DEMOCRATS NEED TO FIGHT BACK RHETORICALLY

BarbinMD at ePluribus Media has an excellent call to action for Democrats. She contrasts the dramatic, tele-friendly attacks of Bush and Boehner on Democrats to the tepid, written-statement responses of our Democratic leaders, and urges the same to call their own press conferences and fire back with passionate indictments of the Bushies instead of issuing reasoned, nuanced arguments that are quickly tuned out by Joe and Jane Sixpack.

One could argue that Joe and Jane Sixpack aren't going to listen to Democrats, anyway -- they're watching Fox News, and the Fox folks aren't going to give a platform to Democrats, ESPECIALLY if they're tough. But I still hold that Howard Dean was onto something when during his run for the Dem presidential nomination he "talked about broadening the party’s base and talking to voters with Confederate decals on their pickup trucks." (As Eleanor Clift notes, he probably should have said "gun racks" instead of Confederate decals.) The point is, Joe and Jane Sixpack should be a natural Democratic constituency -- their economic interests are totally ignored by the Rethuglicans but promoted by the Dems. The problem, of course, is cultural -- the Sixpacks like tough talk, they're inheritors of the old "dis some other group to make yourself feel superior" nonsense, and have been further infected by the right-wing media machine. Nevertheless, to write them off is a huge mistake. Let's take a marketing view and CONSIDER THE AUDIENCE. If they like tough talk, let's give it to them!

Know what? Liberals and progressives long to hear some tough talk (from Democratic leaders) ourselves. It's why we've applauded Bill Clinton's smackdown of Chris Wallace.

Best line: "The only thing the Democratic Party wants to cut-and-run from is George Bush's failed policies."

Amen.