That's right, Karl, we're the Party of the past -- and DAMN PROUD OF IT!!!

[moggie12]

I was reading a summary of Karl Rove's speech to the Conservative PAC's annual convention yesterday and decided that Karl gave us a great line of attack for '06.

This was part of the Boston Globe's summary:

"Providing a glimpse into the GOP's line of attack for the 2006 midterm elections, Rove described Democrats as obstructionist and wedded to the past. "And that's not a good place to be in American politics," he told the convention....

I can see the Democrats turning this into a great stump speech, along the lines of:

"The Republicans say we're wedded to the past and they're absolutely right -- we are. Democrats still stand for all the old-fashioned values that made America great:

- The belief that the President of the United States and his subordinates should tell the truth to the American people.

- The belief that government funds should never be used to manipulate media coverage and spread propaganda.

- The belief that we Americans are all in this together and that, working together, we can build strong communities and a stronger country.

- The belief that hard-working Americans deserve to have their interests protected every bit as much as those in positions of wealth and power.


There's probably a zillion others but it's past my bedtime and my brain is fried...


Whole article:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/18/rove_issues_call_for_action_to_gop_conservatives/

[Nite Owl]

1. Yeah that

pesky old Constitution means nothing to them.

[Czolgosz]

2. Isn't he pretty much saying that we're now the conservative party and

the Kleptopublicans are the radicals?

[moggie12]

3. Yes -- and America doesn't like radicals!

The Democrats need to play up the "radical" aspect of Bush's agenda. We have to enjoin the "framing" battle: Rove said that the Republican Party has "seized the mantle of idealism and reform from the Democrats, and should now move aggressively to implement its agenda."

The Democrats can't just stand there and let that go by: They have to counterattack. The best way to do it, in my opinion, is to point out (very loudly) that Bush does not stand for "idealism and reform": They need to very aggresively point out how Bush's agenda is exactly the opposite of the values that made America great.

[Zynx]

4. Damn straight.

That makes them very uncomfortable.

[charlie]

5. Sez the party of the Gilded Age

Not hardly, Karlito.

[moggie12]

7. Yes, I think we need to start talking about history

The "New Deal" was the necessary response to the Gilded Age, a time when unfettered speculation drove the economy right off the cliff. I really think the Democrats need to start "talking history".

Bush is clearly trying to undo the "New Deal" -- but doesn't have the "mandate" to do it. The country rejected Johnson's "Great Society" -- a more radical version of New Deal principles -- but Bush is going too far the other way, trying to undo principles upon which there is widespread public support (i.e., social security, progressive taxation, etc.).

I really think the Democrats need to talk about this very explicitly.

[LiberalFighter]

6. This is the party that made America a great nation

GOP is the party that is making America the laughing stock of the world

[Hidden Stillness]

8. Connected to the Past; The Past is Real

Of course, they don't want you thinking about the past; it will only remind us yet again of all that we have lost, and how their greed, incompetence, lying and criminality made us lose it. If you remember the way things were, you get your own perspective on things back, not theirs, and it will put a critical distance between the two. Any new oppressor, any mind-controlling cultist, wants a radical and complete break from the past until finally, Soviet-like, it is forgotten. Then, replaced with nothing but the oppressor's new propaganda, you think only along the circular lines of learned non-reasoning that they have instilled in you.

All the civic foundations of democratic legislation, all the lessons learned by governments and citizens over the centuries, all the mistakes, all the proven corrupting influences, all the laws ever made, exactly to deal with criminal behavior in office, everything--wiped away; by the newest criminals to attempt all the same.

To cut you off from all your own wisdom, all the lessons learned from a lifetime in the real world, all the feedback you get from the intelligence and morals of others--kill it all, and replace it with nothing other than the steady stream of the greedy Republican capitalist's propaganda, controlling you so you will not "obstruct" (key word) their barbarian plan.

Tell it like that--they want to erase all our cultural wisdom from our minds and replace it with their corporate propaganda--no reference to the past, there never was a past, only whatever we tell you, now, exists, etc. Tell it with subtlety for those who've never thought of it this way, so you will explain it to them; tell it boldly to those who already realize it. The past--OUR past--is the link to sanity, and to what WE know.