FOR GREAT JUSTICE

For many months now, and actually for a great many years, supporters of the Democratic Party have written a glut of pages on what we need to do to win elections again. Far too often, earnest authors have recommended that Democrats soften stands on issues and try to move toward the center. That this is foolishness is something that only a few bloggers seem to be willing to state outright.

It's time that we face up to what really wins elections in this country. We must demonize Republicans as they have demonized us. The Republicans never back down, they never apologize, and they never shut up. Over the past 25 years, the GOP and their organized attack machine have made voting for Democrats anathema to a large portion of the American electorate. There is no way to underestimate the damage done when Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Sean Hanniy, along with a multitude of apparatchiks at, for example, Townhall.com, The Heritage Foundation, National Review, The Drudge Report, etc, have poisoned the political scene with blatantly false but damaging insults and put downs of Democrats and liberals.

Most Democrats don't realize that trying to scrape a voting coalition together from Americans who haven't been twisted into hatred for liberals is a losing game. Even relatively moderate voters are going to believe the lies about Democrats because they are repeated so often with no real rebuttal. Ridicule is a much more powerful weapon than Democrats realize.

Even if Democrats win in 2006 and 2008, as seems probable, the right wing noise machine will not give up attacking. In war, you don't let your opponent make uncontested bombing runs. In order to neutralize the bombers, you throw up flak, use anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. You make attacking your territory as witheringly costly as possible. If the Democrats don't fight fire with fire, we will never have a chance to push the "conventional wisdom" back toward a sane middle ground.

If anyone is thinking that we will have to resort to the dishonesty of the right wingers, you should take heart from places like Air America, which pushes an aggressive liberal viewpoint with a minimum of lies but a maximum of snark and invective. The happy coincidence is that it is easy and appropriate to demonize Republicans, because their policies and politics are reprehensible. From lying us into war to exploiting the rules to maximize corporate lawmaking, the Republicans are overexposed to genuine but forceful ridicule. Democrats should never worry about going too far. Republicans never do.

Those Democrats who worry that going negative will harm the party are fooling themselves. The Republicans have an organized attack machine churning out lies about liberals constantly, and they never pay a price with voters. Not only will Democrats benefit from the increased perception that they are willing to fight for their principles, a real assault on Republicans will force them to at least respond to attacks, and will neutralize their effectiveness. Many Democrats argue that the noise will turn off voters, but they miss the fact that allowing the right wing noise machine to roll on unchallenged will only continue to erode voters from our side and add people to theirs. At best, they will make some moderate voters who might support Democrats stay home.

I read recently that voters tend to vote for the candidate who tells the best story, and who has the most appealing persona. Voters don't do a critical assessment of issues, so openly abandoning abortion rights, gay civil rights, or seperation of church and state is not going to win us votes, it will only reconfirm the impression that Democrats will do anything to win.

Dems have to remember that this is truly war. Letting the enemy bomb you without responding is a losing strategy. We need to demonize conservatives becuse they deserve it, and because they don't deserve to govern.

JC