The Villains Villainize

Yesterday I posted on Daily Kos a diary entry entitled "Chasing Unicorns In Georgia." In that piece I was using the defeat the Democrats suffered in the special election in Georgia's congressional district six as a metaphor for all of the recent special elections taking place because of Trump appointing Republican congressmen to cabinet posts. My point was that all those elections were in safe, dead red districts. The defeats in those districts are disappointing only because our optimism made us expect unrealistic results. In spite of the demographics none of those districts were swing districts, and they are not indicative what we can expect in the mid-term elections where many swing districts are up for grabs.

Ah but the optics! In politics appearance is all important, don't you know? So say the pundits. And the pants wetters are now looking for someone to blame for the defeats and for lessons we can learn from the defeats. Perhaps that is why many of the people commenting on my post on Daily Kos seized upon the following paragraph:

“Supposedly some of the most effective advertisements against the Democratic Party's congressional candidate, Jon Ossoff, were the ads trying to tie him to Nancy Palosi. Interesting who the Republicans choose to villainize, isn't it? And what was Nancy Pelosi's great crime? She is widely considered to be one of the most effective Speakers of the House ever. She managed to get passed by the House Of Representatives a very impressive body of legislation such as Dodd Frank and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. What legislation did John Boehner usher through the House? Well, we had an almost monthly repeal of the Affordable Health Care Act, two government shutdowns, and a downgrading of America's credit rating because of the refusal of the house to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner. Paul Ryan's record is even worse than John Boehner's record. I guess the Republicans do not like competent politicians. All right, in all fairness I guess I should say they do not like competent politicians who actually get things done that Republicans do not want done: things like health care reform, raising the minimum wage, protecting our economy from the abusive behavior of Wall Street and investment banks, and/or protecting women or members of the LBGT community from employment discrimination and wage discrimination. The bottom line is that Republicans hate Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton because they are very good at what they do, and the government should not be doing anything at all according to Republicans!”

Before some of you get your panties in a wad over what I have just written let me say that we should improve our approach to the upcoming elections, and yes, I would like to see some young, dynamic leaders such as Barack Obama emerge to carry our party forward. But that does mean we should replace someone as capable as Nancy Pelosi because the Republicans have succeeded in demonizing her. That is cowardice.  We must stand by our people no matter how good the Republicans are at demonizing them, and I will grant you that the Republicans are very good at it. They started very early with Hillary Clinton and have spent decades castigating her for faults and offenses exaggerated and/or imagined. They have also succeeded at portraying Nancy Pelosi as an arrogant, liberal intellectual. In Republican world knowing too much is worse than knowing nothing. The Republicans believe ignorance is bliss because they blissfully exploit the ignorant! But that is an aside and another topic. My point is that we must realize that Nancy Pelosi is not the problem, and we must fight back!

Do not let the Republicans make it a battle of personalities, make them address the issues.  When they castigate you for voting with Nancy Pelosi, choose the ACA, the increase in the Minimum Wage, etc. and ask those bozos if they appose affordable heath insurance and living wages. Remind the voters that it is policy that will determine whether we will have an economy that will work for them, and that starving just because you do not care for someone who is sitting at the table is not a wise thing to do! That is not an intellectual statement unless you think hunger is something you have to go to college to learn. Hunger is actually something college grads and working people share. For college grads it is a post graduate coarse they inadvertently enrolled in when they took out their student loans. For the working men and women in this country hunger is a condition brought on by the jobs they lost and the wages that have not kept up with inflation.  Trump exploited the anger over that, and he is now demonstrating what everyone should already know, to wit that wrecking the car will not make it run better.

Ignore the anti-intellectualism.  Ask yourself why Bernie Sanders is not considered a know it all intellectual? I know some wag will probably say because “socialism” is a bogeyman the Republicans like better. That is probably true, but in using that bogeyman they are still fighting on the ground of issues, and that never favors them. We must make this about jobs, health care, and increasing the opportunities for all.