Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Congressional Democrats Might Want to Learn from What Matthews and Maddow Said Last Night

As I watched the close of "Hardball with Chris Matthews" yesterday, I couldn't help but nod my head in agreement with his assessment that the GOP is in the process of lying to the American public once again. Instead of war, the GOP is lying about precisely who will be hit by the phasing out of the Bush tax cuts. President Obama wants to keep the current levels for 98% of Americans where they are right now (using the tax cuts implemented by the GOP under President Bush); however, for the top 2% of income earners, the goal would be to return the tax rate to what it was under President Clinton.

This, as Matthews points out, is the fact that the GOP is trying to get American voters to ignore. This is where the GOP lie begins.

I also found Rachel Maddow's segment "Scaring White People for Fun and Profit" tonight was simultaneously entertaining and sad, because it is beginning to feel like this is an actual election year strategy coming from the right. Moreover, it fits in perfectly with Matthews earlier point.

I raise both of these opinion segments to say that the communications teams of almost all of the Democrats is failing them. They are allowing these lies and made up stories to go unchecked. Democrats and liberals (please note that they are not necessarily interchangeable, just as Republican and conservative are not necessarily interchangeable) have failed repeatedly to set the terms of the debate, something that should give lie to the fatuous term "liberal media." What's worse is that only in particularly egregious circumstances, like the Shirley Sherrod episode, does truth will out.

If the Democrats hope to retain control of Congress, then they need to start combating the lies that the GOP is currently telling in unison (it also helps to continue to call out their own for ethics violations) and repeatedly. Fight fire with truth. We will not have the biggest tax increase in American history if the GOP created and passed Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire for the top 2%. And we have seen a real drop in crime across the board, particularly within illegal immigrant populations, no matter how many fake stories saying otherwise emerge in say places like Texas.

We deserve to know those truths.

2 comments:

TC said...

Is there a bill on the floor to extend the majority of the tax cuts? Because it's pretty late in the game to try to do that.

hscfree said...

I will have to check on that. If there isn't one in the hopper following the recess, then I would have to join the chorus about the tax increases for those least able to afford them (the bottom 98%). In the meantime, there is still an effort to lie about what Obama has actually said regarding returning to the Clinton era tax rate for the top 2%.

Personally, I would move them back to the Reagan levels, but that is just me. The wealthy always, and I mean always, manage to come out on top, with or without tax breaks.