We are not aggressive enough at attacking the GOP on its "strong points"

[Bjorn Against]

There are a few key talking points which the GOP uses in every election cycle which are not aggressively challenged by the Democrats.
Karl Rove always knew it was effective to attack his opponents strong points rather than only focusing on the weaknesses. The Republican Party however has no real strong points, they only have fake strong points yet the Democratic Party generally has not attacked these fake strong points hard enough. Here are a few key myths about Republican values.

"Republicans are the party of small government."

This is a major load of crap, but it seems that even many Democrats have heard it said so much that they believe it. No party that supported a limited government would authorize the President to monitor the calls of ordinary Americans. No party that believed in small government would authorize the use of torture. No party that believed in small government would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on the military every year. No party that believed in small government would hand such massive no bid contracts to their corporate bidders.

Progressives in America are really for a much smaller government than Republicans are. Now don't get me wrong we may ask that more money be spent in several areas, but that doesn't necessarily mean a bigger government it just means a better government. In many ways we want to shrink the size of government by reducing the military budget, repealing the Patriot Act and other regressive legislation, and reducing the level of executive power through better checks and balances.

We must make it clear the Republicans support a large and very intrusive government.

Republicans are better at keeping America safe"

Again this is complete crap, and while the Democrats have done somewhat better at attacking the Republicans on this one they still do not attack as hard as they should.

The Republican Party has been a disaster for National Security, and they have increased the threat of terrorism around the world. It was Reagan and Poppy Bush who trained Osama bin Laden and the people who later became the Taliban to fight against Russia in the 1980's. It was the Reagan administration that supplied chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein, while they sold arms to Iran.

And it was George Bush, a man who had ties with the bin Laden family, who was in power when 9/11 happened. It was George Bush who responded to the attack by reading "My Pet Goat".

It was also George Bush who was in power when Katrina struck, and decided not to do anything about it until he vacationed some more, and had a chance to play guitar and attend Republican fundraisers. He excused himself saying that "no one predicted the breech of the levies". Of course that was a lie, but even if it were true think about what it says about what Bush's response would be to a terrorist attack. If no one could predict that a hurricane would breech the levies, then how could they possibly respond more quickly if a terrorist bombed the levies when there was really no advance warning. They expect us to believe they can quickly defend against terrorism, when they can't even get a fast response to a hurricane they knew was coming?

Keep repeating it, the Republicans have been a disaster for national security.

"Republicans are not politically correct."

Alright this is the one that just itches to be attacked in so many different ways, even though it does hold more truth than many Republican talking points. I agree that Republicans are not politically correct, in fact I think they are politically wrong.

Republicans tell us that Political Correctness prevents us from speaking because we are afraid of offending anyone. Now just look who is telling us we are afraid of offending people, A PARTY THAT IS RUN BY FUNDIES. We are having people who call into the FCC because of cartoon characters they believe might be gay lecture us because they think we get offended too easily.

They use the term "Political Correctness" to spread their racist, sexist, xenophobic and homophobic messages in a way that does not get them in trouble. It is the term they use to make racism acceptable again. We can not let them get by with it anymore, lets show them we are more than happy to offend them but we are not willing to let their hate speech go without a response.

"Republicans are Pro-Life"

So let me get this straight, a party that starts a war which has killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians is pro-life? I guess it is also pro-life to support the death penalty, engage in torture, pollute the air and waterways with cancer causing chemicals, build nuclear weapons, refuse to provide health care to tens of millions of people, and support trade with countries in which corporations can actually force their female employees to have abortions.

We call the Republicans pro-life because they want to go back to a time when women died trying to perform abortions with coat hangers. These people are not out to protect the life of anyone, they are simply out for power over women if they truly cared about the fetus they would also care for the child.

"The Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility, and the Democrats are the big spenders".

This is a straight up lie, but it is a lie that does not get challenged nearly enough. Just look at how federal spending has spiked under Bush, sure money is being cut in the places that benefit us but there have been massive increases in other areas. The military budget is more bloated than ever, and the massive corporate contracts are completely out of control. We are spending more, yet we are still giving tax cuts to the richest Americans while we build up a massive deficit that will eventually be paid back by those of is in the lower, working, and middle classes.

The Republican Party represents the very worst in money management, spend more while taking less in. They are literally driving our nation to bankruptcy.

We can not keep allowing any of these Republican talking points to go unchecked. The Republicans have no strong points, so it should be very easy to attack their perceived strong points. Let's fight hard.

[longship]

1. You didn't see Menedez's new advertisement.

Here

Short, sweet, and nails it.

[Bjorn Against]

2. I am on dial up unfortunately so I will not be able to watch it

It is always good to watch people who do hit back however, if I am at a computer where I have broadband any time soon I will try to watch it.