DNC On The GOP Budget Plan: It’s Not Playing Well
It looks like Democrats are poised to make the Paul Ryan budget plan the issue of the 2012 campaign. The DNC released this video featuring some of the angry town halls.
Side note: Don’t you want to punch Sean Duffy (the guy who can barely make it on $174,000) in the face when he tells constituents they can have their own townhall?
Meanwhile, the townhall problems continue for the Republicans. Rep. Allan West will now only take pre-screened questions and won’t let constituents ask them. New York Republican Charlie Gibson faced angry voters who demanded that the rich be taxed. Paul Ryan got heckled at his own townhall and snuck out the side door to avoid protesters. Don Imus questioned Eric Cantor on his plan to cut taxes for corporations that don’t pay taxes.
Tags: Angry Townhalls, DNC, Medicare, Paul Ryan, Republican Bamboozlement
I can’t imagine why telling seniors not to worry about their medicare because the Republicans are just screwing over their kids isn’t selling.
Months ago I wondered aloud why, with all the Repubs clutching the third rails, Obama and the Dems weren’t turning the power back on. Now I have to admit it looks like they are.
It is still a little tentative though and not up to full power. Democrats are uncomfortable being on the offense. I still feel like Democrats are waiting for Republicans to offer a way out so they can follow it in the usual compromising manner.
This is a Dem offense that should have begun forming last summer. I think it is mostly opportunistic and is still not being coordinated in any meaningful way. I think Dems were fully prepared to compromise with the Ryan plan, but were overtaken by events and changing attitudes, and now are afraid to sign on.
Now that the Ryan plan is polling poorly, Dems are frantically backpedalling to get back into their old traditional Democrat clothes, which really don’t fit that well anymore.
Thom Hartmann, progressive radio talk show host had a guest on yesterday that was arrested at the Allen West event for speaking out of turn. She was charged with resisting arrest and creating a disturbance.
As for Dems on message. The democratic party, and democrats in genearal have no message discipline. And Obama not being a trailblazer on issues or conducting “politics as usual”, its hard to coalesce around a message.
Remember the Health Care debate? For all Obamas skills, he was frustrating the D’s just as much as the R’s because he was a moving target on policy, never stating exactly what he wanted.
Thom’s guest (I can’t remember her name) is a radio talk show host herself who happens to live in West’s district. She was subbing for Randi Rhodes all this week before this happened, Randi had her on for like a hour talking about it. She apparently went through a pretty terrible ordeal. She was even maced while she was held overnight.
I wonder what Mr. Duffy was making on MTV’s road rules all those years?
This may have been premature. The party likely should have waited until the Republican presidential race began in earnest, the candidates got on record and then attacked. Early attacks mean an early evaluation point. Some of the more savvy Republican candidates who are not running on an extreme right-wing agenda will see the unpopularity of the Ryan proposal and run away from it. If the budget was left untouched there would be more pressure on the candidates to embrace the Ryan budget, if not its totality but its spirit.
sussexanon, weak messaging has unfortunately been a consistent weakness of the Democratic Party for far too long. The party lacks a set of clear, identifiable set of ideological principles. Our party seems to be a collection of platform planks which shifts a little to the right or left depending on who the leader of the party is and what the political climate is. The Republicans–even though they fail to practice it–are consistent in what they preach. Fortunately, their ideology is likely in long-term decline, despite the 2010 boomlet.
By “this” I am referring to the general efforts to criticize the plan, not this particular video.
I am very concerned that, instead of defining sharp differences with Republicans on taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, Senate Democrats will engage in prolonged “centrist” negotiations that result not only in policies that hurt working people and the middle class, but that also further blur their core message. 2010 would have been much better for Democrats if they ran on a tax the rich message. But, instead, they ran really on nothing. A repeat in 2012 would seem improbable, but judging from the Gang of Six, things seem headed in that direction.