I'm Sick of This 'Blame the Victim' Crap! (WARNING: "liberal" use of expletives)

BY JUST WONDERING
We're back again to the assumed absolute inability of the Democratic party and democrats in general to play offense when it comes to campaigns. Democrats have gotten so used to trying to figure out how to counter the Republican spin, that they have completely forgotten how to fight. In dueling, it is the aggrieved party who gets to pick the weapons. I can think of no one more aggrieved than the Democrats who run for office against a Republican party that is not above anything when it comes to campaigning. Yet, Democrats continue to let the aggrieving party choose their weapons as Democrats huddle together and plan a "strategy."

Here's what I'm talking about: over at Slate.com and anywhere else, for that matter, you can read articles about Hillary Clinton's "electability." "Electability" is a term that measures how easy it will be for the Republican smear machine to vilify this candidate. If the answer is "easy," electability doesn't look so good. Of course, it's easy for the Republican smear machine to vilify just about anybody because, as stated earlier, they aren't above using anything for fodder, and it certainly helps that they don't care whether the fodder is true. Over at No Quarter, in a piece frighteningly titled Democratic Death Wish, Larry Johnson tells us that if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, expect a heavy dose of "Barack Hussein Obama, the Muslim." He predicts this refrain, or something similar thereto, will be an integral part of what will be called euphemistically "Republican campaign strategy." Does it strike anybody else as odd that we're hearing about these candidates' supposed vulnerabilities, when the real story ought to be what shameless, dirty games Republicans play and what that says about "character?"

Why am I not seeing these headlines about Republican "electability": Is McCain's Selling of His Soul Complete, or Does His Ambition to Be President Know No Bounds? How about Mike Huckabee Wants to Be Your Friend - Like Jesus Wants to Be Your Friend ... or Mitt Romney's Empty Suit Has Deep Pockets. Why am I not seeing headlines explaining why, after 8 years of the worst governance at the federal level on record NO REPUBLICAN is "electable." Why am I not hearing how no Republican has, or even deserves, a snowball's chance in hell to keep the White House, and Democratic "strategists," unlike their counterparts, won't have to resort to smears, since the ugly truth is ... well ... ugly enough, thank you. I'll tell you why. They are Republicans and, therefore, untouchable. The "why" of that last statement, however, I cannot for the life of me tell you.

So here's what ought to happen. The two remaining Democratic candidates ought to lay the ground rules right now. They ought to predict for the public what dirty tricks are coming, and they ought to make it clear that when the Rovian shit starts to hit the fan, they will hit back. They ought to have "counter websites" ready, so that when the lies start to fly in the public forum or in a debate or in a hit piece written by someone with the integrity of, say, Robert Novak, they can direct the listening or reading audience to a web-page with the supported facts, and they ought to do it with confidence and disdain. They ought to be appalled when these tactics creep into the democratic process and they ought to show it. When misinformation has the effect of actually robbing someone of their vote because, had they known the real truth they would have voted differently, we should all be appalled. And, NEWSFLASH! I don't CARE whether politics has always been a dirty game. That adage isn't going to make this situation acceptable to me. With the reach of mass media, the ability of the wealthiest to pay for scurrilous ads that can run nationwide, and the far-reaching saturation of 24/7 news, I'm afraid the ante of playing dirty politics has been upped significantly. Clinton and Obama ought to be self-righteous when they have cause to be self-righteous. In other words, they ought to take the purveyors of these shameless lies to the woodshed in front of the whole nation.

So if I could give any advice to the eventual Democratic nominee, it would be this: When the likes of doughy Karl Rove (or one of his acolytes) heaves his fat ass up onto a High Horse using sheer nerve and bullying tactics alone, you don't take the High Road. You get on a Higher Horse. Then you dig your heels down in the stirrups and you ride right over to people like Rove and Mehlman (M.I.A.) and Swiftboat assholes and Fox News mouthpieces, and you look them in the beady eyes as you lean out of the saddle toward them, and you say, loudly so everybody can hear, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself." After that you don't back down and you don't ride away. You say, "Now that we've disposed of your lies, let's talk a little hard truth." And THEN, if you've got thirty minutes or so, you give the laundry list of all the ways this administration has put this country behind the 8 ball and remind everyone how the Rubber stamp Republican congress and party have been complicit in this mess.

Tah-damn-dah!

Oh, and don't forget to mention how they've obstructed justice. I forgot to include that (and many other things, I'm sure) in my list yesterday of things that ought to be redressed (but won't) within the next year.

Originally posted by Just Wondering over at Vim and Vinegar.