama is a socialist? Do you think America should return to a gold standard?
Not sure the gold standard question will resonate all that much with swing voters, but forcing opponents to answer the other questions should help flush out the inner tea-bagger in GOP candidates, or even better, amplify divisions between Republican candidates in primaries and encourage flip-flops.
According to Fox, The GOP responded to the DSCC Memo with their own advisory to Republican Senate candidates, including a series of ‘have you stopped beating your wife’ type questions for their Democratic opponents:
Would you support a second so-called ‘stimulus’ bill, even though the first failed to create much-needed jobs? Or do you believe the unspent money should be returned to the taxpayers? Are you willing to hold open discussions to reach an agreement on bipartisan health care reform, or will you continue to support backroom deals — such as the Cornhusker Kickback — in order to ram an unpopular and costly government-run health care bill through Congress?
Do you support increasing the nation’s debt limit by yet another $2 trillion? Do you agree with the Obama administration that terrorists should be afforded the same rights as American citizens, tried in American courtrooms, and ultimately held on American soil?
Maybe it’s just my partisan tilt, but the Democratic questions are less predicated on dubious assumptions, and have more potential for eliciting answers that inflict serious damage.
The Fox post goes on to cite a Rasmussen survey indicating voters are more likely to support tea party candidates than Republicans. The ‘divide and conquer’ strategy outlined in the DSCC memo, in the wake of Scott Brown’s MA upset win, appears sound and promising — provided Democratic candidates get on it early and work it hard.
Welcome yes, but too little too soon. The five Conservative members of the Supreme Court just staged a coup d’état on behalf of corporations that will ensure that any and all DSCC action will become virtually meaningless in November and beyond.
That Obama and the Democrats have refused to raise holy hell about the insurrection, regardless of whatever stealth opposition they may be planning bespeaks either a profound indifference to both principle and practicalities, or a cowardice beyond comprehension.
Since early 2007, I have given the best part of my life to helping elect Democrats. Setting aside everything else Obama has or has not done, his and the Democratic Party’s continuing silence on the SCOTUS assault on our democracy is simply the last straw. I am throwing up the white flag of surrender, and will pursue ways other than politics to help our Country and our world. I don’t just blame Obama and the Democrats. How the American People can continue to support Republicans after eight years of George Bush is equally beyond comprehension.
Americans have apparently not felt enough pain yet to take a principled stance against Republicans and the Rich. They have chosen the hard way for all of us, and I will gird myself against the inevitable pain to come.
When Obama and the Democrats are ready to resume the fight, rather than simply talk and talk and talk about fighting just to get elected, I will likely put my battle gear back on and join in.
Fundamentally, I’m a scientist and a thinker. When physics (including quantum mechanics), biology, psychology, and neurophysiology tell us unequivocally that we human beings do not have a free will, and by reasonable deliberation we find that that, no, we cannot think whatever we wish, free from the complete and absolute compulsions of the past, our unconscious, etc., I understand. So, I don’t fundamentally blame Obama or the Democrats, or even the Republicans and the Rich, for anything. That would simply be illogical, and against mountainous evidence from our best science.
So, better said, I refuse to fight when the causal universe has decreed that Obama and the Democrats, perhaps too many of whom care more about their personal lives than they do about the country, refuse to fight.
Eventually, there will be a monumental fight with the Republicans and the Rich. The decades-long and intensifying effects of global warming guarantee it. When that time comes, I hope the causal universe finally decides to have us fight for, and create, a more fair and compassionate society not just for ourselves but for a world whose children under five die at a rate of 29,000 each DAY.
To those whom the causal universe has compelled to keep fighting, I wish you luck, and sincerely hope you will speedily succeed in making Obama and the Democrats fight the good fight.