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With midterm elections coming up fast, do Democrats finally have a theme?

Written on July 6, 2022 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Republican Messaging

“Freedom” is just potatoes to Republicans

The 2022 midterm elections are just 124 days away, and the results will likely make or break Joe Biden‘s presidency and the Democratic Party’s agenda. All seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as approximately one-third of U.S. Senate seats, are up for grabs. If the Republicans gain a majority in either house of Congress, at minimum, the Biden/Democratic agenda will be stymied as they won’t be able to pass any meaningful legislation. Additionally, either house under Republican control will bog the government down in senseless hearings involving laptops and other shiny object distractions, in order for the GOP to try to score political points. Moreover, many state and local offices are up for election, which could determine how crucial matters ranging from abortion to elections themselves are handled. Suffice it to say that, if any Democrats claim “this is one of the most important elections of your lifetime,” they are not exaggerating.

Republicans, predictably, are bashing President Biden and Democrats over inflation and gasoline prices as their 2022 election theme. Fair enough, as the party out of power generally attacks on any economic front that it can, even though in this case, Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine, as well as leftover COVID-based supply chain problems, both of which can be laid at the feet of Donald Trump, are largely to blame. Indeed, inflation is a problem worldwide, and the United States is on the lower side of gasoline prices around the world.

Therefore, it would be really helpful if the Democratic Party would express a unifying and galvanizing theme for the upcoming elections, to counter the Republicans and drive all-important voter turnout. This has worked in the past, e.g., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi‘s healthcare message for the 2018 midterms, which led to a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House, catapulting Pelosi to House Speaker.

As it turns out, President Biden and Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California, among others, seem to be leading the way with a theme that can succeed for the Democrats in this year’s elections. That theme can be seen in recent tweets from Biden and Rep. Swalwell:

Stunned silence on Fox “News” after January 6 hearing: will they ditch Trump?

Written on June 29, 2022 by Messaging Matters in Fox "News" Watch, Media Watch

Will GOP jettison a damaged Donald Trump?

Day 6 of the hearings yesterday by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol consisted of one bombshell after another. The Committee’s witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, the top aide to former Donald Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, came to the hearing with stunning revelations to share. Among Hutchinson’s revelations:

–When Trump learned in December 2020 that the Department of Justice had not found evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election that would nullify Joe Biden‘s victory (i.e., Trump’s “Big Lie”), Trump became so angry that he threw his porcelain plate full of lunch at the White House dining room wall, leaving ketchup dripping down the wall. On other occasions, an angry Trump either threw dishes or “flipp[ed] the table cloth to let all the contents of the table go onto the floor and likely break or go everywhere.”

–Trump and other top administration officials knew about the risk of violence on January 6 days beforehand, but did nothing to stop it.

–Indeed, on January 6, Trump was upset that the Ellipse in front of the White House, where he was to speak, was not full enough for a flattering photo op. Trump was told the reason was that many of the rioters were armed with AR-15 rifles and other weapons and did not want to go through the metal detectors and have such weapons confiscated, instead choosing to march directly to the Capitol with their weapons. Upon hearing this, Trump wanted to have the metal detectors taken away and to let the armed insurrectionists onto the Ellipse, saying “they’re not here to hurt me.”

–When told that the rioters were chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and that Trump should take action to try to quell the violence (such as telling the protesters to leave the Capitol), Trump refused, saying “Mike deserves it” (for not stopping the Congressional count of Electoral Votes as Trump wished) and that the rioters were “not doing anything wrong.”

–Trump attacked his own Secret Service detail leader and tried to grab the steering wheel of the Presidential limousine when told he would not be taken to the Capitol after speaking on January 6.

When Tuesday’s hearing ended, this was the reaction by the panel at Fox “News”:

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Tags: 2020 Election, 2024 Election, Big Lie, Bret Baier, Cassidy Hutchinson, Congress, Donald Trump, Fox News, GOP, January 6, Joe Biden, John Roberts, Mark Meadows, Mike Pence, Republicans, Ron DeSantis, Sandra Smith

Donald Trump impeached for third time

Written on June 23, 2022 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch

Next stop for Donald Trump?

Those who followed last Tuesday’s fourth hearing held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol were treated to a stunning play-by-play of Donald Trump‘s criminal behavior in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The Committee impeached Trump’s character in every way.

Most devastating to Trump were the recordings of various telephone calls he, often accompanied by others such as Rudolph Giuliani, made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Arizona Speaker of the House Russell Bowers, pleading with them to entertain false claims of voter fraud, replace electors for Joe Biden with fake electors for Donald Trump, or “find votes” for Trump, all with the intent of overturning Biden’s election victories over Trump in those states. On such calls, Trump also made threats to these officials, such as threats of prosecution, for failing to follow through on Trump’s wishes.

While Raffensperger, Bowers and other state officials stood up to Trump, these calls by Trump were a big mistake, as he failed to insulate himself from criminal liability the way a Mafia don usually does, by letting others do his dirty work. As a result, Donald Trump faces a criminal investigation in Georgia, and members of the January 6 Committee say they have enough evidence to refer a criminal indictment against Trump to the U.S. Department of Justice. At minimum, Trump’s calls to Raffensperger and Bowers were as bad as his July 2019 phone call to Ukraine‘s President Vlodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump demanded that Zelensky investigate Joe Biden’s son Hunter to help Trump in his 2020 election efforts, in return for the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine so it could defend itself against Russia. That call to Zelensky led to Trump’s first impeachment.

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Tags: 2020 Election, ABC News, Brad Raffensperger, Congress, Democrats, Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Georgia, impeachment, January 6, Joe Biden, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani, Russia, Twitter, U.S. Capitol, Ukraine

Superstar Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin discusses January 6 insurrection

Written on April 21, 2022 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin

Last night, Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland’s 8th Congressional District appeared on a monthly national call by the advocacy group American Promise. Raskin, former law professor at American University, wrote the book Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy about the extraordinary events after his 2020 re-election to Congress. On December 31, 2020 Raskin lost his son to suicide. One week later, Raskin witnessed the January 6, 2021 Republican terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol while Congress was trying to complete the Electoral College vote count to certify the election victory of President Joe Biden. Rep. Raskin is now a member of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. Raskin was also Lead counsel for Donald Trump‘s second impeachment trial for inciting what Raskin calls the January 6 “coup.”

Here are some highlights from the call with Rep. Raskin:

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Tags: 2020 Election, climate change, Congress, Critical Race Theory, Democrats, Donald Trump, education, Electoral College, Fascism, impeachment, Jamie Raskin, January 6, President Joe Biden, Republicans, U.S. Capitol, U.S. Constitution

Deploy the Liberal Shock Doctrine against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Written on February 25, 2022 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Good Government

Solar power, a better alternative to fascist Russian gas

The Shock Doctrine is the idea that, when disasters or wars strike, conservatives try to use the events to push their existing agenda, such as privatization of important government functions, in response. Republicans have foisted such policies in places as far-flung as Iraq and New Orleans. We have argued that, in turn, Democrats should institute their policies, i.e. a Liberal Shock Doctrine, when they are in power and disasters and wars occur. That might include, for example, stronger gun safety laws after the shock of a mass shooting, or the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, including government stimulus payments and other federal aid, which Congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden successfully brought about in 2021 after Donald Trump‘s inaction in the face of the COVID pandemic plunged the U.S. into a recession in 2020.

Russia‘s shocking and tragic invasion of Ukraine presents another opportunity for the United States, and countries around the world, to create a liberal version of the Shock Doctrine. First, countries can promote the idea of democracy (which is well-represented by Ukraine) instead of fascist dictatorship, exemplified by Russia and Vladimir Putin. But in addition, there is one specific policy that the U.S. and the world should be pushing right now:

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Tags: Congress, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Democrats, Donald Trump, economy, Gulf War, Iraq, Japan, Joe Biden, Katrina, Kuwait, natural gas, New Orleans, oil, Pearl Harbor, pipelines, Putin, Republicans, Russia, Shock Doctrine, solar power, Ukraine, wind power

Senator Joe Manchin, worse than a Republican

Written on December 22, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Fox "News" Watch, Media Watch

Sen. Joe Manchin and his Maserati

Last weekend, the U.S. Senate adjourned for the rest of 2021, without passing the Democrats’ signature Build Back Better bill that the U.S. House passed on November 19. Much of the blame for the lack of Senate passage of Build Back Better lies with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who cynically kept moving the goalposts on what it would take to win his vote, until ultimately he declared that he would not vote for the bill at all.

Of course, Republican Senators were not going to vote for Build Back Better, because it is a Democratic bill that helps President Biden and elected Democrats politically, and helps millions of people across the United States. That means that all 50 Democratic Senate votes (plus, most likely, the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris) would have been needed to pass the bill. And Senator Manchin had at least been going through the motions of negotiating over the Senate bill for weeks, repeatedly proposing cuts to various spending portions and whittling the bill down in size. However, every time an item got cut based on Manchin’s objections, Manchin would name new items that were obstacles to getting his vote, including everything from paid family leave to methane emissions to taxes. Manchin then complained that the bill itself would add to inflation, when in fact experts said the opposite. It eventually became apparent that nothing was going to get Manchin’s vote.

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Tags: Build Back Better, Congress, Democrats, Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, Senator Joe Manchin, Survivor, U.S. Senate

Internet finally blows up over January 6 U.S. Capitol attack

Written on December 16, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Fox "News" Watch, Media Watch

Scene of the Trump crime

Republican Mark Meadows is in the lead to be this week’s Villain of the Week, although he has competition from cohorts such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham of Fox “News,” and as always, Donald Trump. That’s because, after many months of the mainstream media ignoring or downplaying the January 6, 2021 terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol that sought to overturn the election of Joe Biden as President, regular folks finally got fed up enough to light up the airwaves and share incriminating information about the Republicans.

In particular, word got around very quickly on Tuesday, by a vote of 222-208, the U.S. House of Representatives held Meadows in criminal Contempt of Congress. The vote took place after Meadows, a former Republican Congressman and White House Chief of Staff to Trump, who had originally cooperated with the House Committee, suddenly stopped cooperating, defying a subpoena to appear for a deposition, and indeed sued the committee and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, attempting to defeat the subpoena for both his deposition and phone records. Before that happened, Meadows had turned over to the Committee a Republican PowerPoint presentation recommending Trump to declare a “National Security Emergency” in order to remain in the presidency rather than turn over power to Biden on Inauguration Day. Meadows had also given the committee text messages he received on January 6 while serving as Trump’s Chief of Staff, including ones from Hannity, Ingraham and Brian Kilmeade of Fox, and several from Donald Trump, Jr. These texts all had the same desperate tone, begging Meadows to get Donald Trump to stop the insurrection at the Capitol. For example, one of Ingraham’s texts read:

Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.

Likewise, Hannity’s January 6 text to Meadows, talking about Trump, was:

Can he make a statement? … Ask people to leave the Capitol.

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Tags: Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, Fox News, January 6, Laura Ingraham, Mark Meadows, Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Sean Hannity, Twitter, U.S. Capitol, U.S. House

Messaging Maxim #9: Call out the Straw Man

Written on November 26, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Messaging Maxims, Republican Messaging

Thanksgiving dinner with a side of Straw Man?

If your Thanksgiving dinner included any lively political discussion, chances are someone brought up a Straw Man argument. This is a type of logical fallacy whereby:

someone takes another person’s argument or point, distorts it or exaggerates it in some kind of extreme way, and then attacks the extreme distortion, as if that is really the claim the first person is making.

In the political arena, Republicans often use the Straw Man against Democratic proposals by making false, overbroad generalizations about the proposals, and then going after the fictional scenario they just concocted. For example, President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats have proposed, in the Build Back Better legislation that was recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, to raise income taxes only on households with over $400,000 annual income. Indeed, many Americans would see lower taxes under the Democratic proposal. But you are hearing Republicans say instead that President Biden and the Democrats want to raise taxes on “middle class Americans.” A similar Republican Straw Man from the past is the PolitiFact Lie of the Year 2010 that President Barack Obama‘s Affordable Care Act was “a government takeover of healthcare,” when in fact the law left our private healthcare and health insurance systems in place. Note that such Straw Man arguments often feed existing political narratives, such as the Republican narratives that Democrats favor “Big Government” and “higher taxes.”

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Tags: 2016 Elections, Affordable Care Act, Bowzer, Build Back Better, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, healthcare, Jon Bauman, President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Russia, straw man, taxes, Thanksgiving, Twitter, U.S. House

On Afghanistan coverage, the pushback begins

Written on August 25, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Messaging Maxims, Republican Messaging

U.S. Air National Guard members welcome Afghan evacuees in Kuwait

Often, the initial “news” coverage of a story is not the final word. Rather, events prove the original coverage wrong, and a strong counter-narrative develops and takes hold. For example, when the website to sign up for Affordable Care Act (ACA) healthcare coverage first went online in late 2013, it had technical problems for a short time. That’s not so unusual, given that the ACA and its website were (a) brand new, and (b) massive in scope. Nevertheless, the media, swayed by Republicans desperate to criticize President Barack Obama, went into a feeding frenzy, which not only covered all the problems with the new ACA website ad nauseam, but implied that the underlying ACA itself (and even Barack Obama’s presidency) therefore must be problematic, which was not the case. Thus, while the initial criticism was damaging to the ACA and President Obama, the website was soon fixed, millions of people signed up for healthcare coverage, and the popularity of this Obama cornerstone grew steadily and has remained high ever since.

Something similar now appears to be happening in Afghanistan. Many in the “news” media (in quotes because it’s more opinion than news) seem to be forgetting that it was Donald Trump who cozied up to the Taliban, first offering to invite them to the Camp David presidential retreat, then signing the agreement to let 5,000 of them out of prison and to pull U.S. troops out. Instead, the media, again fed by the same old dishonest Republican attacks, have been hammering President Joe Biden for the “calamity” and “disaster” of the Taliban taking over control of Afghanistan again, even though Biden had little or no room to prevent that outcome after the deal that Donald “The Art of the Deal” Trump struck. Moreover, it’s not just right wing media who are attacking President Biden. Here, for example, is CNN‘s Chief International Correspondent, Clarissa Ward, expressing feelings rather than investigating facts just a few days ago:

CNN’s @clarissaward in Kabul: “I'm sitting here for 12 hours in the airport, 8 hours on the airfield and I haven't seen a single US plane take off. How on Earth are you going to evacuate 50,000 people in the next two weeks? It just, it can’t happen.”

— Kate Sullivan (@KateSullivanDC) August 20, 2021

As can be seen after the jump, however, the pushback against these false narratives is beginning to take shape.

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Tags: ACA, Adam Kinzinger, Affordable Care Act, Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, CNN, Congress, Democrats, Donald Trump, John Harwood, President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Ronald Klain, Taliban

Watch the Republicans’ language vs. President Biden’s

Written on June 28, 2021 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Fox "News" Watch, Republican Messaging

The Republicans’ 2021 political strategy

The Republicans’ Culture War is in high gear. That means Republicans attacking their favorite bogeymen. Here are some of the things Republicans have been saying lately, instead of helping to govern our country:

—“Antifa” (to the extent that’s even a real thing) and Black Lives Matter were responsible for the January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capital, even though the FBI keeps rounding up one right wing extremist after another for the attack, many of whom were caught red-handed on video. Not surprisingly, Republicans are now attacking the FBI.

–Companies and others are destroying the country by acting “woke,” a substitute for the older “politically incorrect,” and meant to be a disparagement of perceived liberalism.

–Similarly, according to Republicans, liberals (especially in the media) are guilty of “cancel culture,” which seems to mean doing things like suspending Donald Trump from Twitter and Facebook for inciting violence in the January 6 attacks. Apparently, however, Republicans have no problem canceling things and people they don’t like, such as stripping Congresswoman Liz Cheney of her House leadership post for criticizing Trump, defunding ACORN and Planned Parenthood, or, as Trump recently suggested, banning Twitter and Facebook altogether.

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Tags: ACORN, American Jobs Plan, Antifa, Congress, COVID, Critical Race Theory, Democrats, Donald Trump, FBI, Fox News, Liz Cheney, Mark Milley, Planned Parenthood, President Joe Biden, Republicans, Tucker Carlson, woke