All elections are important because, as
they say, “elections have consequences.” They all do, but it's
hard to overstate the importance of the 2018 and 2020. As my brother
Bob said yesterday, if the Dems win in 2018 and 2020, we can dismiss
Trumpism as an aberration – an important and scary aberration, but
an aberration, although with lasting consequences that might take a
very long time to fix. If the Dems don't win, however, it's time to
think about emigration. He exaggerates, but the sense is right. The
ascent of Trump and Trumpian barbarism around the country is the most
serious challenge to our way of life in our lifetime. As Bob said, I
knew these people were around, but I didn't know there were so many
of them. And I would add, and that so many of them are so vile.
In the last instance all politics might
be local, but sometimes the national issues and national mood are
such that the local elections are run in a national force field.
This is clearly such a year.
What is to be done? If the national
Democratic Party is to have relevance – if it is to be a continuing
viable force – it had better work to make that national force field
favorable for Democratic candidates. How can they do that? How
about making some good ads? Some direct, unhedged, sincere ads that
tell it like it is, that are not so studied to catch this group and
that group that they drift into the forgettable mist of identity
politics. Some good candidates are already doing that on their own,
as with last night's victor in Queens-Bronx, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez. Time for the national Dems to see if they can emulate
their juniors.
So, here's what I'd do. Starting, say,
next week, I would have a series of subjects with two or three minute
ads for each subject. I would take them on week by week, cumulative,
building the case, objective in presentation but pressing and even
outraged in tone, and perhaps growing more outraged as each week
passes. Forget this group and that – just make the case.
Ad campaign #1 – Taxes. It is
a hallmark of us as a nation that we should look out for one another,
and be both compassionate and fair. We want to reward those who are
successful and not be jealous of their success, but also to provide a
strong safety net for the less favored in society, and to provide a
chance for every single person who is willing to work hard, to rise.
The Republicans don't agree. Don't look at what they say, look at
what they've done. Their favor-the-wealthy Tax Deal of 2017 gives
$1.5 Trillion in benefits to big businesses and the wealthy. They
say it helps everyone. It doesn't. Donald Trump's kids get $100
million extra from this deal. (add a couple of other wealthy
recipients here). And you in the 90% of our population? You didn't
get much, if anything.
This Tax Atrocity blew up the budget.
The Republicans now want to get that money back from the middle class
by lowering Social Security payments, making Medicare more expensive,
and eliminating health insurance for 20 million people.
If you vote for a Republican, this is
what you are voting for. Don't let them sweet talk you to think
anything different. Republicans are for the superrich, first, last,
and always. They'll tell you otherwise, but they say a lot of
things.
Democrats will end this stupid
unfairness. Make America Fair Again. Make us proud to be Americans
again. Vote Democratic.
Ad campaign #2 – Health care.
Before the Democrats passed what's known as Obamacare, millions of
people went uncovered. If you had a preexisting condition, you often
couldn't get health insurance. An illness often led to bankruptcy.
Obamacare wasn't perfect, but it enabled 40 million Americans to
obtain insurance coverage even if they had a medical condition. The
coverage was sometimes too expensive and had terrible deductibles,
but the cost was just coming under control and it was improving, when
the Trump Administration and the Republicans in Congress decided to
kill it. They couldn't get all of the votes they needed in Congress,
so they have done it on the sly, cutting here and cutting there, when
you weren't looking, and now 20 million people who had coverage have
lost it, and millions more won't have it in the future because the
Republicans are against covering people who have something or other,
even if it's unlikely to cause trouble. This is scandalous. If you
can't afford to pay for health care yourselves, the Republicans
figure you should go without it. Thanks, Republicans.
Make America Healthy Again. Make us
proud to be Americans again. Vote Democratic.
Ad campaign #3 – Foreign affairs
and trade. The Greatest Generation who won World War II
bequeathed us a rule-based
world,
led by the West and by America. We have been united in fighting for
a strong world of democratic governments who respect human rights and
try to get along among ourselves, and to provide a beacon of good
life and good government to the world.
Trump has upended that world. He has
offended all our friends, and likes best to hang out with dictators.
He loves Putin, he loves the Duterte, he loves Erdogan – find an
autocrat and chances are he'll be a good friend of Trump. He even
tried to deal with North Korea, where the great dealmaker got
bamboozled by a 30 year old dictator who uses assassination as a
primary tool. Trump boasts that they get along very well. But our
friends in Europe and Canada, who have our traditional Western values
of fairness and freedom? Trump insults them.
Trump also lays stupid import taxes on
the goods of our friends. The result? We pay higher prices for
those goods and other countries retaliate so our businesses and our
jobs suffer. Trump is pretty stupid when it comes to trade, and we
are the ones who suffer as a result.
Make America Friends With Our Friends
Again. Make us proud to be Americans again. Vote Democratic
Ad campaign #4 – Environment.
In the bad old days, smog polluted our cities, our waterways were
polluted and unhealthy, one river even caught fire. Since the
creation of the EPA, we have gained cleaner water and air for
everyone. Trump and the Republicans think our water is too clean and
our air too unpolluted. We need more fossil fuels spewing smoke,
they say. They say, Let's Make America Dirty Again.
Make America Clean Again. Make us
proud to be Americans again. Vote Democratic.
OK – you get the drift. Start
calling a spade a spade. Make the charges stick. Own the agenda.
Other subjects? Human rights and immigration. Women's control of
their own bodies. State sponsored child abuse at the border.
And then, in the last few weeks before
the election, hit his lying.
Make America Honest Again. Make us
proud to be Americans again. Vote Democratic.
Then self enrichment and corruption,
Zinke and Pruitt and Ivanka's trademarks in China.
Make America Honest Again. Make us
proud to be Americans again. Vote Democratic.
And finally, the practice of Democracy.
Who's country is it?
The Democratic Party gerontocracy needs
to learn from the younger generation to be aggressive in making its
points. Let the Right react; so be it. If the Dems don't state the
case specifically and forcefully, who will? And without a direct
statement of what's wrong and what would be better, of whose country
is this anyway, how can you get a mandate?
Budd Shenkin
No comments:
Post a Comment