On the heels of Marc Ambinder declaring that the media will be the water-carriers for the Democratic Party regarding the demonization of the Tea Party, that selfsame subject (coincidentally, I’m sure) is now being discussed in the White House. The idea: Make Americans afraid of the Republicans by painting them as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Tea Party.
Oh, so many ways to fail. Just look at the lack of enthusiasm by Democrats about how well this plan will work. Will it enable the Dems to keep the House? Probably not. They’re just hoping to limit the losses now—which is the sign of a party already defeated.
White House and Congressional Democratic strategists are trying to energize dispirited Democratic voters over the coming six weeks, in hopes of limiting the party’s losses and keeping control of the House and Senate.
Sounds to me like they’re running quite scared, and with good reason:
“We need to get out the message that it’s now really dangerous to re-empower the Republican Party,†said one Democratic strategist who has spoken with White House advisers but requested anonymity to discuss private strategy talks.
Let’s recap the past year. Last year, during the Summer of Town Hall Rage, the Democrats said that the Tea Party was a tiny minority of fringe voters, crackpots, racists, and just plain mean-spirited people. The result? Scott Brown, Christine O’Donnell, and Joe Miller, to name three. The Tea Party has exploded in numbers, rallies, and influence. The Tea Party, in fact, is on track to become a third party in American politics. The fact that most Tea Party voters favor Republicans is because American taxpayers are tired of endless spending, endless tax hikes, and endless deficits.
So sure, Dems. Go demonize the Republicans by painting them as Tea Partiers. Because that’s worked so well for you in the last year.
What the Democrats still haven’t gotten—and probably won’t get until November 3rd—is that the Tea Party message is not resounding only with a tiny minority of fringe voters. It is resounding with enough Americans to change the face of Congress during the midterms, because the Democrats keep on saying the same thing in varying degrees of loudness. They point to the same failed policies—tax and spend, spend and tax, and tax and spend some more—as the way to bring these monstrous deficits under control. Cutting spending? Only if you can take the Bush tax cuts away from the rich (those making more than $250,000, as defined by the Obama White House).
The Tea Party is about reducing government control over our lives. The Democrat Party is about enlarging it. November will show what Americans want. Scott Brown won in blue, blue Massachusetts. Chris Christie won in blue state New Jersey. You would think that the Dems would have gotten the message already. Apparently, they’re still hard of hearing.