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The times call for righteous anger
https://digbysblog.net/2022/07/06/the-times-call-for-righteous-anger/The times call for righteous anger
Published by Tom Sullivan on July 6, 2022
It seems Jennifer Rubin is on the same page as my earlier post below. Pres. Joe Biden’s hope to “lower the temperature” in Washington, she writes, “has too frequently ceded rhetorical energy to Republicans and has demoralized his own side by coming across as blasé in the face of outrageous developments.”
snip//
Telling Democrats you’re fighting for them or that you will fight once elected is obvious empty rhetoric that will not get them off their couches to vote this fall. People need to see you fighting. At least throwing rhetorical punches.
“The murmurs of dissatisfaction rolling through the Democratic Party in part stem from a sense that his serene, platitudinous language and disinclination to fully denounce the GOP only minimize the dangers we face and disguises the extremism of democracy’s opponents,” Rubin writes.
In this environment, Biden gets rolled. Govs. J.B. Pritzker (Ill.) and Gavin Newsom (Calif.) get it. The White House? Not so much.
Cedric L. Richmond, a former Democratic representative from Louisiana now works in the Biden White House. “The country didn’t elect Joe Biden because they wanted a Democratic Donald Trump to go out there every day and divide the country more,” he told CNN, suggesting more aggressiveness from Biden is the “the same foolishness that got us Donald Trump.”
And that’s the same foolishness that loses elections when Trump is not on the ballot.
Rubin responds:
That’s just daft. It shows an utter lack of appreciation for the nature of the GOP and the critical need to mobilize the rest of the country in defense of democratic values. Surely, Democrats are hoping the rest of the administration doesn’t buy into this.
[…]
Unlike Biden, Democrats up and down the ballot appear to recognize we are at an inflection point. Rather than wait for direction from the president or some unified message from advocacy groups, they should continue doing precisely what they have begun: Highlight the cruelty, extremism and unfitness of their opponents. Run on women’s autonomy and ending senseless gun violence. Put initiatives on the ballot to draw voters to the polls. Condemn a radical, out-of-control Supreme Court and vow to reform it — by filibuster reform if necessary.
The problem is, Paul Waldman once acknowledged, “what the system really rewards is the appearance of fighting for something, rather than waging actual battles where the outcome makes a difference …”
In fact, “the single most important bias in the news media is not in favor of any ideology, it’s a bias toward conflict. Fights, whether genuine or contrived, have all the dramatic elements that outlets look to build our stories out of. ” Why do Republicans seem to get more face time in the media? They generate conflict.
A fireside chat won’t cut it. A little fire-breathing might.
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