THANK YOU Eugene Robinson !!! - 'A Midterm Imperative' (Wishy-washy won't work.)

[WillyT]

A Midterm Imperative
By Eugene Robinson - RCP/WaPo
March 18, 2014

<snip>

WASHINGTON -- Here is what Democrats should learn from their party's loss in a special House election in Florida last week: Wishy-washy won't work.

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Democrats facing close contests this fall should play offense on Obamacare, not defense. They should tell voters that the ACA is a landmark achievement -- the biggest expansion of access to health care in decades, fulfilling a long-held progressive dream. They should accuse their GOP opponents of playing voters for fools by cynically pretending that repeal is just around the corner.

Democrats should talk about what's right with the ACA. They should talk about the millions of formerly uninsured Americans who now have coverage. They should talk about the millions of others who are covered for the first time under Medicaid. They should talk about the young people who are able to be covered under their parents' policies. They should talk about the diabetics and cancer survivors who now cannot be denied coverage because of their conditions.

The Democratic Party has long taken the position that no one should have to declare bankruptcy because of illness, that no one should have to choose between paying for medicine and paying the mortgage. If Democrats can't proclaim these beliefs with pride, why on earth are they running?

Being positive rather than negative on Obamacare won't be enough, however. Democrats also need to give their voters a compelling reason to go to the polls -- and that means explaining, in the most urgent terms, just what is at stake.

Today's Republican Party is not "conservative" by any reasonable definition of the word. It is a radical party seeking to dramatically alter the social compact by which we have lived for decades.

Republicans, if they could, would slash Social Security benefits and turn Medicare into a voucher program. They're the ones who threaten the safety net for seniors, not Democrats.

Republicans refuse to invest in our decaying infrastructure. They want to do away with government regulation that has given us cleaner air, healthier food, safer workplaces. They seek ultimate control over women's reproductive rights and have already made it oppressively difficult to terminate a pregnancy in many states.

Instead of comprehensive immigration reform, they propose "self-deportation."

The Republican agenda is dangerously wrong for America. The majority coalition that elected Obama twice isn't accustomed to voting in midterm elections. Democrats need to explain why this year has got to be an exception.

<snip>

The rest: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/03/18/a_midterm_imperative_121964.html

[napkinz]

1. It’s Time for Democrats to Embrace Obamacare

by John Cassidy
3/12/14

Trying to pussyfoot around Obamacare was an awkward strategy, and, evidently, it didn’t work. If other Democrats are to avoid meeting Sink’s fate in November, they need something more convincing to say about the Affordable Care Act than “mend it, don’t end it,” which is now their default position. But what could that be?

Here’s a heretical idea. Rather than parsing the individual elements of the law, and trying to persuade voters on an à la carte basis, what about raising the stakes and defending the reform in its entirety as a historic effort to provide affordable health-care coverage to tens of millions of hard-working Americans who otherwise couldn’t afford it? Instead of shying away from the populist and redistributionist essence of the reform, which the White House and many Democrats in Congress have been doing since the start, it’s time to embrace it.

What would that mean? It would involve reaching out to the Democratic Party’s core voters—lower-income people, minorities, highly educated liberals—and portraying Obamacare as the fulfillment of the great human-rights project that began in the nineteen-thirties, under Franklin D. Roosevelt, and was expanded during the nineteen-sixties, under Lyndon Johnson. That message wouldn’t merely be more honest; it would be more effective in getting Democratic voters to turn out in November, which is essential if the Party isn’t to suffer a repeat of 2010.

read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2014/03/its-time-for-democrats-to-embrace-obamacare.html

[WillyT]

2. I Think I Read That Somewhere...

[napkinz]

3. I think the name is Wile ... Willy ...

I've posted your thread as a reply a few times now.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024663436

[rhett o rick]

4. Once again, it Democrats want to get voters out, they have to be more aggressive. If they arent

then dont blame the Left. It never fails to amaze me that we get "wishy washy" centrist DEmocrats running that are afraid to speak out for fear of pissing off conservative votes. Then when they lose, the Left gets blamed for low turn out. If we had more candidates like Grayson, Sanders, and Warren, we could get the vote out. So to you Centrists, if you want a victory, nominate progressives. Forget the conservative vote, they prefer Republicans anyway.

[WillyT]

5. Exactly !!!

[Scuba]

6. + Eighty Gazillion

Trying to peel off the mythical "Moderate Republican" vote is a strategy for losing.

[rhett o rick]

23. Sorry but the limit is 79 Gazillion.

What kills me is when going after the conservative vote they often piss off the left. Then when they lose they blame the left for lack of support.

[WillyT]

24. LOL !!!

[Scuba]

27. Almost as if they planned it that way.

[rhett o rick]

28. I assume you are being factious. It's a genus plan.

Destroy the Republican Party. Have only one viable party controlled by corporate-conservatives. Once Obama was elected he didnt hesitate to disparage the left, thus gaining him favor from the New DEmocrats (old Republicans). He appointed mostly conservatives, some actual Republicans. Now the PTB only have to run a corporate-conservative Democrat against an idiot Republican clown and sell the "better of the evils" meme.

[napkinz]

7. needs repeating ...

[daleanime]

9. Nice posters, I may steal a few, but don't you think....

better candidates would get better results?

[napkinz]

12. "better candidates would get better results?"

would sure help!

[uponit7771]

13. +1

[calimary]

22. TOTALLY!

FUCK the CON vote. Just FUCK it. Our team wouldn't get that anyway! So why bother? WHY are we trying to accommodate them and somehow validate their views? Fix it? FUCK YOU!!! Not on your miserable LIFE! FUCK 'em. Go for the people who count. That is - Everybody ELSE.

[tech3149]

30. I'm probably about as far left as anyone here

Those few people I talk to, and most consider themselves conservative, have little difference in opinion from me. They just have their ire pointed in the wrong direction.
When you get down to serious policy, there is very little difference between what we call right and left.
We, as in those of us that don't have a trust fund or can live off the interest of our investments, are all in the same boat.
If the Democratic party is all we have to hang on to, we'd pretty damned well make it really work in our interest.

[zeemike]

8. Well I have to wonder if they want it to work.

At times it seems deliberate to me, surly they have political advisers that tell them what will win and what won't.

[polichick]

21. Appropriate to wonder for sure!

[xchrom]

10. the Crucible that holds the dem party is the New Deal and the Great Society.

those parameters give dems an offense -- year in and year out -- mid term, special election and presidential.

any dem who is wishy washy on either of those things isn't worth a damn.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. "Not as bad" is a piss poor way of getting voters to vote for you.

[redqueen]

14. K&R

[tavernier]

15. Herding cats.

I know because I have been to many a Dem convention and quite a few JJ get togethers. When I was a newbie with the party and selected to attend these events, I was a wide-eyed innocent. I thought I would find everyone singing Kumbaya and exchanging phone numbers. Imagine my surprise when the first day, first coffee gathering, voices were loudly raised and a few linen napkins were thrown on the floor in obvious disagreement.

I love my party. No lock step here! No Stepford wives in this group!

However... Would it be asking too much to put aside some differences and make it a priority to just show up and vote??? We can nit pick later!!

I realize that, as Will Rodgers said, "I am not a member of an organized political party... I am a Democrat"... and I am proud of that!... But... Don't EVER give away your precious vote by not showing up!!

[WillyT]

17. I Always Show Up... And I Always Vote For Democrats...

And yeah... I've been to a convention or two... whoo boy...

[tavernier]

25. Am I wrong?

God bless us!!

[redqueen]

18. Everything you said... agreed on all points.

But this year, I have to hope that women turn out in HUGE numbers.

These TRAP laws are frightening. Things just keep getting worse.

[tavernier]

26. Amen, Sister!

Or else Ms. Palin will chop off our heads as she likes to do to her prize turkeys.

[yourout]

16. Sadly we need to employ a little "Fear" strategy like "Vote or they will take away your right to....

health care".

And they actually might take it away if they get the chance.

[WillyT]

19. I Hate To Put It This Way... But It Also Needs To Be The "Cool/Hip" Thing To Do...

WE... may know how serious it is...

But there is a reason a lot of people don't show up to mid-terms...

There's nobody running for President.

We need to get the people who supported the President... TWICE... to show up and support him again.

Otherwise he won't get much done in his last two years.

Possible slogan: Want To Give America A Raise? Fire The Republican Party!

[Enthusiast]

32. Here's another one.

"Want a new war? Vote Republican!"

[Gidney N Cloyd]

20. Robinson NAILS the GOP here and yet they're all so happy-clappy on Morning Joe.

Scarborough would be ranting up a lung if someone dared say that on the air.

[MisterP]

29. "They're the ones who threaten the safety net for seniors, not Democrats."

BAAAAAhahaha

the "let's not and say we fulfilled every promise made by King and FDR" didn't work in 2010 either

[Enthusiast]

31. Gotta go with Eugene on this.

No weenie approach. The Democratic position is a winning position on all the issues. Say it loud and say it proud. Or lose.