The Republican Con Game on Deficits or how the "Pledge" is a Joke and Democrats should respond Accordingly
The Democratic response to the Republican Pledge to America has been factual about its economics. The September 26, 2010 Sunday NY Times editorial goes through the economic details, and Democrats have been citing the economic facts from the Congressional Budget Office. As Dan Pfeiffer reports on the White House blog, the Republicans are proposing:Unfortunately facts do not matter for many Americans. They vote the way the loudest most often heard voices say to vote. That voice is mostly far Right. Republicans own and operate media that is unashamed in its perverse promotion of boneheaded conservative ideas. Despite the internet and other traditional resources people do not track the lies of Bill O'Leilly or John Boehner (R-OH), they believe what they hear. People also have a tendency to want the easy answer, one that does not require sacrifice - goodness forbid we have another World War and a modern Roosevelt ask the nation to ration gas and save their metal cans for the war effort.
* Tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires by borrowing $700 billion we can’t afford;
* Tax hikes for 110 million middle-class families and millions of small businesses;
* Cutting rules and oversight for special interests like big oil, big insurance, credit card and mortgage companies and Wall Street banks;
* Doing nothing to stop the outsourcing of American jobs or to end tax breaks that are given to companies that ship jobs overseas;
* All while adding trillions to our nation’s deficit.
Their plan is also notable for what it doesn’t talk about: protecting Social Security and Medicare from privatization schemes; investing in high-quality education for our nation’s children; growing key industries like clean energy and manufacturing; and rebuilding our crumbling roads, rails and runways.
This is the same agenda that caused the deepest recession since the Great Depression…
The Democrats who have checked out the facts have echoed President Obama’s judgment of the Pledge: It’s “worthless.”
I agree. And if the voting public voted on the basis of the economic details, plus the Democrats’ system of values, the Republicans wouldn’t have a chance in hell in the November elections.
But the polls show otherwise. What do we conclude? The voting public does not vote on the basis of the economic details, and the voting public does not fully accept the Democrats’ system of values as they apply in this election.
I will make a bet. When the new polls come out next week, the Democrats’ response to the Republican pledge will not have turned around the Republican lead in the polls.
In short, the Democrats’ response to the Republican Pledge may well be irrelevant. Why? And why does the President have such a hard time defending his accomplishments?
Pundits have been looking for a simple answer. But the answer is complex and depends on understanding how the minds and brains of voters work. Here are ten basic principles:
First, all politics is moral. People vote for values they identify with, for what they see as right, not wrong.
Second, the facts alone don’t set you free. Facts matter, but they must be understandable, that is, framed for normal human beings, and framed so as to be relevant to the moral views that define a voter’s identity.
Third, there are two very different moral views at play in our country’s politics. Liberal and conservative moral systems are inconsistent as they apply to most major issues. There is no neutral worldview, no worldview of the “center.”
Florida gubernatorial candidate and right-wing tea nut Rick Scott is lying about his Democratic opponent Alex Sink. Scott is a criminal, so lying ain't no big thing. Another typical conservative Republican.
