Tag Archive: education

Now let’s talk about Trump

Written on July 12, 2024 by in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Media Watch

Donald Trump, convicted of 34 felonies

The mainstream “news” media threw themselves a big party over the last two weeks. Ever since President Joe Biden, with a cold, a lifelong stuttering problem, and after crisscrossing the western hemisphere from Normandy to Los Angeles, had a bad performance at the presidential debate on June 27 (arguably only for the first 20 minutes), the “news” outlets have run stories about him nearly 24/7. The coverage has been relentless and unfair, for example, focusing on the few people in Congress who say Biden should withdraw from the election (or who are wishy-washy), rather than the overwhelming majority who support him to beat Donald Trump. While President Biden just gave a forceful speech at the NATO Summit, the coverage instead focuses on “Biden’s Fitness Under a Microscope.”

What do these media outlets want? One answer is: eyeballs and money. The Guardian revealed their media business plan with this headline yesterday: “‘Blitz primary’: the scenario that could turn replacing Biden into a ‘riveting spectacle.'” The other thing many such outlets want is to defeat President Biden and the Democratic Party. These big media corporations increasingly skew Republican. For example, David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery (which owns CNN) just tried to play coy about not favoring one presidential candidate over the other. However, he gave away the game by saying that:

We just need an opportunity for deregulation, so companies can consolidate and do what we need to be even better.

Of course, Zaslav and everyone else knows that such talk of “deregulation” is the classic language of the Republican Party.

What these media outlets are not talking much about during their anti-Biden celebration is Donald Trump. Trump has reportedly been mostly in hiding since the debate, recognizing that the media are doing a better job of bashing Biden than he, Trump, could ever do. When Trump does emerge briefly from the golf course, it’s to tell lies and spout bizarre “false grievances” such as “we don’t eat bacon anymore.”

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Nikki Haley’s Civil War views demonstrate what is at stake in the 2024 elections

Written on December 29, 2023 by in Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Nimarata Nikki Haley

This past Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Nimarata Nikki Haley (née Randhawa) caused a political firestorm at a New Hampshire town hall event when she gave a shockingly evasive answer to a question about the U.S. Civil War. Specifically, a voter in the audience asked Haley, “What was the cause of the United States Civil War?” The following exchange then occurred:

Haley: Well, don’t come with an easy question or anything. I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was?
Q: I’m not running for president. I wanted to hear your view on the cause of the Civil War.
Haley: I mean, I think it always comes down to the role of government. We need to have capitalism, we need to have economic freedom, we need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties, so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want without government getting in the way.
Q: Thank you. In the year 2023, it’s astonishing to me that you’d answer that question without mentioning the word “slavery.”
Haley: What do you want me to say about slavery?
Q: You’ve answered my question. Thank you.
Haley: Next question.

Approximately 12 hours later, after sharp criticism from many quarters, including from President Joe Biden, Haley’s campaign tried to correct her blunder, releasing a Thursday morning radio interview in which Haley said, “Of course the Civil War was about slavery,” further calling the war “a stain on America.” Haley went on to reiterate that “freedom matters. And individual rights and liberties matter for all people.” However, the damage was done. Now Haley either looks like a racist, or just another mealy-mouthed politician saying different things depending on the audience and their reaction, rather than based on her own principles. In deciding which is the true Haley, the following quote from poet Maya Angelou comes to mind:

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

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Florida and the myth of Republican “smaller government”

Written on March 16, 2023 by in Good Government, Republican Messaging, Republican Myths

Republican idea of smaller government

At least since the days of Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party has tried to brand itself as the party of “smaller government.” Sometimes they add “and lower taxes.” Indeed, Republican anti-tax activist and Reagan ally Grover Norquist once famously stated that:

I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

Presumably, such an identification tests well among GOP faithful, including today’s MAGA base, who sadly vote against their own self-interests based on race-baiting and other cultural hot-buttons such as abortion and guns. As an initial matter, however, plenty of polls indicate that most Americans don’t want small government. Rather, they like a full-size, robust “good government,” as we like to call it. That includes, for example, Social Security, Medicare, good highways, public schools, the U.S. Postal Service, a competent FEMA to assist with major emergencies such as hurricanes, universal background checks for gun sales, and more. Likewise, most Americans oppose federal government shutdowns, and correctly blame Republicans when they occur.

But even if most Americans wanted smaller government, the Republican myth that they are the ones who deliver that is false. A perfect case in point is Florida, which is almost entirely Republican-run under Governor (and likely 2024 GOP presidential candidate) Ron DeSantis, along with a state Senate that is 70 percent Republican and a state House that is similarly 71 percent GOP. In Florida, far from the Republican myth of “smaller government,” the GOP state government is huge and extremely intrusive. Here are some examples:

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Superstar Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin discusses January 6 insurrection

Written on April 21, 2022 by 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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Another Republican narrative: Teachers Bad

Written on December 16, 2020 by in Fox "News" Watch, Republican Messaging

Choose your favorite target of Republicans

We like to identify Republican narratives here, so that voters can see the Matrix that Republicans try to place over policy debates, in order to slant those discussions in their favor and even win them before they begin. Publicly identifying such GOP narratives (“Government Bad/Corporations Good,” “Scary Brown People,” “Oil Good/Clean Energy Bad,” etc.) thus takes much of their power away, as folks can point out that a Republican on Fox “News” or elsewhere is simply running the GOP playbook, rather than responding to their biased frame. With that in mind, here’s another Republican narrative we have heard a lot lately:

“Teachers Bad”

For example, here are two situations, both in the context of the COVID pandemic, where Republicans raised the “Teachers Bad” narrative:

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President Barack Obama is making Donald Trump look really bad

Written on May 21, 2020 by in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents

Last weekend, President Barack Obama gave a pair of stunning speeches by video to this spring’s high school and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) graduates, respectively. The speeches were full of all of the things so many voters love about President Obama, especially his intelligence, empathy and Democratic themes of positivity and progress. Likewise, Obama touched upon the theme of empowerment for which he is known, telling the graduates that they need to vote and otherwise be involved in their communities and society in order to create the positive changes they desire. What may have been most jarring to Americans and others around the world was the contrast between President Obama’s intelligent, articulate, positive and unifying speeches, and the very different kinds of remarks that Donald Trump has been making. Below is the video of President Obama’s speech to the high school graduates:

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Democrats find way to bash Republicans, put forth positive proposals at same time

Written on May 29, 2018 by in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents

Science event at Fallston Middle School, Harford County, Maryland

A debate has been raging in the Democratic Party, over the best posture to take for the coming 2018 midterm elections. Some supporters advocate a sustained campaign of attacking Donald Trump and the Republicans, while others suggest focusing on positive Democratic proposals. Recently, the Democrats unveiled a midterm strategy of highlighting Trump and Republican “corruption.” We noted that such a focus may only be half the battle. Several days ago, however, Congressional Democrats came up with a rather novel approach that tied together both the positive and negative strategies and two separate issues: they seek to raise teacher salaries by rolling back the Trump tax cuts.

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How to Beat the Republicans on the “Government” Issue

Written on June 13, 2012 by in Good Government, Popular Political Phrases, Republican Messaging

Republicans have been running against “government” at least since Ronald Reagan‘s 1980 presidential campaign. Willard Romney fired the latest salvo in the Republican War On Government last Friday when he stated that we should not have “more firemen, more policemen, more teachers,” as President Obama wants, but rather, we should “get the message of Wisconsin” (referring to Governor Scott Walker‘s victory in his recent recall election) and “cut back” on these essential public servants. Some pundits called Romney’s statement a “gaffe”, and even Governor Walker, who targeted public employee unions in Wisconsin after taking office, disagreed with Romney.

Apparently, Romney’s gaffe was in going from the general Republican talking point (attacking “government” or “unions”) to the specific (targeting teachers, cops and firefighters, many of whom are beloved in their communities, for firing). California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger learned a similar lesson in his first year of office, and the rest of his time as Governor was doomed. The lesson is that a good talking point, which can be made in the most general terms, does not always translate to a successful specific policy. This indicates that, when Republicans spew the usual talking points attacking “government” and “government workers”, we should put Republicans on the spot by asking them which specific programs and which specific workers they would cut.

We should:

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Politicians Dumbing it Down for Us

Written on June 8, 2012 by in Messaging Maxims

A recent study found that members of Congress are talking to us at an average 10th grade level, down a whole grade from 11th in just seven years. According to some accounts, that’s a sad or even alarming trend. However, the picture is different when one learns that Americans, on average, only read at an 8th or 9th grade level. In that respect, the politicians are doing what they are supposed to do — talk to us in a way that we can clearly understand.

It seems that the recent study says more about Americans’ education values and intellectual curiosity than it does about the politicians who, understandably, chase our votes they best way they can.

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