In an apparent attempt to please the beltway punditocracy, Steny Hoyer has announced that he’ll soon be announcing a deficit reduction program, which, whatever its merits will be rejected by the Republicans. Apparently Hoyer believes that the American people will reward the Democrats for attempting to address the most critical issue facing the country, as that term is defined by the usual gang of idiots on the news channels and the newspaper columns. In this Hoyer will fail in twofold fashion. First, one can never satisfy the Pete Petersons and Tom Friedmans of the world, particularly if one is a Democrat. But the truly astonishing thing about this is Hoyer’s apparent tone deaf belief that this is an issue that really matters to the American people. Of course, if you ask most people they’ll tell you that they care about the deficit; but they really don’t. They know they should care about the deficit, because the need for such concern is constantly drummed into them, but when push comes to shove it’s a minor issue for most real people. What they really care about is jobs for their kids and sometimes for themselves, and social security and Medicare. These are issues ready made for the Democrats, but to speak up on them is to risk the wrath of the very serious people in Washington who feel that one proves ones seriousness by screwing everyone, except for them, of course. The fact that there solutions never work is beside the point.
Hoyer’s announcement tells us much about the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans use the punditocracy, but they never kowtow to it. How many of them, for instance, are making any effort to appear reasonable when it comes to taxing the rich?
This is of a piece with the Democrats total inability to craft a message. Their electoral strategy consists of passively reaping the benefits of Republican stupidity. See, e.g., the war on birth control. But that is not a winning long term strategy. Today a poll was released showing that 47% of the people in this country want the health care law repealed. And why not? All they hear is a steady drumbeat of criticism from the right and a deafening silence from the Democrats. Would people want it repealed if they knew what was in it? Unlikely. Will the Democrats make a concerted effort to let them know what’s in it, to be as aggressively in favor of the law as Republicans are against it? Need I ask?
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