Friday, June 05, 2020

Is This IT? We Are Too NICE?!

That certainly was never my intent.

I have posted previously of my admiration, even envy, of the Lincoln Project's ads against Trump. Mostly, though, I have exchanged with my (second) ex-wife. I have puzzled though about why their ads are more effective, they even get to me in an emotional way, viscerally, like I feel more. I didn't think I could fee more negatively about Trump. I have never felt that way about a Democratic ad, this time, or in times past. I have puzzled and bemoaned to #2. On Tuesday she sent me an ad by Republican Voters Against Trump. It included an extremely brief vid snip of a woman being kicked by the police.That made such an impression on me that I googled it and found out it was from Erie, Pennsylvania! And just this afternoon, #2 and I:

ANTIFA TERRORISTS!😂 [singing "Lean on Me."]

Her: Yeah and it means anti fascist which I thought we ALL were. Which your uncle gave his life for. Like tree hugger and bleeding heart it’s hard to figure out how these terms become a pejorative. Only Rs can do that language twisting.

Boy they DO have a way with messaging, don’t they. The Lincoln Project’s ads, so many terms that have become, thanks to them, slurs. “Liberal”!

Her: Progressive. Because regressive is better? Or oppressive?

Right! “Conservative” isn’t a pejorative. They’re better than us. They can turn any term into a Label. It’s weird how they are so successful at that!

Dems REALLY need to work on their messaging. I don’t understand why Reps own this space. But they do!

Boy they DO have a way with messaging, don’t they. The Lincoln Project’s ads, so many terms that have become, thanks to them, slurs. “Liberal”!

Her: Fox News and radio shock Jocks constantly repeating exact same talking points. Ie propaganda is how they own this space.

No, I didn’t notice the disparity until the Lincoln Project’s ads. They were just soooo well done. They’re not in the Right’s echo chamber. The Labels, I can’t refute [on her repetition of propaganda point.]

They have got even us liberals accepting the the term as a pejorative label and abandoning it for “progressive” or whatever. We, who are NOT in their echo chamber!

Her: They’ve hitched their wagon to this trump star but maybe he’s a comet and spiraling out. If so how do you unhitch?  I want them to hang on and be forever tainted politically and historically. They were the worst kind of enablers forsaking solemn paths to be a separate branch. Lindsey sweating to hear impeachment impartially two weeks after declaring he was going to rule against impeachment no matter what. They are a total disgrace. Ultimate hypocrisy

That is my dream also. Irrevocably, permanently discredited. To have been a Trump Supporter the ultimate political pejorative. But I think it’s going to remain a night vision. I would welcome any defection, like we have George Conway’s, Bill Kristol’s, George Will’s.

Her: Like a supporter of Vichy

Exactly. In the early 20th c everytime a Southern Democrat got up to speak on the House or Senate floor, all a Union Republican had to do was wave his bloody shirt from the Civil War to silence them. I’m a bloody shirt Democrat.

Her: I’m a de Gaul French gal!

And I’m Nathan Bracken’s great grandson.

Herhttps://twitter.com/murphymike/status/1268997121446801408
Oops, there goes another Republican.

...That is ANOTHER good ad by R’s against Trump. VERY hard hitting. And on all of Trump’s sore points...

...They are obviously FAR more sophisticated in their messaging...


Comes now this in NYT:

How to Beat the Bully in His Bunker



Democrats can learn from the people who know Trump’s base best — the Never-Trump Republicans.

Pick jaw off floor.

President Trump has no more understanding of the document that enshrines the right to peaceably assemble in protest than he does of that Bible he held upside down on one of the darkest days in American history. [He held it upside DOWN? (I...did not notice that. Isn't that...profane or something? A sin? Like holding the flag upside down?)

...don’t fool yourself: It will not be easy to remove this awful man. As nice as it was to hear Joe Biden sound like a president this week, it is going to take a heavy, hard and persistent pounding of Trump to oust him. For that, Democrats can learn from the people who know his people best — the Never-Trump Republicans.

“Washington transformed into a war zone for this coward.” So went the latest salvo from one such group, the Lincoln Project. “This is a time for choosing: America or Trump.The ad is blunt. Brutally effective. And the best way to beat a bully who cowers in a bunker.

[Resolution: Be BRUTAL]

Trump is on the ropes. He’s always been unpopular, but this spring he’s testing the lows. That wall he promised to build is finally going up — around the White House. He tweets LAW AND ORDER, then dangles pardons for criminal cronies.

Democrats may be tempted to stay high [well weed is being decriminalized so] while Trump finds new ways to go low. This week, Biden sounded the kind of historically resonant notes we want from a leader. He showed empathy, clarity of vision, appeals to our better angels, on top of the most progressive policy agenda of any Democratic nominee since Franklin Roosevelt.

Donald Trump Jr., on the other hand, posted a meme on his Instagram suggesting that Biden was a pedophile. The campaign has bought Facebook ads implying that Biden is senile and demented. Don’t be surprised if Trump blames Biden for the car accident that killed Biden’s wife and child. [Is that sarcasm? I don't know now.]

Nice ain’t going to cut it against a gangster presidency. There is no bottom in the basement of this White House. And nobody knows this better than the Republicans who refuse to follow a tyrant.

[I WILL NOT BE NICE! (Was I? Ever?) NICE SUCKS! I WILL BE BRUTAL!]

Consider “Mourning in America,” another ad from the Lincoln Project, a political action committee of prominent Republicans whose leaders include George Conway, the husband of Kellyanne Conway, a presidential adviser, and Steve Schmidt, a former strategist for John McCain and George W. Bush, among others. Over dystopian images of body bags, shuttered stores and the fog of despair, a somber narrator says, “Under the leadership of Donald Trump, our country is weaker and sicker and poorer.” When the low-budget ad ran on Fox News, Trump went ballistic — exactly the high-budget response that the Lincoln Project was trying to solicit.

Lovers of civility and nuance may be appalled by this kind of whack to the head. Democrats, being Democrats, will fight over policy, identity and no small number of nonsensical slights. Republicans will chant “Lock her up,” until a majority is convinced that their opponent is a criminal.


[Okay, wait. A pause in my self-scourging, an intermission in my struggle session. The most obvious line of attack on Trump, and the one who gets his goat every time, is his illegitimacy as president. I have gone there, repeatedly. Why have the Never Trumpers gone there?]

It’s time to keep the foot on the pedal. Trump registered as a voter (where he cast his ballot by mail), in Florida, but listed his residence elsewhere. Isn’t that voter fraud? [Well...I...I, I don't kn...I mean, YES! It IS voter fraud! Swine. Goat-footed beast swine.]

Trump has baselessly smeared an MSNBC host and former Republican member of Congress, Joe Scarborough, all but accusing him of murder. Isn’t that the bearing of false witness prohibited in the Bible revered by his evangelical supporters?

Trump has suggested that people inject household disinfectants to fight off the coronavirus. Isn’t that using the presidential podium to promote poisoning?

And now Trump has had a park full of peaceful protesters cleared by violent force for a photo op. Is there any bigger or more emblematic desecration of his office, and the People’s House?

If Trump were a Democrat, every voter would be aware of the toxic malignancy of his character. 


That’s the great task of the next five months: Just show voters Trump being Trump. Then pound and repeat.

It is clear to me now that we do not know how to do this. Republicans do. Democrats do not. I have never given money to a Republican in my fucking life. But I am donating $100 to the Lincoln Project right now.