Democrats should not play on Republican turf---- Robert Reich (Jun 17 )

[Passages]

SNIP

The largest force in American politics is antiestablishment fury at a rigged system. There is no longer a big-government left or a small-government right or a moderate “center” in between.

There’s only right-wing cultural populism — taking aim at immigrants, transgender people, the “deep state,” “DEI,” “woke-ism”, “socialism,” critical race theory, and other Trump Republican bogeymen.

Or economic populism — aiming at the real causes of the nation’s soaring inequality and the legalized bribery of politicians: large corporations that insist on regulatory rollbacks, their fat-cat CEOs (now earning 350 times their typical employees) who want bigger tax loopholes, and other hugely wealthy Americans who are demanding larger tax cuts.

Democrats cannot win by giving in to Republican cultural populism. They must hammer economic populism.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/where-the-hell-is-the-moderate-middle

Honest.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I disagree with him

The Cultural War cannot be ignored. We just have to fight it differently.

Democratic Party Pols seek office to govern.

Republicans seek POWER to dominate.

Democratic voters choose based on what Politicians Stand for.

Republican voters choose based on what the Politician is Against.

Republicans (including voters) must be painted as BAD PEOPLE.

Where we failed after 2020 was not making the Republican Party of the past a toxic brand. We failed to call them maga Pubs.

Instead they painted us as too righteous, out of touch, too focused on social justice - just TOO damn selfless.

How did we respond? Scholarly language about the economy, oligarchies, morals.

We did NOTHING to attack the character of the maga Pubs. We need to start living to own the Con Lovers. Embrace ruthlessness. Never apologize. Double down on sanity and humanity.

Paint them as insane and inhumane, and that includes the maga Pub voters.

The people we need to win over (maga Pubs are gone forever) the 10s of millions who didn't vote or Indies/3rd Parties. They don't give two hoots or a holler about Sophisticated Nuance.

We need to be ruthless in hammering home that the maga Pub politicians are playing dangerous games with their lives.

How we are doing this in my precinct/county/NJ Legislative District this year?

*Ruthless Aggression
*The pub politicians are not to be trusted.
*The pub politicians should never hold power.
*We are the party of sanity, humanity, and freedom.

If NJ holds the trifecta in November, throw away everything the scholars have told you. Watch Ocean County, Hunterdon County, Burlington, and Atlantic. They flip? That's the rulebook.

I believe, we have too many scholars and not enough sales people.

[Passages]

3. I agree to a point. Yet we should not be abandoning anyone and when we do

it will hurt us.

Economic populism and fighting for everyone's civil rights are critical. Imho, we're not unified enough on that front.

I do not respect politicians who remove their pronouns, believing somehow people on the right will now like me and vote for me.

Capitulating to the right doesn't work.

snip
I've seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the fair Deal, and says he really doesn't believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign.



“Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.”
— Harry S. Truman

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/public-papers/129/address-national-convention-banquet-americans-democratic-action

[JustAnotherGen]

4. The problem I have with the

A rising tide lifts all boats theory of economic populism?

It never has. Pronouns are a tiny issue. Just like 'defund the police' and 'abandon Harris'. These far left ideals have served the purpose of placing the two favorite punching bags of America in a really dangerous position.

Punching bag #2 did not benefit AT all from the New Deal. We simply didn't. And now - there is a large swath of us who don't trust Democratic Party members who tells us about the good old days of FDR. I don't believe what the Rising Tide 'Political Analysts' say -

Because I see what my country did. I know without specific set asides - I'm being forced back to paying a lot of taxes for things that will not be available to me - just like my dad's parents did.

For reference - my dad's parents were in the top tier of FDR/Eisenhower Era taxes. But in spite of that, my grandfather STILL had to pay the equivalent today of ~$4M ($250K in 1946) to provide his own children with a separate but equal school. One of the quietly wealthiest men in Alabama who HAPPENED to be a Black man, had his money stolen by the Federal Government and given to 2nd & 3rd generation Ellis Island immigrants for them to engage in white flight out of Northern cities.

If this history is not addressed head on - after the regime falls - don't be suprised if Black Americans start finding ways to cheat on our taxes.

It's the Self Preservation thing to do. We have to put ourselves first - to keep others from taking our earnings and giving it to white folks. And that's a fact.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. I also have to add

I love Reich. But he's too intelligent for the masses. That's the problem. What works for him, doesn't work for Jane and Joe Schmo down in Bass River Township in Burlington County NJ.

They want red meat - not policies.