New Democratic Strategy: Turn The Tea Partiers Against Republicans

by John Hawkins | January 26, 2010 12:31 pm

After yelling “Bush, Cheney, Palin, Tea Parties” as loud as they could in Massachusetts and not getting anywhere, the Democrats have a new tactic: they’re going to try to kill the Tea Party support for Republicans.

How, pray tell, you may be wondering are they going to do that? By lowering spending and the growth of government so much that Republicans won’t be able to keep up? Ha, ha, ha — no, of course not! That’s crazy talk! Instead, they’re going to try to get into debates about the 10th Amendment and the creation of social security and [1]…

“Given the pressure Republican candidates feel from the extreme right in their party, there is a critical – yet time-sensitive – opportunity for Democratic candidates,” the DSCC writes. “We have a finite window when Republicans candidates will feel susceptible to the extremists in their party. Given the urgent nature of this dynamic, we suggest an aggressive effort to get your opponents on the record.”

The memo urges Democratic candidates to force their opponents to answer a series of questions on health care, taxes and some of the favorite causes of the far right:

“Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen? Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards? Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place? Do you think President Obama is a socialist? Do you think America should return to a gold standard?”

If a Republican candidate says no to any of the questions, the memo says Democrats should “make their primary opponent or conservative activists know it. This will cause them to take heat from their primary opponents and could likely provoke a flip-flop, as it already has several times with Mark Kirk in Illinois.”

The assumption they’re going on here seems to be that the Tea Party crowd is mostly made up of hard core Libertarians and Ron Paul fans, who’re going to get huffy if the Republican candidate doesn’t wax nostalgic about the gold standard and how Social Security is illegal.

While there are certainly a few people like that in the Tea Party movement, from my experience the movement is overwhelmingly made up of conservatives who are furious over deficit spending and: the enormous growth of government under Barack Obama. It’s understandable that Democrats might want to drag the campaign into the weeds instead of talking about how they’ve governed since Barack Obama was elected, but this is really thin gruel that they’ve come up with.

PS: Here are some basic answers to all these questions for Republican candidates:

Do you believe that Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen? Yes, he was born in Hawaii.

Do you think the 10th Amendment bars Congress from issuing regulations like minimum health care coverage standards? Yes, forcing people to buy health insurance is a clear violation of the 10th Amendment. If my opponent thinks it should be legal to force people to buy their own health insurance, then what other products does he believe Congress can force people to buy?

Do you think programs like Social Security and Medicare represent socialism and should never have been created in the first place? Both programs were well intentioned attempts to take care of the American people when they’re at their most vulnerable. It’s too bad that mismanagement in Washington has put both programs at risk and is threatening our country’s financial future.

Do you think President Obama is a socialist? He’s taking over banks, taking over car companies, trying to take over health care, spending money we can’t afford — if that’s not socialism, it’s a pretty good imitation of it.

Do you think America should return to a gold standard? No, but I think we need to get a handle on this out-of-control spending in Washington to protect our children’s futures.

Endnotes:
  1. debates about the 10th Amendment and the creation of social security and : http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31991.html#ixzz0dhjZOuhE

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