How about playing some offense, for a change?

[QC]

How often do we come here and learn that the GOP is planning some new smear campaign that we need to counter?

Too often, as far as I'm concerned. Rather than waiting for them to attack us, and then frantically throwing together a response, how can we take the war to them? What are some good issues that we can use to take the offensive?

I can think of a couple of possibilities:

1. John Edwards, though his campaign hasn't really taken off, has made a truly excellent point, namely that when we look at Bush's taxation proposals--ending estate and dividend taxes, creating new exemptions for investment income--it becomes clear that his agenda is to put the entire burden of financing government on people who live off paychecks. If he gets his way, chauffeurs will be paying more taxes than the people they drive around. Surgeons, who save lives, will be taxed at a higher rate than a ne'er-do-well living off daddy's investments. Sounds like a great example of the real class war. How do we make it stick?

2. A thread the other day asked whether Americans are getting tired of the polarization. I think it's likely that a lot of us are. How do we go after the Republicans for their strategy of knowingly creating discord and even hatred among Americans for their own gain?

What other issues do you think would give us an opportunity to put the Republicans on the defensive?

[GOPisEvil]

1. I've been saying this for a while now.

I would expound on the "Bush Credibility Gap" webpage. I would start at the beginning of Bush's campaign for President, and expose EVERY LIE, one by one. It might take a while, and you couldn't do it in one speech, but over time, with repetition, we could expose him as the liar he is. I think this would have to wait until after we have a nominee, both to concentrate effect and to guarantee as much media coverage as is possible in this day and age.

[fallow]

2. they have been on the offensive

but it hasnt been working. The problem is its all reactionary. Dean, Kerry and most of the rest of the group ARE on the offensive but it is only a reaction to Bush policies. Im waiting for the real leader to stand out. Not just in how they can smear Bush but how they consolidate the party.

[QC]

3. That's precisely my point.

We wait for the goopers to mount an attack and then we react to it.

Lame, lame, lame.

What kinds of attacks can we make against them that will force them to spend their time and resources doing something other than smearing us?

[HFishbine]

4. I don't know how in the world this could be done...

But, I wish there was some way to put the "war on terror" in perspective. Yes, 9.11 was a terrible tragedy and deserves an appropriate response, but more people die each year from medical mistakes, drunk drivers or firearms than died on 9.11.

I guess if there were some reasonable possibility that we could reduce the threat of terrorist attack to zero, then the notion of "pre-emptive defense" might be palatable. But in reality, it's a self-perpetuating pipe dream.

I can't think of a way this could be shapped in a manner that wouldn't freak out 70% of the population, but "land of the free and home of the brave" should mean that we don't roll over so quickly to solutions of violence and a hand-over of our civil liberties.

We have the choice Bush has made for us -- put the illusory goal of 100% safety above all else and undertake actions that are extremely costly in money, human lives, lost opportunities, and in an ironic capituatation to the terrorists, a major change in who America is; or we can be truley brave and accept a degree of risk that comes with living up to our ideals of freedom and peace.

Any better wordsmiths than I?

[QC]

7. That would be tough to do, but you could easily

point out all the many ways that Bush has failed to make the country safer--only about 2% of cargo containers are inspected, almost no funding for first responders like police and firefighters, etc.

There's plenty of material in that vein.

[HFishbine]

9. I understand

what you're saying and I take your points. But your suggestions are about ways to better operate in the fear paridigm. I'm looking for the message that will wake America from it's stupor -- one that refutes fear as the operating principle.

[NoKingGeorge]

5. Divide and conquer.

We should point out that there are three parties in power now, The Democrats, The Republicans and the Neocons. The repubs and the neocons are carving up terrotories in the Administration. The Neo's led by cHenney with vp wOlffy want the international rewards. The Repubs ,rOve and vp GOP, are the domestic power seekers. I sincerely beleive that Republicans are against some of the Neo's foriegn polocies like isolationism , Mid-East interference.
These two factions are distinct and reading closesly we can find great divides within the Government along these lines. The Repubs are going to be alarmed when they figure out that their party has been sharing. Will aWol declare a Neo party affiliation?

[mrgorth]

6. Right now

the dems are all fighting each other. Whether its ads or transportation or whatever. Dean (for instance) is in a death struggle with Gephardt. They have done ads attacking the president but not enough. They need to expose how they're keeping the country in the grip of fear, how they're using 9/11 for political gain.

[rucky]

8. I've said it before & I'll say it again - OUR Wedge Issues

Race
CLASS
Gender

Let's use them!

[salinen]

10. solution here

if instead of faux, we saw constant attacks against freep policies, opinions would change. so since all media is freep, we are fucked.

[QC]

11. So let's just throw up our hands

and go back to attacking our own candidates?

It's true that they own the media, and that's discouraging, but how can we get around it?

I know of at least one way. Remember those "Harry and Louise" ads? Man they were corny, but they sure did work. What is to prevent us from borrowing a page from gooper strategy and setting up "independent issues groups" and producing some punchy, take-no-prisoners ads and saturating the media with them? That's something the Hollywood crowd could do beautifully. They have the money and connections to pull it off.

[rucky]

12. We have to converge

too many splinter groups working toward the same goal. Too many single-issue & narrow-interest activists who seem to be more comfortable on the fringes. We can no longer reject the mainstream and keep wishing out ideas would catch on better. We have to become mainstream.

If we all pick something - Like MoveOn - to get behind (and DU for freeform discussion like this), it'll be something that feeds on itself. A single, focused network of power (in numbers), message & communication. The media can't do a damn thing to prevent us all from talking to each other.

We can't be cynical anymore, either - it's all part of it. We have to believe. We have to build something, instead of focusing our energies on tearing things down.

We can't be selfish anymore. Understand we will all not agree on everything, but if we keep our eyes on the prize, all of our differences - even between Dems & Greens - seem minor.

[QC]

15. I agree 100%.

We have to go mainstream. It's like Fred Harris, an old school Oklahoma populist used to say: You can't have a mass movement without the masses.

[HFishbine]

13. Two prongs

QC is on to one. The second bypasses the media completely: grassroots people power. We must, everyone of us, put as much time and effort as we can afford into door-to-door campaigning.

[QC]

16. Something else we can do.

A coordinated letter to the editor campaign. People really do read those.

About a year ago I proposed here that we put together a set of resources to help progressives write letters to papers in their areas--email links, action alerts, links to relevant info, etc. (Not the astroturf bullshit that Bush is doing, of course.) Only two people offered to help. Admittedly that sort of thing is not as much fun as throwing bombs in the latest Green/Dem or Clark/Dean flamefest, but it's one of the best ways we have of reaching people through the media filter.

[HFishbine]

19. Great Idea!

I proposed the same thing as a forum here to the admins a couple of weeks ago. The response was that there were no immediate plans for such a forum, but that they'd keep it in mind. I still think it would be a powerful tool.

[QC]

21. It would be very powerful.

Like I said, I thought so and proposed it and got exactly two people to offer to help.

If we at DU put one-tenth as much effort into something like that as we put into eviscerating our own candidates, we could get a hell of a lot done.

[NewJeffCT]

14. A big issue

Should be the environment. The soccer moms out there should be shown the light on that at every chance. It's a winning formula for the Democrats. Show the lies behind Bush's environmental proposals.

[GinaMaria]

17. These words did it for me

it becomes clear that his agenda is to put the entire burden of financing government on people who live off paychecks. If he gets his way, chauffeurs will be paying more taxes than the people they drive around. Surgeons, who save lives, will be taxed at a higher rate than a ne'er-do-well living off daddy's investments.

Repeat this over and over. It works because it's great imagary. The more concepts can be boiled down to their simple reality ie: the chauffeur paying more in taxes than the people he carts around, the more people will get it. IMHO anyway.

That image would make a great ad too. Show the chauffeur. Show the passengers. Voice over: Who pays more in taxes.
Show the driver holding the door for the passengers to exit.

Voice over: the chauffeur. add info about * financing government on people who live off paychecks.

EDIT: Might want to add that * would call this ad 'class warfare', but let's be honest about who is really waging class warefare... the person who shifts the burden to the middle class.

[rucky]

20. Yep... Great idea! We need STORIES

Stories stick in people's minds for a hellova lot longer than ad-hominem strawman attacks. We don't have the advantage of repitition, but we can to evoke real-life imagery to get our point across & connect with people.

STORIES:

from troops
vets
seniors
working moms
minorities & immigrants
unemployed factory worker

and then...

a CEO
a Freeper?

Anybody wanna work on a book? Dead serious.

Don't think we need to look too hard for these stories. All of these folks have seen the real-life effects of living under the "New American Century". If we get a really good cross section of Divided America, i think the sides that people relate to will be obvious.

[southpaw72]

18. alternatives not (just) attacks

Like your average schoolyard bully, the GOP is really good at playing dirty, then crying foul whenever someone punches back. And for some reason the public seems to believe it.

Sad but true.

Now, I'm not saying that going after Bush's policies is a bad idea, but it's not going to be enough. Whoever the democratic candidate is, he has to provide a comprehensive alternative to the greedy, destructive economic policies and downright chowderheaded foreign policies that the Bushies have saddled our country with over the last 3 years.

Something complete but neatly packaged and easy to remember. Like the Contract On America, or the New Deal. Subsume the policy under an grand theme, and bring it up at every opportunity.

We can't just say "Bush sucks." We have to say, "We can provide a better alternative."

:thumbsup:

[QC]

22. Just thought of another good one.

Remember the case of the POWs from the first Gulf War who sued Iraq over being tortured? They were to be paid out of frozen Iraqi assets in this country? Now Bu$hCorp is refusing to cough up the money, saying that it is needed for "reconstruction" (IOW, Halliburton).

Excellent material here.