Republican Party | Messaging Matters

In the Trump age, be your own news editor

Written on February 22, 2017 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch

Faux News, the original Fake News

In September 2015, we gave some recommendations on how to bypass the corporate mainstream media, which were doing an awful job reporting real news. We suggested that readers and viewers choose their own news sources, follow such sources on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and share important stories. This way, you can act as your own news editor and broadcaster. Given the mainstream media’s abysmal 2016 election coverage, and with Donald Trump now in the White House, these efforts are more important than ever.

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Tags: Affordable Care Act, Congress, culture war, Dmytro Firtash, Donald Trump, media, Medicare, Milo Yiannopoulos, Obamacare, Republican Party, Russia, RussiaGate, Social Security, Sweden

The best way to protest is to vote smart

Written on January 19, 2017 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents

Anti-Trump protest, January 2017

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

–George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905

Massive protests are planned in Washington, D.C. and around the country against tomorrow’s inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States. Most of the people who will be protesting are on the political left. How many of these people voted against or publicly attacked Hillary Clinton when she was the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee? How many of them didn’t vote at all? If they did those things, they helped elect Trump. Protesting now is certainly in the American tradition, but voting smarter in the first place would have greatly reduced the number of things against which to protest, or even eliminated the need to protest at all.

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Tags: 2000 election, 2016 election, Al Gore, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Iraq War, Jill Stein, Ralph Nader, recession, Republican Party, Russia, Vladimir Putin

The Republicans’ basic electoral problem

Written on November 7, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Media Watch

2012 electoral map

From the beginning of this election cycle, we have focused on cold hard math, because that’s how you know who is winning and who is likely to prevail. In a presidential election, the cold hard math is the state count of electoral votes. With just one day left before the 2016 elections, and after all the controversies, conspiracies and insults, plus widespread early voting, most of the electoral vote models show Hillary Clinton winning decisively over Donald Trump. These models include the Los Angeles Times with a whopping 352 electoral votes for Clinton, Real Clear Politics with 301 EVs for Clinton when “toss-up” states are assigned, and virtually every other scientific prediction showing Clinton well ahead even before assigning the toss-ups.

The oft-neglected fact about this election is that, since electoral votes are based on state population, the Republicans have a basic electoral problem: they are more popular in states with fewer people and thus fewer electoral votes. In essence, the GOP had a steep uphill climb before this campaign even began.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, battleground states, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Electoral College, electoral votes, Florida, Hillary Clinton, Ohio, Republican Party, swing state, toss-up states

Donald Trump’s dangerous endgame

Written on October 17, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Fox "News" Watch, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Anti-Trump protesters in Dallas, Texas

Not long ago, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had a well-organized, unifying end to their Democratic Party primary battle. Both sides acted like adults, sat down and negotiated over the party platform and the Democratic National Convention. The result was a hugely successful convention and a more unified Democratic Party, after which Clinton took the general election lead from Donald Trump. As new revelations about Trump’s sexually predatory behavior pile up, Clinton’s lead has extended to the point where nearly no one, including Republicans, says that Trump can win. The question now becomes, how will Trump lose, and what will he do afterward? Unfortunately, the signs thus far point to an ugly and dangerous electoral withdrawal from Donald Trump.

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Tags: 2016 Democratic primaries, 2016 Elections, Bernie Sanders, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Republican Party, Trump TV

The Republican Party, lost in the wilderness

Written on October 12, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Donald Trump behind Hillary Clinton at 2nd presidential debate.

Elections are about math, and, with about 27 days to go before the 2016 elections, the math is not looking good for Republicans. Donald Trump is not only losing the presidential election, he may be taking down the GOP with him, including its majority in the U.S. Senate, and even jeopardizing the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Trump is now engaged in a bloody battle with leading Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican in America, as well as GOP stalwarts such as John McCain. Panic is setting in among some Republican office holders and donors alike, and Hillary Clinton and the Democrats are exploiting this GOP Civil War. Where did things go so wrong?

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Tags: 2016 Elections, Autopsy Report, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, GOP Civil War, Hillary Clinton, House, Reince Priebus, Republican Party, RNC, Senate

Playing the Clinton vs. Trump debate expectations game

Written on August 24, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Donald Trump debates Donald Trump

We’re in the post-convention phase of the 2016 elections, where the next big events planned are the presidential debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Assuming that Trump agrees to have the debates, many Democrats assume that Clinton is going to wipe the floor with Trump, and that he is simply going to embarrass himself. Such an assumption is a mistake. Instead, it’s important to recognize, and play, the debate expectations game.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, 2016 primaries, debates, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Republican Party

The Republican Party is dead. What comes next?

Written on August 19, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Republican Party bends to Donald Trump

This week may well be viewed as the week in which the Republican Party died. After Party primary voters chose Donald Trump as their presidential nominee in May, Trump this week chose Steve Bannon, the chairman of right wing website Breitbart News, as his campaign manager, effectively shunting aside Paul Manafort, an experienced GOP strategist and lobbyist. Today, Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign. While Manafort was facing a Russian influence scandal, had become a lightning rod for negative publicity and thus had to go, he was at least a mainstream Republican who deals in reality. Trump’s choice of Bannon as a replacement for Manafort pushes Trump’s presidential campaign, and thus the Republican Party, further into fake conspiracy theory territory.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, Bill Clinton, Breitbart, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Paul Manafort, Republican Party, Russia, Supreme Court, Twitter

Republicans abandon Donald Trump

Written on August 9, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Satirical anti-Donald Trump poster in New York City

The general election phase of a presidential campaign is when a party nominee, having garnered the majority of the party’s primary voter base, tries to expand that base to include “swing voters,” and even moderates from the other party. This year, however, Donald Trump, the Republican Party presidential nominee, is hemorrhaging Republicans while simultaneously failing to grow his base. As a result, the Republicans are in panic mode, with no end to the bleeding in sight.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, 2016 Republican primaries, Donald Trump, General John Allen, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, John McCain, Meg Whitman, Mike Pence, New York Times, Paul Ryan, Republican Party

Will Donald Trump drop out of the presidential race?

Written on August 4, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Republican Messaging

Donald Trump speaking in Cedar Rapids, IA on July 28, 2016

After Donald Trump‘s disastrous last couple of weeks, not just the polls but events seem to be moving quickly against him. First, it was reported that key Republicans close to Trump, such as Newt Gingrich and Rudolf Giuliani, along with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, were going to stage an “intervention” with Trump. Now, however, some Republicans, such as Gingrich and Giuliani, are saying there is no intervention. If not, it may be because Republicans are moving on to the next step. What was almost unthinkable just days ago is now the subject of open speculation: will Republicans try to force Donald Trump out of the presidential race and replace him with someone more palatable? Is that possible? If so, how it would work? Or will Trump get fed up and just quit?

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Tags: 2016 Elections, 2016 Republican primaries, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, President Barack Obama, Republican Party

Trump’s treasonous troubles

Written on August 2, 2016 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Donald Trump on the campaign trail in March of this year.

Donald Trump is not having a good week. Trump managed to cast himself as both unpatriotic and treasonous within the space of a few days. First, Trump invited Russia to commit cyber espionage against the U.S. in order to influence the upcoming presidential election in Trump’s favor, which many have called possibly treasonous or at least a violation of the Logan Act. Then Trump attacked the Gold Star family of Captain Humayun Khan, a U.S. soldier of Muslim faith who was killed in Iraq in 2004 while protecting his troops. Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton‘s lead against Donald Trump is now growing.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, Crimea, debates, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Ghazala Khan, Hillary Clinton, Humayun Khan, John McCain, Khizr Khan, NFL, Presidential debates, Republican Party, Russia, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin

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