Democrats, Own Up to Your Excellent Record!

Don't hide it under a bushel!

I try to identify politically as Independent, but I almost always vote with the Democrats. Like many people I have been frustrated with the Democrats' failure to come up with a strong winning message. It's good that they are known to be the party for the poor, and for minorities. That's a stance that I absolutely love, but Democrats also have a great record of success in handling the economy, and their leaders have neglected to remind the public of that.

During the last Presidential campaign, I was amazed at how seldom the Democrats ever mentioned their superior economic record. In fact I don't remember the candidates or Biden ever touting the excellent history of how the Democrats have overcome economic slides started by the Republicans. The worst recession in modern history was brought on by a Republican administration. I ask you: Who brought the country out of the recession? Democrats, under Obama! And earlier, Clinton had a great economic record.

Trump inherited a good economy from the Democrats and turned a bad pandemic into a much, much worse one by questioning medical science. If Trump had strongly urged our nation to follow recommendations, we would have had many fewer deaths with less mass confusion, and the economic slide would not have been nearly as serious. Biden inherited Trumps' mess. but he made a lot of progress in improving the economy which still continues from his good policies. Now Trump has essentially inherited Biden's progress.

In the last presidential campaign, Trump should have been soundly criticized for making matters worse with his anti science approach, which encouraged a lot of fake science and crazy conspiracy theories to flourish. Our country was set back tremendously by this ignorance. Why was there not more protest at the time to his anti-science approach? And especially, why was that not more aggressively addressed in the last election? Let's come along side of the public and expose ignorance as dangerous stupidity. Take the approach that of course most Americans admire science and technology and want the truth.

Democrats need to educate without being pedantic or condescending. Remind people of the facts in sound bites: "Democrats have the best record." "You want the facts. Here are the facts." "Democrats are the ones who have saved the economy!" "Obama got it done. Trump let it slide." "Biden stopped the slide. Trump is putting us on a steep cliff!" "Democrats come out on top every time!" "Democrats have the best record. Republicans just talk a lot."

Democrats, one approach to educating the public is to compare the economy to a large ship, which changes course slowly. It took Obama a while to turn the ship around following a Republican President, but he did so very successfully. Compare Obama's second term approach to that of the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, who advocated letting General Motors take a big hit. That would have been disastrous for the country. Cities all over the country would have been seriously affected and the economy would have tanked. Obama supposedly "bailed GM out," but it was really just a huge loan which worked out beautifully. GM survived and paid the government back in a year! Thus, a worsening of the economy was soundly avoided, with huge gains following!

It took Trump a while to spoil Obama's progress, then slowly he started turning the economic ship in the wrong direction. Yes, he had to deal with the pandemic, but he could have kept that bad turn from being nearly as bad as it was, if he had actively got behind the science and strongly supported our medical leaders. Now, he is again putting our nation in a dangerous position for our future with this same anti-science attitude, not only with medical science, but also with his suspicion of climate change. Our climate is going to get much more extreme, and Trump is going to make our country's situation much worse, by not supporting the latest scientific evidence. We are going to end up losing more lives with more wild fires, more floods, and more drought. We need leaders to protest his anti-science approach. Make him look ignorant, with the focus that "of course you don't agree with his ignorance. We know that most Americans want to preserve our national forests, our beautiful beaches and other historical sites." Don't identify or group your audience with Trump.

Democrats need some talented slogan creators. We need ideas to bring hope for an exciting positive future, while consistently reminding the public of the great success Democrats have had with the economy in the past. Give the history in sound bites, but do remind them often that Democrats have history on their side when it comes to the economy. Make fun of Trumps' economic approach. Emphasize the foolishness of firing thousands of excellent employees with no evaluation! Is there anyone who really thinks that is the best way to make something more efficient? No one would go for that! Furthermore, as I already stated, an anti-science attitude is just going to make our natural disasters much worse and more often. Climate change is happening. We must face it with good policies to prevent worse disasters.

Of course, there are many other important talking points, such as Trump's authoritarian excesses. as well as Trump’s efforts to balance the budget on the backs of poor and needy children and adults, while the wealthy get the tax breaks. Furthermore, if people want this to be a Christian country, let's start with the teachings of Jesus to love your neighbor as yourself and care for the stranger. That would include our neighbors around the world and the good immigrants who want to come legally and help us become a stronger nation. Let's get a positive message of the sound history of Democratic leadership and an even more positive future from the leadership of people who care!