Do Republicans Just Know How to Play the Game Better

Yes they do. It's about being constrained by reality. Republicans just make stuff up like the death panels etc. They can get significant numbers of their party's public figures to spout the same stuff which isn't based in reality.

It wouldn't even occur to most Dems to just make up stuff that doesn't exist and like it does. The few that could do it don't matter because large numbers of the party's public figures would never think to play the game that way.

 

absolutely they do. palin's move to fox was a genius one by all involved. as jon stewart pointed out the other night, she gets paid to go on a network that will bend over backwards to defend anything she says or defend her from attacks whether warranted or not. msnbc has tried this with leaning left, but sheep react better to the "aw shucks, we're simple and we like it" type attitude from fox.

 

Democrats are generally on the right side of the issues. But damn they're a whiney bunch.

When you control the presidency, house and senate, there will always be a tendency to lose seats in the mid-terms. Especially when there's a bit of economic uncertainty.

Ask again in 2012.

 

ignorance is bliss

 

really? the republicans whine just as much and it's typically whining about the rich being taxed a little bit more or christians being persecuted in this country (see the save christmas baloney).

 

Truth, generally. Minor caveat: I'm sure democrats would love to make up **** and get away with it - the trouble is that their supporters don't just blindly follow, and generally they get angry when their representatives look like idiots. Republicans are generally more apt to accept falsehoods at face value, and (more importantly) their reaction to contrary information is almost always defensive.

 

It's easier to lose than it is to win.

It's easier to lie than it is to tell the truth.

The Republicans, as I've noticed, have an uncanny ability to use buzzwords that evoke particular emotions in people.

 

My guess is they will spend significantly more than 80% of their time slamming Dems because they literally have no legitimate policy alternatives.

 

The party in power one year after a presidential election is prone to losing "the message battle". Republicans could go nowhere but up from 12 months ago when they were in the dumpster. The fact Obama couldn't wave a magic wand to fix the economy & Afghanistan, because of the ambitious push for healthcare and because of over-the-top, non-stop rhetoric and actions from the GOP going all-out to stop anything the Dems want to do, you have the Dems on the defensive.

None of this surprises me at all. I'll toot my horn again and say I warned people back in the sunny days of February and March last year that Obama would be severely damaged by the healthcare fight. Some of you dismissively replied by saying since a vast majority of Americans said they wanted reform, it would not damage Obama. Well well well!

If it weren't for the Tea Party movement and crackpots like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, the Dems would be in even worse shape. If the GOP acted like adults and presented their party as a viable governing alternative, the Dems would really be governing in fear. As it is, the Dems will likely hang on to majorities in both houses and have a chance to rebound in 2012.

To the point of your OP, Republicans are definitely better at brass-knuckle, dirty politics at the national level. It's been this way for a very long time. They are much more adept at using fear, demagogery and apocalytpic rhetoric to sway voters. I'm not saying the Dems don't do this also, but they aren't nearly as skilled.

The discouragement that so many Dems have now is based on their totally unrealistic expectations after the 2008 election. In both real life and politics, remember this oft-repeated pearl of wisdom: It's not as good as it seems on the mountain-top and it's never as bad as it seems in the valley.

 

The problem Democrats are facing is that they are losing both the right and the left. If you look at Obama's approval ratings, they are actually pretty steady with moderates and liberals - conservatives hate him now. That's neither surprising not unexpected.

That alone would be no big deal - they primarily didn't vote for him anyway. Where he's suffering from an electoral standpoint is that while liberals still approve, they aren't nearly as excited. They are facing a major enthusiasm gap.

This is where the GOP is very good. When they get elected, they all fall in line. They pass the agenda they ran on, and keep their base on board. You wouldn't have a Ben Nelson or Joe Lieberman on the right. Any disagreements are handled behind the scenes, and they are forced to run the party line. Democrats aren't good at that - at all. As such, you have these big intra-party fights that are played out on the public stage. In 1993, you saw that with the assault ban and health care. As a result, the leftish base gets frustrated and disappointed.

Dems are also terrible at messaging and framing issues. They failed miserably with health care. Messaging for financial reform (the new bank tax and the regulation bill) should be very easy. Whether accurate or not, it's easy to say "We Democrats want the banks who caused the crisis to pay for it, and we want to ensure it never happens again. The Republicans want the taxpayers to pay for the crisis, and don't want to do anything to prevent future crises". Should be extraordinarily simple and easy. We'll see what they do with it.

All that said, I'm not so worried about the 2010 elections just yet. This year has much more potential for Democrats if the economy shows signs of recovery. Health care has been their boogeyman - that will be done with, and Dems can start talking about the good instead of the cost. Republicans did so well attacking the bill that they are now planning to run on repealing it, which is just going to overplay their hand and be a potential disaster. But most importantly, there's a disconnect here. The polls show Dems becoming less popular, and that's what keeps getting talked about. But unlike 1994, Republicans are even less popular - so the alternative just isn't there to coalesce around.

Tuesday's MA election will be interesting though. It will give us a little bit of just hit big an enthusiasm gap there is.

 

That may be, but they suck at governing.

 

I don't think we get to 8% anytime soon unless we have another and better stimulus bill pronto.

 

astute observation, one which i agree

 

So you agree the first one was fairly ineffective?

 

I don't think they are any better or worse. The democrats did alright at the last mid-terms when they took the majority from the republicans. It's probably always harder to win that fight when you control the branches of government and can be blamed for everything that goes wrong. The republicans had a big project that had difficulties (Iraq), and they got blamed. Now the democrats are feeling that with their own problematic project.

I think it is merely a problem of perception -- that the grass looks grenenr on the other side. When I see democratic posters say things like the republicans have dumber members so you can lie to them, but the democratic party is an honest, upstanding, discerning and intelligent body, I know there is a problem with perception.

 

I don't know if it's playing the game better so much as just treating it as a game period, as opposed to an important reality with huge consequences for real citizens.