The DNC's Crayon Campaign

At least now we are getting a glimpse at some of the campaign strategies that the Democrats will be using in the 2010 election cycle. As support for the President and his henchmen in Congress falters, they have begun an almost childish campaign to attack anything that stands in opposition to their grand plans. So far, this effort goes beyond the negative and has actually descended to the level of a kindergarten fight over the only see-saw.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) http://www.dscc.org/ has invited visitors on their website to grab their crayons and add dumb slogans to a speech bubble attached to a picture of Sarah Palin. I remember doing things like that in third grade, at least until I got caught. To be kind, I would call it sophomoric but to be accurate, it is moronic. While I’m sure they thought this was clever and meant to amuse their devoted followers; after all, who visits that web-site anyway, but beyond that, the truth behind this ugly game is that Palin threatens them.

The website asks visitors to add a comment that reflects their interpretation of Palin’s Tea Party speech. Of course they are not looking for an accurate account of the speech or they would have simply re-printed it. What they are trying to illicit are comments that question Palin’s intellect, patriotism and honesty. They apparently cannot dispute her facts so they have to resort to letting would-be cartoonists have an attempt to make something up that could be used to ridicule and denigrate Palin personally. Truthfully, is this any different than some jerk with a magic marker drawing moustaches and eyeglasses on movie posters? Is this the best the DSCC and the DNC have to offer? If so, is it any wonder that the economy is still lagging and the government seems to be deadlocked trying pass legislation that Americans have overwhelmingly rejected while nearly half a million of our citizens are added to the unemployment rolls with each passing week.

The threat that Palin represents is not that her name has popped up here and there as a possible candidate for a Presidential run in 2012; they said that about Scott Brown the day after he won the Massachusetts Senate race so that is merely conjecture. Her threat is in her ability to galvanize the individuals that are the Tea Party. The Tea Party sees her as one of their own and when she says they must find unity or risk defeat in November; it is that message that scares the hell out of the Democratic strategists. The DNC was counting on the splintering effect diversity within the Tea Party could have spelled without Palin’s message so in short, Palin must be destroyed.

I also received an e-mail from Tim Kaine, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The focus of today’s e-mail was the Republican initiative to extend the Bush tax cuts. In his appeal, Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee Chairman made a comment that a million dollars is not a lot of money. Of course, the DNC is jumping all over that and calling for a letter writing campaign to local news papers and even provided a nifty little application that allows the reader to enter their zip code and send an e-mail to every newspaper in that circulation area as well as to some of the national papers. Wait a minute? I thought it was the Republicans that manufacture anger? The truth is, as much as Democrats have accused Republicans of seeding dissent, the Democrats directly support and control multiple organizations dedicated to just that purpose.

Michael Steele’s comment was taken completely out of context and now the Democrats are using that snippet in another classic attempt at class warfare. Their e-mail has an income calculator that allows the reader to enter their income to see how many years it would take to accumulate one million dollars provided they have no other expenses. Of course this is targeted to enrage the peasants (the working class in DNC doublespeak) so that they pick up their torches and pitchforks and march behind Obama on his campaign to punish those evil rich people. What Michael Steele really said was that in the context of investment and job creation, a million dollars doesn’t go very far at all. Democrats cannot begin to claim that their primary focus is on the economy or job creation when their ideology is framed by the mindless seizure of money from those that have traditionally created the majority of jobs in the United States.

Another thing on the radar screen is the much discussed healthcare summit scheduled for February 25th. The President has already said that he has no intention of backing down on healthcare reform and that scrapping the current bill is not an option so what kind of summit is this? Since the election of Scott Brown, the White House has been trying to put the best possible spin on this. Democratic strategists have blamed the loss on the stalemate with healthcare legislation and Obama blamed Bush (now there is a surprise) for the anger still permeating the electorate. Whatever they want to call it in public, the conversations they have in private are very different discussions. They know people are angry that the President has failed in his promise of transparency so for this meeting, the C-Span cameras will be rolling. They know people are angry at the refusal to let Republicans join in the discussions so the President announced that the meeting will consist of members of both Parties.

The question many have is will this summit really be an exchange of ideas or are they planning a “gotcha” moment for the Republican attendees? I think the President is too single minded to allow the election of Scott Brown stand in his way. I expect this will be a public forum to shame Republicans into support for the bill or be labeled as obstructionists. Well, gotcha is only gotcha if you don’t see it coming. Republicans must enter the room prepared to talk about the common sense reforms that American’s really want and not be coerced into supporting this massive and expensive expansion of government if the President concedes on a few minor Republican initiatives.

Republicans need to realize that the bill, as written, leaves much of the nuts and bolts decisions on healthcare to an advisory board created under the bill. The people seated on that board will all be directly appointed by the President or appointed by people that the President has already appointed to existing agencies. Regardless of what is promised to Republicans during the summit, those promises will evaporate in committee once the ruling board has been established. Worse yet is that the bill already contains language that would make it nearly impossible to reverse decisions made by the board. They need to be very clear in that this bill was a partisan project on the part of Democrats and there can be no bipartisan support unless the bill is scrapped and a real effort to reach consensus is apparent in whatever takes its place.

Unfortunately, the Democrats still control Congress and there can be no bipartisan discussions as long as they don’t need the Republican vote to advance their agenda. The election of Scott Brown may have taken away their ability to shut down debate without at least one Republican but there are still a few so-called Republicans out there that can be swayed to provide that 60th vote so that bills can come to a vote. We saw that in the healthcare debate when Olympia Snowe added the single Republican vote. Not that her vote was actually needed, but that one vote gave the Democrats the ability to claim that the legislation was now bipartisan. Snow later voted against the legislation but once legislation is at that stage, only 51 votes would have been needed anyway. It’s an old trick previously mastered by John Kerry giving him the authority to utter those famous words: “I voted for it before I voted against it.”

Republicans need to find the same unity that Democrats have been using against them for years. If they do not speak with the same voice and espouse the same ideals, the message will be blurred and the people will find it hard to believe that Republicans have learned their lesson and are willing to bring a new conservatism to the nation. Despite the antics of a desperate Democratic campaign machine, they must take the high road and leave the negative tactics to their Democratic challengers. People want to know someone has good ideas and real solutions to their problems; solutions that negative ads and mud-slinging cannot address. Coakley lost an enormous amount of support by going negative. Let’s not make the same mistake.

Paul

2010 - Can Republicans Win?

Now that 2010 is finally here, the Republicans would do well to remember the age old adage that there is no such thing as a free lunch. The public rejection of a liberal agenda proposed by an unpopular President is not a guarantee that Republicans will sweep the mid-term elections. As unpopular as Barack Obama is, his poll numbers are still double that of Congress and the anger that meant victory for Chris Christie, Bob McDonnell and Scott Brown was not just meant as a message to Washington, but was also the leading edge of an anti-incumbent wave.

Neither Party has secured the faith of the American people and most view Congressional Democrats and Republicans as two pictures of the same dog. Both have a history of corrupt cronyism; both are guilty of broken promises; both have shown an unwillingness to reduce the size of government and neither has taken any steps towards reducing the levels of deficit spending let alone any real attempt to reduce the National Debt. Democrats have recently argued that Bill Clinton substantially reduced the deficit under his administration at the current spending deficits are only needed because of the damage that George Bush inflicted on the economy.

While it is true that the deficit was drastically reduced while Bill Clinton was President, the notions that his policies had anything to do with that reduction are strictly nonsense. Bill Clinton enjoyed a spill-over affect from Alan Greenspan’s reduction of interest rates. The lower interest rates reduced the interest we paid on the National Debt and that represented a roughly $200 billion dollar savings for the Federal government.

Washington has a far worse deficit than money. There is a deficit of trust and an overwhelming number of people have no faith in Congress at all. The recent accounts of back room deals and the selling of votes for the healthcare bill have severely hurt Democrats so they will have a difficult time in the fight to regain that trust. Some realize that there may be no way around the prevalent anti-incumbent sentiment and have already decided that the best opportunity to retain Democratic control is in not running. This will allow a new face to challenge the Republican candidates instead of an incumbent damaged by his association with a radioactive Congress.

Democrat strategists are deathly afraid of the new wave of conservatism sweeping the country and are doing their level best to see that if Republicans must win, that the candidates at least have a moderate philosophy. They have begun their assault on Conservatives, painting them as neo-Nazis and something to be feared. The attempt is to create fear among independent voters and to force the hand of local Republican Parties to moderate their choice of candidates. Since the healthcare debate began, they have been accusing the Republicans of obstruction and partisan politics that has stood in the way of critical legislation. Of course that is ridiculous. Before the election of Scott Brown this January, the Democrats enjoyed a filibuster proof Congress and could have passed any piece of legislation without a single Republican vote. It was the divisions among Congressional Democrats that have stalled the healthcare bill and that is because no matter what the President or Rahm Emmanuel want, it is a bad bill and some Democrats are just not biting.

Republicans can not simply run for election on the notion that they are not Democrats. They must bring about a renewal of the Party and clearly state the ideals and promises that set them apart from Democrats. They must develop a positive message of how they would deal with America’s most critical challenges. People are disillusioned and disheartened and there is no belief that the Government can be restored and that the debt that has made us slaves to China and other nations can be brought under control. Congress must be willing to reign in the super-agencies within the Federal government. The notion that agency chiefs and special advisors have regulatory powers outside of the control of the elected officials in Congress has upset the balance of power in Washington and has given the White House unconstitutional control over the nation. This is witnessed in the EPA’s threat to implement carbon restrictions by fiat if the Congress does not pass the President’s energy bill (cap and trade).

Special advisors were created to allow a fast response and specialist analysis in times of crisis. They should never have been allowed to become permanent positions and most should have been eliminated after the immediate crisis was over or in the case of a long term problem, should have been used to shape long term policy within the responsible agency and then eliminated. A “special” advisor isn’t all that special if they never go away. The President has the power to fill cabinet positions with Congressional oversight but many of these special advisors have been given real power without being required to answer to Congress. Legislation should be written that would require all special advisors to pass the same confirmation process as cabinet level appointees, or to have special advisors appointed by Congress at the President’s request for special assistance.

Social Security should be privatized and placed under the control of a congressionally appointed fiduciary. The Federal government raided those funds to support Johnson’s “great society” back in 1968 and has been liberally using the SS funds collected from working Americans ever since.

The current healthcare bill should be scrapped and the Federal government should eliminate the restrictions that have prevented insurers from competing across state lines and allow the same tax credits for small business owners that provide health benefits that the larger business and unions enjoy. Legislation to protect doctors against frivolous law suits is a must and the requirement to prevent insurers from dropping clients once they become ill is an easy remedy that does not require 2000 pages to address. Similarly, measures that allow portability of insurance while changing jobs and a common sense approach to pre-existent conditions should be sought. Pre-existent conditions will be the tricky one to get right. The only reasons insurers exclude pre-existing conditions for a set period of time is to prevent people that never had insurance in the past from jumping into a policy after they become sick. Take your pick…health, auto, homeowner, boat, travel…no insurance companies cover pre-existing conditions for all the obvious reasons.

Energy should be declared a vital strategic interest of the United States and the development of domestic resources should be exempt from regulation by the EPA. Additonally, energy development should not be subject to nuisance law suits by environmental extremists because it is a strategic concern. On the subject of strategic interests, it is foolish that our defence industry relies heavily on foreign made components. Any component used in the manufacture of military equipment should be required to be a domestic product.

The Republicans must embrace their conservative roots and commit to restoring the limits on Federal power written into the Constitution. The enumerated powers deny the Federal government the power to interfere in education, health and a myriad of other issues that are supposed to be under the authority of the individual States. If the Federal government has no Constitutional authority in these matters, then the corresponding agencies should be disbanded, returning those powers back to the States where they belong.

They must reduce taxes and make the reductions permanent to spawn true growth in the economy. They must eliminate the estate tax which has had a devastating effect on the family succession of ownership of small businesses. They must address the sacred cows of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid which is the real crisis. The unfunded liabilities of these programs have exceeded $100 trillion dollars, overshadowing the National Debt by a factor of ten to one.

Most importantly, they must resist the rhetoric on the left that restoring Conservative values to the Republican Part will drive moderates and independents out of the so-called “big tent”. Big tents are for circuses and the Progressive Republicans like Lindsey Graham and John McCain have done more to damage the focus of the Party than anything the Democrats have done. These men may be strong on defense but they are every bit as fiscally irresponsible as Barack Obama is. If they were really serious about reform they would also begin the battle to bring about a Constitutional amendment that will finally impose term limits on Congress. The biggest reason that Congress is so disconnected from Main Street America is that many of them haven’t seen Main Street in thirty, forty and even fifty years.

Paul

The Battle of 2010 - First Shots in the Election Season Have Been Fired.

Even though the November elections are still nine months away, the battle lines are being drawn and if nothing else, 2010 promises to be a figurative fight to the death between two fundamentally different ideologies. The left still doesn’t understand what has happened. They are used to doing battle with Conservatism and their tactics have always relied heavily on Alinsky’s strategy of framing the arguments and controlling the press to sway the opinion of the masses. That methodology is usually centered on having a villain on which to focus America’s anger. The rich, the Republicans, the economy, the environment and even some phantom persona known only as “the system” were all brought under fire at one point or another and with varying degrees of success.

This time it’s different and it is frustrating and confusing Progressive politicos. For the first time, the opposition they find themselves fighting are the American people themselves. In early debates over healthcare reform, they challenged the sincerity, identity and patriotism of those that were protesting against this government planned takeover of our healthcare system. What they failed to identify in time was that the protestors were not a fringe group of ultra right-wing anti-Obama radicals or some orchestrated attempt to catch media attention paid for by the RNC, PACs or members of the health industry. The protestors were in fact, regular people that for the first time were fearful enough about the direction this country was heading to have organized themselves in neighborhoods and communities, eventually taking to the streets en mass in Washington and at Congressional offices around the country.

How can this be? Conservatives don’t protest! Moderates don’t protest! Why, they write letters or better still, quietly mumble their discontent at the newscasters on TV and radio in the comfort of their own homes; but in the end, they just lie down and take it. Tax increases, fees, fines, new regulations and government bureaucracies were all things that they hated but historically, would eventually accept because unlike the radical left, they had grown up believing that “you can’t fight City Hall”. Before the left realized the real source of this movement, Nancy Pelosi had called them manufactured, Harry Reid called them a mob, the liberal press called them (and some still do) racists or the disgusting and derogatory term “Tea-baggers”, President Obama called them inconsequential and SEIU goons were out violently stomping on people handing out Tea Party literature.

In August 2009, a man was peacefully handing out flags in front of a Tea Party gathering in Missouri was confronted by a group of angry thugs. Kenneth Gladney, who happened to be black, was thrown to the ground by the gang of counter-protestors wearing SEIU shirts, who then beat and kicked him while peppering him with racial epithets. Local law enforcement in St. Louis, where the incident happened, took months to investigate; eventually charging several of the assailants with the misdemeanor equivalent of disorderly conduct. Another violent incident occurred in September of 2009 at a rally opposing healthcare reform in Thousand Oaks California. This time, the assault would send a 65 year old man to the hospital after a portion of his finger had been savagely bitten off by one of the counter protestors bused in by MoveOn.Org, a civilian group organized by the Democratic Party. The results would be the same with local law enforcement pursuing the assault as vigorously as they would for littering. The official lack of concern for these “hate crimes” were obviously driven by unspoken support for Obama and his unofficial army, which only served to enrage Tea Party Patriots even more.

Beyond the protests at town hall meetings and in the streets of DC, the visible backlash of ignoring this movement became visible in November of 2009. The gubernatorial race in Virginia was won by Republican Bob McDonnel but the shocker came in traditionally Democratic haven of New Jersey when Republican Chris Christie unseated Democratic Governor Jon Corzine despite last minute visits by Party big-wigs and President Obama himself. Most savvy politicians would have recognized the warning signs and sought to mend the fences between the people and the Party but not Obama. He pressed on demanding that Congress act on healthcare even though the unemployment rate had by then, surpassed 10% and most people were screaming “It’s the economy stupid!”

To make matters worse, Harry Reid closed Republicans out of the debate and took healthcare behind closed doors obviously, because the people could no longer be trusted. Congressional Democrats voted against a proposed bill that would require them to publish the completed bill on-line at lease 72 before a vote and then the special $300 million dollar deal to purchase Louisiana Democrat, Senator Mary Landrieu’s vote made it to the news. If that were not a large enough insult, the cost of the Cornhusker deal for Democrat Ben Nelson’s vote can’t even be calculated. Nelson’s State, Nebraska, would be exempt from the increases in Medicare liabilities the healthcare bill will force on every other State, not for the two or three years that Mary prostituted herself for, but in perpetuity. It was these deals that turned anger into rage and despite the public outcry, the Senate would pass the bill in a rare late-night, weekend session and the House would follow suit, forcing a vote along Party lines on Christmas Eve. Immediately after the vote, Pelosi stood there with her vacuous smile announcing that what a wonderful Christmas gift this was for the American people.

The result of that entire session of Congress, those deals, that vote and the open disdain Congress had for the American people through the whole process cemented the Tea Parties until they had become a unified movement. The level of angered directed at Congress finally boiled over and the unthinkable happened. Republican Scott Brown won the special election to fill the Senate seat vacated through the death of Ted Kennedy. This election took place in one of the most Liberal States of the Union to fill the vacancy left by one of the most historically Liberal members of the Senate. The White House was so sure that this seat was securely Democratic that they didn’t even bother to campaign in Massachusetts until the poll numbers showed Coakley trailing Brown a week before the election.

Strike three and your out, right? Well, not of you are Barack Obama and you are on a mission to “fundamentally transform” the United States of America. The President spoke before Democrats after the Brown election and tried to ignore the loss of his filibuster proof majority in the Senate by joking that “the Republicans were bragging about their 41 to 59 majority”, reminding Senate Democrats that they still held the bulk of power. He then took his show on the road and tried to garner support from some of the more moderate Republicans in an attempt to shame them to support his agenda or face accusations of obstruction. Rush Limbaugh correctly pointed out that if the bill is bad for America then being called names should be the least of their concerns. Instead of worrying about being called “the Party of no” they should stand proud and declare that they are “The Party of NO MORE!”

We can already see Progressive Democrats circling the wagons and the one thing they know how to do is shape opinion within the Party. By November, they will all be using the same ads and catch phrases; carefully selected words and images from the millions they are spending on focus groups to see what will fool you into forgetting what they did last year. Apparently the statute of limitations has not run out on blaming Bush and the latest take on that is that Obama doesn’t have to take credit for the rise in unemployment or for the failure of the economy to respond to the Stimulus Bill because Bush had caused much more damage than originally estimated. Some might even believe the Bush connection if business owners and investors weren’t standing on hilltops yelling out that it is their uncertainty of the future because of Obama’s agenda that has prevented any real recovery. No one is willing to hire or expand until they know what next years taxes and energy costs will look like and that is what responsible business owners must do to survive.

I think we all have an idea what the Democratic strategy will be. We’ve seen it before and the only reason it worked then was that Democrats were running against their Republican challengers and not an opposition movement of so many angry Americans. The Republicans would be wise to listen to what is being said because the mood out there is not largely an anti-Obama or even anti-Democrat movement; it is an anti-incumbent movement and the people that win will be the people that have worked hard to regain the trust of a very wary and disenchanted public.

The Democrats have badly damaged their chances in the upcoming election so they have twice as far to go as the Republicans do. That does not mean the Republicans can coast to the finish line and if they are smart, they will put down the newspapers, turn off CNN and visit their home towns. They should listen carefully to the issues their constituents have raised and most of all, they must remember that the last time there was a tangible difference between Democrats and Republicans in the public perception, was during the Conservative Revolution of Ronald Reagan. The People elected George H.W. Bush believing he would carry on the work begun by Reagan and he failed to honor his most basic promise of not raising taxes. They elected George W. Bush after another 8 years under the embarrassing behavior of Bill Clinton, hoping “W” had learned from his father’s mistakes, but he had not. Barack Obama did not win the election by promising to be a radical, tax and spend Liberal, he won by promising change to a people that felt betrayed by two Republicans that failed to act like Republicans.

Tomorrow: some tough love for Republicans.

Paul