Sign indicating Washington, D.C. national park land and monuments closed due to Trump Shutdown
When you have the facts on your side, and you communicate them in an effective and dynamic way, it’s good policy and good politics. That is the situation the Democrats are in regarding the current U.S. government shutdown. Democrats have correctly labeled it the “Trump Shutdown.”
Trump/Russia, one area where Republicans are on the defensive
Republicans know the importance of going on offense. For years, we’ve heard Republicans, from Donald Trump to Fox News talking heads to your right wing Uncle Charlie at the dinner table, begin conversations by asking loaded political attack questions against the Democrats. The topics of these questions range from immigration (“what about that caravan that’s coming to invade us?”) to the Obamas (“a terrorist fist jab?”) to the Republicans’ favorite target, Hillary Clinton (“did she use a private email server to cover up Benghazi?”) and more. As the Republicans know, when you hit your opponent with these attack questions, you frame the issue and put them on the defensive to explain why they, their party or their politicians aren’t so bad. At that point, as Willard Mitt Romney and others have stated, “if you’re explaining, you’re losing.”
But now the tables have turned. Trump/Russia and other criminal investigations are closing around Donald Trump and his family, leading to lots of deflection, excuses and explanations by Trump and the Republicans. Donald Trump’s own Twitter feed is an excellent gauge of his worry level, and right now, Trump is doing lots of desperate explaining. This is a great time for Democrats to go on offense, and ask their Republican friends the questions that will put Republicans on defense for a change. Here are some questions that you can use as conversation starters with the Republicans in your life:
Former President George H.W. Bush
Former President George H.W. Bush, who died last Friday night at the age of 94, was a Republican through and through. Accordingly, Democrats would rightfully take issue with almost all of Bush’s presidential actions and policies. Yet, virtually all leading Democrats, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, Jimmy Carter, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Adam Schiff and others, have released messages of sincere and glowing praise for Bush. What’s going on?
Peaceful looking Thanksgiving dinner
Each Thanksgiving, we see tips for Democrats on how to react to conservative Uncle Charlie when he starts raising his Republican Fox News talking points at the holiday meal. However, most such tips are reactive, and assume that our conservative relatives get to set the table first by initiating the conversation based on their talking points. We know that it’s tougher to prevail in political discussions that are framed by your opponent. Instead, how about going on offense and bringing up your points first, thereby tilting the field of debate in your favor? Here are some possible points to bring up at the Thanksgiving dinner table tomorrow:
Google page telling people to “Go Vote” on Election Day
If the Devil had shown up Tuesday morning and had said to Democrats, “I’ll give you control of the House of Representatives, but my price is the loss of a few more seats in the Senate where you’re already in the minority,” that would have been a good deal all day long. That result is just what happened in the 2018 midterm elections. While all the votes have not yet been processed, we know that Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives, and that Republicans have kept their slender majority in the Senate, possibly improving on it by several seats. The flipping of the House to the Democrats, however, represents tremendous change, while Republicans keeping their Senate majority, even possibly winning a few more seats, does not. Moreover, at the state level, the Democrats won numerous victories which could change the political landscape further. Additionally, many of the victors this year were women and people of color (often both), the vast majority of them Democrats. Finally, younger voters came out in much bigger numbers this year.
Election Day is this Tuesday, November 6
In this year’s midterm elections, there is a life-and-death issue on the ballot. No, it’s not the “caravan,” despite what Republicans and some in the media might have you believe. The life-and-death issue that we’re voting on this Tuesday (or before, if you have early voting) is healthcare.
In particular, the Affordable Care Act and its preexisting conditions coverage is on the line. There’s a lot of confusion about the ACA and preexisting conditions, but the reality is pretty simple: the 2010 ACA, based on the conservative Heritage Foundation plan and implemented first by Republican Governor Willard Mitt Romney in Massachusetts, is essentially a grand trade-off: Americans got a number of healthcare protections, including coverage of preexisting conditions at non-discriminatory prices, coverage of a comprehensive list of “essential health benefits” (meaning no more junk plans that were cheap but didn’t cover anything), removal of lifetime coverage caps, free annual preventive exams and the ability of young people to remain on their parents’ plans until age 26. In return, since all these protections cost the insurance companies a lot more, the companies got a guarantee of millions more customers, many of them younger people with few or no healthcare claims, via mandatory enrollment. It’s a delicate balance, and those protections can’t be provided under the current system without those extra paying customers.
President Harry Truman at NAS Key West, FL, 1950
Right now, folks inside the White House are high-fiving each other, cracking open beers to celebrate Donald Trump‘s “win” in confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, there’s probably at least one staffer running around, warning that the Kavanaugh confirmation process has galvanized Democratic voters for the upcoming midterm elections which are less than 30 days away. This comes on top of voter enthusiasm levels that already favor Democrats this year. In particular, Democrats have a very good chance of winning back majority control in the U.S. House of Representatives. (The Democrats’ Senate forecast is not as good, largely because this year, many more Democratic than Republican Senate incumbents are up for re-election.)
Thus, some White House advisors likely are telling Trump that, to prepare for a possible Democratic House beginning in January, Trump will have to act like Harry Truman. You may recall that Democratic President Harry S. Truman won re-election in 1948 largely by running against the Republican majority “Do-Nothing Congress.” In Trump’s case, that’s likely to be one-half of a Congress. Therefore, we can call the likely Trump strategy “Half a Harry.” Here’s why that strategy probably won’t work for Donald Trump:
Wisconsin pro-union protest
In many areas of the U.S., as has been reported anecdotally, stores, restaurants and other commercial establishments are airing Fox News at all times from a single TV. We’re not talking about an office building that airs multiple TV news networks from different TVs, or a sports bar that may have 50 TVs, including one tuned to Fox News. This is a conscious decision by the business owners to air only this point of view. It is thus impossible for a customer to avoid hearing and/or seeing the Fox News broadcast at these locations. What should you do when you walk into such a business and are not a fan of the divisive, false Fox propaganda channel?
There are several possible options for the non-Fox consumer in this situation:
Protesters against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh
Donald Trump‘s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court should be the final nail in the coffin for Democratic innocence about how the power game is now played in Washington, D.C. Republicans threw out Robert’s Rules and any shred of decency or fair play decades ago. The Republicans know that politics is a numbers game — numbers of votes to get elected, number of Supreme Court votes to get a majority decision, number of Senate votes to confirm a Supreme Court nominee. For the Republicans, it’s not about character, lying, past statements or even past crimes. It’s only about winning. For some remaining Democrats, that light switch hopefully has been flipped on in the face of the Kavanaugh nomination hearings.
Trump Impeachment sign at 2018 Women’s March
Discussions about the possibility of impeaching Donald Trump are gaining popularity in numerous circles. First, Trump himself is talking about his potential impeachment, warning that “the market would crash” if he were impeached. Apparently, Republicans must continually instill fear in their supporters to get them to the polls. Likewise, Republicans such as House Speaker Paul Ryan warned supporters that, if the Democrats win back the majority in the House of Representatives this November, “you’ll have gridlock, you’ll have subpoenas.” In response to reports of Ryan warning that Democrats would hold Trump accountable, Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted:
Yes Paul, we will. https://t.co/R5bWMnggr4
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) August 23, 2018
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