While the democrats are pretty sure that they hate President Donald Trump and all of his works, they are having problems figuring out what they are for. Their development of policy issues, candidates, and even slogans are proving to be less than fruitful. The failure could prove to be devastating for both the 2018 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential election.
'I mean, have you seen the other guys?'
Great political campaigns have often revolved around pithy, easy to understand, and inspiring slogans. Donald Trump, as a presidential candidate, shone in this regard with his, "Make American great again!
" Before him, Barack Obama got a lot of mileage with "Hope and change." Both slogans expressed the aspirations and fears of American voters in 2016 and 2008 respectively.
Many political analysts are scratching their heads with the slogan Democrats are test marketing, "I mean, have you seen the other guys?" The implication is that the Democrats are acknowledging that they and their candidates are a pretty sorry lot, but they are arguing that the Republicans are even worse. People like to understand why they want to vote for a candidate and a party and the lesser of two evils does not make for an inspiring argument.
Democratic candidate calls for $32 trillion in tax hikes to pay for single payer
Randy Bryce is the sacrificial lamb candidate the Democrats are running against House Speaker Paul Ryan. The party is using the candidate from the Bernie Sanders wing to test market issues and themes that it intends to run on. Chief among these matters is government run, single-payer health care, of the sort that is trying to kill an 11-month old baby named Charlie Gard in Great Britain.
CNN recently interviewed Bryce and, astonishingly, made him sweat by pointing out that an analysis of the kind of "Medicare for all" that is being advocated by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont would cost $32 trillion over the next 10 years. How does Mr. Bryce intend to pay for it? Bryce responded that there are a lot of rich people and corporations that are not paying their fair share of taxes.
The hapless candidate practically has handed the Republicans their generic campaign commercial.
The bottom line
Hot Air blogger has the eloquent hot take on what is likely to happen, stating: "I'm excited to see what Mitch McConnell will do with a filibuster-proof majority." That statement may be a slight exaggeration, but it should be pointed out that the Democrats are defending far more Senate seats than are the Republicans in 2018. They need to do better than that if they intend to hold onto them.
