Walter Rhett: Democratic Strategic Thinkers: Take Note!

[DemocratsForProgress]

The Republican Party is mounting a four-front attack. Have Democratic strategic thinkers taken note? Is the Party coordinating a response? Does it have its own plan?

Part one of the Republican attack is distraction, intended to produce public disengagement. Its centerpiece is a national public relations campaign that government is inept and bad, bloated, and should be shut down. Republican affiliates spend a great deal of time crafting and spreading talking points out of context that justify and reinforce this idea. Examples (think Solyndra—but not defense contract overruns!) are presented as widespread proof of government’s failure, while successes (the internet, Medicaid’s low cost versus the private sector, Social Security’s low overhead) are ignored.

Part two is to redefine the purpose of the federal government. This includes dismantling federal regulatory authority, especially in finance and the environment, but also in food, drugs and taxes. It includes increasing the private sector take, from defense to health, with a strong eye on the gilded pot of social security, one of the world’s largest hoards of government wealth as a line item with dedicated taxes.

Part three is to seize control of states. Republicans now control 30 of 50 state governments. These have become single-party states, operating a political economy build on cronyism, lowering wages and educational standards, and tax breaks to corporations, not local businesses. States are becoming nation-states, recruiting and selling corporate opportunity, sometimes in virtually secrecy. Who knows Google is in Goose Creek, SC?

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2013/08/07/democratic-strategic-thinkers-take-note/

[msongs]

1. is being republican lite a plan? nt

[Scuba]

2. +1,000