Frank Rich writes in his weekly column that Obama and the Democrats are about to learn "How to Lose an Election." In short, he believes Democrats are making a mistake in running against Bush. He points to President Obama's assertion that the GOP is "betting on amnesia" and argues that this isn't exactly a bad bet.
It's good point, but one that's undercut by the following point and ignores the reason why people have these misconceptions. First, if everyone's forgotten just how much they hated Bush, they're about to rediscover that relationship. The GOP is nearly unchanged since Bush was in the Oval Office and what changes they've made have been a shift toward crazier, as Rich points out.
Second, the reason that people believe all these things is because Republicans keep lying about them. They just repeat things over and over and over until enough people believe them. If Democrats start doing the same thing, only truthfully, the effect should be the same. Republicans aren't magic and messaging isn't a one way street.
Democrats could easily counter these lies by always telling the truth -- even when not asked. Ask a Republican, "What's your favorite color?" and they'll answer, "Well, as you know, the stimulus was a complete failure and tax cuts have been proven to increase revenues..." Democrats should do the same thing.
Only with facts.
Betting on amnesia is almost always a winning, not a losing, wager in America. Angry demonstrators at health care town-hall meetings didn’t remember that Medicare is a government program, and fewer and fewer voters of both parties recall that the widely loathed TARP was a Bush administration creation supported by the G.O.P. Congressional leadership. So many Republicans don’t know Obama is a natural citizen — 41 percent in a poll last week — that we must (charitably) assume some of them have forgotten that Hawaii was granted statehood. The G.O.P. chairman is sufficiently afflicted with amnesia that he matter-of-factly regaled an audience with the counterfactual observation that the war in Afghanistan, Bush’s immediate response to 9/11, began under Obama.
The president is also wrong when he says that every single current G.O.P. idea is a Bush idea. Many are not. And those that are not are far more radical.
It's good point, but one that's undercut by the following point and ignores the reason why people have these misconceptions. First, if everyone's forgotten just how much they hated Bush, they're about to rediscover that relationship. The GOP is nearly unchanged since Bush was in the Oval Office and what changes they've made have been a shift toward crazier, as Rich points out.
Second, the reason that people believe all these things is because Republicans keep lying about them. They just repeat things over and over and over until enough people believe them. If Democrats start doing the same thing, only truthfully, the effect should be the same. Republicans aren't magic and messaging isn't a one way street.
Democrats could easily counter these lies by always telling the truth -- even when not asked. Ask a Republican, "What's your favorite color?" and they'll answer, "Well, as you know, the stimulus was a complete failure and tax cuts have been proven to increase revenues..." Democrats should do the same thing.
Only with facts.
