[Paleopsych] politics

[Michael Christopher]

>>I worry that the Democrats don't really understand
their opponents' psyche, which is rather ruthless.<<

--I think by now Democrats are quite aware of what the
Republican machine can do. The problem is, negative
tactics don't work as well for Democrats as they do
for Republicans, at least not during this cycle. The
Swiftvets attack gave Bush an advantage with veterans,
but similar attacks against Bush's National Guard
service did nothing to help Democrats.

Too many Democrats, embarrassed at being caught off
guard in what they thought would be a campaign about
issues rather than image, have assumed they can simply
use Republican tactics against Republicans. They
can't. Democrats have to take the moral high ground
while forcefully addressing attacks against them. If
they take the low ground to match the Republican tone,
it backfires. In any campaign cycle, one party has an
unfair advantage when it comes to mudslinging, one
party has the teflon coating which allows it to use
unethical tactics while retaining a veneer of
"integrity" in the public imagination. In this cycle,
that party is the Republicans. Democrats have to
recognize that reality, or they'll likely lose again.
The only way to beat Bush is to provoke the people
behind him to launch unfair attacks and then have the
media team in place to answer those attacks in a way
which puts the Democrats on the moral high ground. If
Democrats, including those "in the trenches" and not
connected to the Kerry campaign, sink to the lows the
Republicans have established, it will backfire against
Kerry and give us four more years of Republican
bullying disguised as Christian "honor and integrity".

It's not fair, but it's the reality. You can't beat a
bully by imitating his tactics. You have to expose the
bully for what he is, and that doesn't work if you
enable him to paint you as a bully first. 

Michael




	
		
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