GOP blaming Dems for Michigan school shooting fits its midterm election strategy

[AZProgressive]

It didn’t take long for the right to blame the left for America’s deadliest school shooting in three years. Just four days after the tragic shooting that left four people dead and seven others injured at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro put the blame on “liberal school personnel” who, she said, had seen enough warning signs from the 15-year-old suspect not to send him back to his classroom but to suspend him from school.

Notably, Pirro didn’t blame conservatives, even though between Tuesday’s deadly school shooting and her show Saturday, the GOP, in blocking a bill that would have required background checks at gun shows, once again demonstrated its opposition to taking even the most modest step to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Instead, Pirro stuck to a popular conservative narrative that liberals are the root cause of violence in our society.

This certainly isn’t the first time conservatives have blamed liberals for crime. It’s a standard allegation. But the current combination of troubling crime statistics coupled with the approach of midterm elections means Democrats had better be prepared for an even more intense onslaught of fear-inducing allegations. Because Republican strategists seem poised to go into the midterms and beyond pushing the mantra that Democrats have a crime problem.

Murders rose by almost 30 percent in America last year, the biggest increase since the FBI began collecting such data 60 years ago. The record rise in homicide didn’t accompany a broader increase in general crimes. Rather, this surge was specifically about violence. Nor was the increase in homicides a regional or geographically isolated increase; it was a nationwide phenomenon.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/gop-blaming-dems-michigan-school-shooting-fits-its-midterm-election-n1285485

[TheRealNorth]

1. We must be better at crafting a unified narrative and pushing it out quickly

If we are going to beat the Republicans in media.

[Caliman73]

2. Sure. Can you tell me who "we" is?

The reason right wing media is effective is because it is coordinated to send a message either for conservative views or against liberal views.

There is no "Liberal" equivalent media. So who is this "we" that needs to craft a unified narrative?

It is obvious to anyone paying attention, who doesn't listen incessantly to right wing propaganda that:

1. The family and kid are responsible.
2. The family are right wingers.
3. The school did mess up, but that there are mitigating factors like rights of privacy, that may have interfered with the school.

The sad thing and the thing for which I have no real solution is how to get the facts and truth out effectively in the presence of a coordinated right wing propaganda machine AND a mainstream press that is preoccupied with making money over factually and truthfully reporting stories.

[TheRealNorth]

3. Well, I would say "we" is Democratic leadership

Whether it.be the DNC, state committees, or elected members themselves. That's why we donate money to these organizations, to get Democrats elected.

And unfortunately, we need to have a message for those that are not paying attention, because they are either voting Republican or not voting at all.

[Caliman73]

5. Thanks for that.

Too often, when people say "we need to..." there is no response to what they are actually saying.

I agree. The DNC and leadership both at the national and local levels need to build a better ground game and information pipeline. Republicans are not our greatest challenge. Apathy is. Even in the "historic" 2020 election only about 60 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. That means that more than 1/3 of people who can vote, didn't.

We need to be better in communicating the vision that Democrats have for life in America. I think we have a pretty good one, but traditional media is not going to help us get it out there. We need to build good networks to get the information out there.

[treestar]

8. How many times have we heard people

Say they refuse to walk in lock step? That they think for themselves ? That is all over DU whenever anyone suggests unity.

[Cha]

4. Parnets of Killer are

trumpshites.. Pathetic evil assholes in the trump cult.

[Wingus Dingus]

6. They're angry that the Trump Humping Crumbleys were charged with manslaughter.

They want to have their guns loose and full of ammo at home, ready to go, no matter who can grab them. They want to have family shooting parties and pose with their bad ass weapons. Because they're all irredeemable trash. And it scares them that the Crumbleys might be held responsible, that really puts a damper on the Yee-Haw Rootin Tootin Shootin' lifestyle. So they want the school to be primarily held responsible. Good luck, assclowns.

[pwb]

7. Sad that they think that still works.

.