I love and admire Michelle Obama but I can't agree with her in the Age of Trump
And looking back , I think it was a mistake of President Obama to not go more strongly against Mitch McConnell especially when he Mitch would not join the bipartisan to highlight the meddling in the 2016 campaign
1
The Republican Party has devolved into a party of fanatics. When I watch old black+white serials from the 1930s in Europe, Latin America in the 1970s and the type of rallies you see in trouble spots and despots around the world today, you cannot avoid the similarities they possess to political tactics used by the right. It is all anger, war against "them" and the "sanctity" of "us" (although an objective read would say that they don't even follow their own rules of "decency").
The real world is. It does not care about "truths". For some time, one can ignore the problems but, in the end, the weight of reality wins. But often, by then, it will be too late; the destruction will have become long-term and will require generational change. This is what happened before and during WWII. It is what is happening in the Middle East. It is what is happening in Latin America.
1
Going low is very effective. If they are waterboarding, obviously what you need to do is counter with thumbscrews. We can't afford to lose a race to the bottom. Or maybe that's not exactly what Holder means, and the press is distorting it to make it a "better" story.
1
Thank You Mr Holder. YES. At some point (right now) you HAVE TO fight fire with fire. Reasonable and preferable behavior can and will return once truth and facts are restored. We democrats & indies will see to it. Or the fighters of truth justice & democracy will throw you out too.
Back to the Future Mid Terms 2018!
2
Before Democrats knock the high road, they should try it. We need a strong voice, fighting for the American public, that resonates with the deepest human and American values. Any number of American heroes have done that and still do. Barbarism will fall not to more barbarism but to a full-throated assault with the truth — and policies that actually serve the populace, not just the powerful. What we don't need is more milquetoast and hypocrisy. That's what the Party needs to give up. Not the high road.
1
Democrats: Please start using the Republicans' words against them. "You lie!" would be a good start.
7
What delusional world are you living in to say democrats or liberals are taking the high ground?! In what? Your paper alone has spent the last two years bashing Trump every minute. Michael Avenatti?! About as large a low life as you can find. And, have you listened to Maxine Waters recently? Liberals and Democrats, including your beloved Michelle Obama, have made a living on dividing this country. That is about as low as it gets.
4
As #Socrates said, Rs have played a detailed strategy for decades, funded by billionaires for both ideology and profit: "think tanks," law schools & econ depts to indoctrinate. They mastered messaging & ruthless exploitation of voter fears & anger. Good governance is gone.
Dems: do the same using the high road. Jennifer Rubin's recent column has 4 great suggestions for Dems to demonstrate what good governance looks like. Every election, people hope for "change," then are disappointed. I have to believe that most of us want fair, good governance. Get messaging on track! Identify what the majority of Americans need for opportunity & financial stability: high-quality public education for all; at least 2 years of affordable college for all; affordable health care for all, addressing both access & high health care costs; infrastructure to underpin economic development; help when jobs are lost due to tech & global changes; appropriate regulation to reign in economic predators.
Learn to make economic arguments. Conservatives are compassionate, but not as compassionate as liberals (Haidt) & usually only for their tribe. Appeals based on compassion only or for an unknown "other" go nowhere; that's preaching to the choir. Also appeal to wallets & self-interest. Exs: fight climate change AND put money into your pocket, using market forces via carbon tax and dividend. People can start new bizs if health care coverage is automatic.
Strategy; message; meet needs; good governance.
1
What we need to do is stop responding to the ignorant bullies and ignore them. Democrats need to focus instead on attaining excellence by addressing the issues that affect all citizens of this country. Not by complaining about their lack of civility, ethics, integrity, and immorality. That's a waste of time. Yes, go high, very high, and leave them behind at the bottom. Go out and vote. Never give up.
1
Vote and help others register to vote safely, help them get to the polls safely, help them get home safely.
And consider making voting mandatory.
Matt, if there was no Trump on the horizon, maybe the Democrats could still go on with their age old political dictum and sober decorum.
But with the arrival of Trump, a horrendously low level attack dog and a political bully who minces no words to describe his opponents, the Democrats should stop being so nice to the Republicans who turned their party of Lincoln into a party of horrors.
In fact the Democrats should go on the attack mode just like our former AG or Michael Avenatti or Joe Biden has said in different rallies and fund raisers, "Kick them" and "Hit back harder" or Biden's "Take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him."
We the Democrats have to know that by not saying the above words before got us a Russian puppet in the White House and a thoroughly racist and misogynist,anti-Gay, anti-Muslim party ruling both the chambers of congress.
We all know since last 2 years of Trump's presidency that the Republicans will not call out Trump's criminal acts.
They're in fact joining hands with their fire gurgling chief executive siting in the highest office of the country with clear signs of Russian intervention in his election.
They're repeating Trump's words for Dems,"Mob".
That's why we the Dems have to abandon our age old mantra "If they go low, we go higher".
We should rather repeat Eric Holder's bold words,"When they go low, we kick them."
Now that's what I call progress for a party who lost more than 6,000 elections all over the country since 2010.
Well, at least if the Democrats try to out-low the Republicans (which I doubt they are capable of,) the press will cover it.
The Democrats plan for health care, climate change, education, social security, immigration - that's what ought to be front page news every day. And yes, they do actually have a plan, it's just that you never see it in the paper. Going high doesn't work if the press won't cover it. The Democrats have been trying to bring immigration reform to a fight about who hates foreigners the most. You can't win that by going low, but when the press pretends you didn't even show up, you can't win it by going anywhere else, either.
1
Liberals, leftists and socialists can kick and scream all they want. They do not represent the majority of Americans.
4
Michelle Obama was right. The only thing that anger creates is more anger and destruction. No matter how appealing it seems in the moment, it is never the answer, ever. The demons unleashed by Republicans and their anger storms bring harm to themselves first and foremost, and those opposed to those values show strength not by emulating them, but by countering them with truth and morality. Never, ever, get into the mosh pit; that is where they want you to be, in the mud with them.
1
"Low-High" like "turn the other cheek" is admirable but unworkable, and the results, all too predictable. Plus, it encourages bullies, excites sadists, and thrills voyeurs.
Retaliation requires giving up a sense of superiority while in the ER with broken teeth and ribs, and no healthcare. As they say, it's a Big Ask.
1
Given the research on what makes Republicans who they are (they have a larger amygdala and are more likely to have fears which direct their actions) regardless of what the Democrats do they should first address the tendency for conservatives to be afraid. Make them realize they are actually safe, and will be safe. Then talk about whatever. But if you don't address their fears it does't matter what altitude your response.
3
I hate it when political mouthpieces who think they know-it-all gives their analysis of the average citizen of this country I think Amanda Litman hangs around with the wrong people. I've been angry for a number of years and not only am I still productive, so are my angry friends. Evil requires vigilance.
2
Just hold up a minute.... The DNC hasn't gone high. It's lowered the bar so far below the norm that Donald Trump is looking good. Been that way for two solid years and gets progressively (pun intended) worse day by day.
I stated this after Trump won, all the Democrats had to do was be the "adults" in the room for the next year and a half and they'd win hands down.. but no.. no they couldn't do that. Now they've given the Republicans a fighting chance at holding the senate and congress when statistically speaking they should have had no chance..
Go high.. pfft.. no one listened to Michelle at all..
5
Democrats should consider reason and faith over emotion and instant gratification. This may take some patience and self control, but it can be done. If the message is shrill and hypocritical people aren't going to buy it. The Democrats need to get back to basics.
2
It sure sells newspapers. It doesn't undo gerrymandering. It rarely helps a flawed marriage. Standing up for what is right is done a disservice by calling it "fighting." It's taking a stand.
2
As Chicago's 1st black mayor, Harold Washington, once reminded us: "Politics ain't beanbag."
Here in the heartland, we're working on "going high" in the battle to turn Illinois's 6th District blue with the election of a scientist and successful businessman - Sean Casten - over his opponent, Republican Peter Roskam, who hasn't held a town hall in 3000+ days and has voted 94% in lockstep with DJT.
It also helps that Roskam is one of the prime architects of the Trump tax plan that will increase the taxes of many of my neighbors in IL-06 by as much as $4K in April - mainly because SALT has been eliminated and IL-06 is one of the wealthiest districts in our state.
We're using these facts to hammer home those messages every day with home-grown activism (30K volunteers!). In the meantime, Roskam has at least 4X more $$$ in the race because several superPACs have signed on to support his failed incumbency.
We're still up 5+ points in the polls. (If only election day was April 30th instead of November 6th, we'd be up by +20.)
So it can be done, without violence ... but not without passion, consistency, and a clear message to the voters.
2
In theory I am fine with Dems going low. But there's just one problem: we are no good at it. Exhibit A: the Kavanaugh debacle.
1
With all the vile and angry liberal attacks on the mental health of Kanye West I’m rather perplexed why the extensive list of mental health diagnoses claimed by Dr. Ford were not maliciously maligned by the media.
Hypocrisy or just plain bias against a person’s color?
1
After observing the comings and goings of the past couple of years, I would suggest that we align ourselves with the teachings of Saint Jude, also known as the Patron Saint of Lost Caused.
Enough is enough. What we have embraced, seems not to have been enough. We need all the help we can get. May the Lord be with us.
I dunno. Perhaps if we could snap Kanye West back to reality, maybe Kanye would have an epiphany—and be the “one-and-only person” who might and could refute some of The Donald’s rhetoric by “going low” with the previous force of the “Ye” musical/word-styling skills. Given the fact The Donald seems to hold Kanye in such high esteem (at least when The Donald thinks it may in fact be useful to him), The Donald might actually listen to the “Ye” epiphanies for a minute as he appeared to do when he seemed nonplussed (as were many of us) throughout Kanye’s last performance during their recent luncheon. But Kanye would definitely have to take off that MAGA hat, and I think he won’t do it because Kanye/Ye too much likes feeling like Superman.
I hope the Democrat leaders keep going low. It will only get Trump re-elected.
4
He Democrats are certainly acting low this, embarrassingly even more uncivil and dirty politics than Republicans. Shame on all of them. Let's hope for civil discourse and mutual respect to return. I know you're already thinking, "but, but the Republicans...." Let's try to have mutual listening, starting with ourselves.
3
Have you ever tried talking to a Trumpster?
1
Whence the notion that Michelle Obama wanted to "go high when "they went low?" Did not Michelle Obama say, offensive to many who had fought for this country,lost their limbs and often lives, that the first time she was proud of America was when her husband was nominated for the presidency in 2008? Say what? Those with good memories will remember Eric Holder when he was deputy to Janet Reno in 1993, ag, and urged FBI agents and those from ATF to storm the compound in Waco when hostage negotiators were on the verge of a breakthrough with Koresh and his followers.The showdown, unnecessary since David Koresh was willing to reach a compromise, resulted in the loss of lives of 23 children.Did tragic events at Waco led to Oklahoma City outrage? 1 of the onlookers at the "epreuve de force" at Waco was Timothy Mcveigh.Did the carnage in the Koresh compound lead to Okla. City "strounga?"One wonders!
3
Everybody knows that Trump caters only to his hardcore supporters, and it has been predicted many times that this failure to enlarge his base will eventually sink him. But he’s so lucky - he has nothing but inept opponents. So now the Democrats essentially want to run with the slogan: “we’re just as low as Trump, but we make up for it by being arrogant and righteous”.
No doubt, this will work wonders with independents.
1
Righteous indignation cannot be expressed passively. The Republicans are liars and cheaters. They stole the supreme court. They support an obscenity in the Whitehouse. They have used race baiting tactics to serve their wealthy donors. This battle is for all the marbles and democrats are losing. The moral high ground often resembles a game of king on the hill. You get muddy, dirty and may lose a tooth and get bloodied but you fight and wrestle for the top spot.
Democrats have relied on reason without involving the heart. That is a losing proposition. It is a weak showing. There is no dignity in losing.
You can be a good person and show righteous indignation. It is false to believe you can do politics without allowing your morality it's natural outlet.
Anger at lies, base hypocrisy, and cheating is true, moral and pure.
Get over the hand-wringing. No one respects a coward.
The Republicans took their gloves off long ago. To stand in the ring with padded gloves while your opponent wields brass knuckles is simple folly.
Attack. Hit and win!
8
I agree when your opponent has an ounce of dignity, and fights to agreed upon rules. Say between the Axis and Allies in WW2. But what we’ve got now is the dems being the Allies and the reps acting like a terrorist regime. Should we behave like them to beat them? I’d rather we maintain some decency and respect for this countries institutions even if it means losing elections. Otherwise who do we become?
I think we can win and remain civil. It requires a leader that everyone can get behind. We’re a great nation without great leader. We need our Lincoln to get us out of this Back to the Future part 3.
@tom Agreed: but we can still go high using facts about opponents and stoke some righteous indignation that a WWE TV star / moron is "running" the country. C'mon, Pence and the other authors of the anonymous op-ed are really keeping DJT from destroying the institutions we need to keep the country running.
That doesn't mean we can't be passionate, multi-issue voters, either. Assault with facts - they're much more effective than a 2x4 - and attack, repeat, attack.
"Strike at the heart of your enemy! Wade into them! Rally to me." - MacArthur
1
One danger in going low is that stoking rage can affect how we relate to each other: people in our own party, our families, our friends, our communities. If we let ourselves speak abusively to political opponents, then hostility may become more and more instinctive, and we may easily lose our way when dealing with personal conflicts. And our partnerships and alliances might fracture.
3
I love Beto's "high" approach, but he is going SO high that, at least in his TV ads, at least in this market, he is not even mentioning Cruz. Cruz has a record that could at least be pointed out, e.g. his efforts to dismantle the ACA, people with pre-existing conditions be damned. There is so much to go after, and it could be done in a matter-of-fact, relatively nice way, unlike Cruz' hilarious, cartoonish depictions of Beto --- encouraging immigrants to rush into this country at will, wanting sky-high taxes, with the ominous background music and fiendish-looking pictures of Beto.
3
In 1776, representatives of various American colonies gathered in Philadelphia and produced a document that took the high road and explained to the world why they were and ought to be independent of Britain. Should they have left it at that? In the end, high-minded words were not sufficient.
Now despite what I'm reading from some of the pearl-clutchers here, nobody in any position of responsibility is advocating physical violence, at least not on the Democrats' side; the Republicans are another matter. The kicks that are to be delivered are strictly metaphorical, would the term "verbal spanking" suit you better?
1
I always though the whole "when they go low we go high" thing was a mistake. Sadly, "going high" doesn't work.
We lost a great Senator, Al Franken, going high. I'm angry about that even today.
4
Attack their VOTING records. Call out the lies and deceptions. This is not going low this is just stating the facts. I worked on the Elizabeth Warren campaign in 2012. Scott Brown campaigned as the "every man" traveling around the state in his farm truck, leaving the BMW parked in the garage at home. Not mentioning he owned a home worth about 900K, nor mentioning that he also had a summer residence on Lake Winnipesaukee, a rather exclusive lake to summer at. He referred to Elizabeth Warren as Fauxchahontus, a slur to all Native Americans. Warren didn't descend into gutter politics and mudslinging but she relentlessly attacked his voting record. He whined like a little baby. How dare she point out to potential voters his disastrous short stint in Washington where he voted lockstep with mcconnell instead of in lockstep for the constituents he was there to represent. She crushed him winning by almost 8%. And he was the incumbent.
Attack their voting records. Hammer home the fact that ted cruz voted time and again to take away access to affordable healthcare and wants to repeal healthcare laws that protect affordable coverage for health concerns like pre-existing conditions, prohibits lifetime/yearly caps, sided with polluting industries, voted for the tax cut that has exploded the debt at a breath taking rate and only benefits the wealthy. Is intent on cutting or actually destroying Medicare and Social Security. No lying necessary. The voting records speak for themselves.
4
Democrats also need to pound home on just who is benefiting from government largess. The red states far more than the blues, to start with. Corporations are the real "welfare queens." And the "libertarian" west wouldn't exist at all without more than a hundred years of massive public investment in land grants and water projects and other infrastructure. (Not to mention army-assisted genocide and appropriation.)
There should be "Paid for by the federal government" and "Paid for by your tax dollars" signs *everywhere* to counter right-wing misinformation and propaganda.
2
The important thing is to win. It's well past the time for the Democratic Party to bring a gun to the knife fight. We need to oppose EVERYTHING Trump and the Republicans want or propose regardless of its merit. Forget morality, forget fairness, forget decorum or civility. Cut their brake lines, loosen the bannisters, this is war.
@BigDaddy86 That's what's been done since the last election... and it's not working. Its making Republicans look good and progressives look like they have all gone bat (censored) crazy.
But hey.. Carry on, and when you don't take the house or the senate in November, go take a good hard look in the mirror and ask why. It won't be Republicans fault and while you may want to blame Trump... he's not the one you should be looking at either.
I personally can't stand partisan politics. Political parties are not sports teams. Vote on policy not red/blue and in the end America will be much better for it.
2
Go high in spirit, go tough and confrontational on tactics. It is necessary to counter the old rhetoric that dresses corporate and big money interest as Interest of all Americans. It is necessary to counter the conventional view that corporate and big money are the saviors of our times and government is the problem. It is necessary to promote the idea that we the people are the the real contributors of the achievements and should be rightfully recognized and compensated and that government, big or small, is just means to serve this purpose. At last, it is necessary to remind people how conveniently republicans forgot about their fiscal discipline when they pass the tax cut to corporations and the wealthy. This president and his party take credits when they can but never own their mistakes. This group of leaders, if stay in power, will lead to America to its eventual decline. Ask yourself, do you want the future generations recount the history as “Once upon a time, America was a great country. It was brought to its knees by a irresponsible President and his self-serving party”? If so, go ahead, vote republican.
1
The ends are inevitably a result of the means, and how we go about things matters. Fight Trump with Trump and one becomes another Trump. Philosophy yes, but these truisms can be historically verified, the revolutionaries become the oppressors (not that Dems are revolutionary but you get the idea). Yet, that does not mean aggressive action and anger have no place, but that its use must be sharp, purposeful, and underlain with a larger purpose.
1
"Kick 'em" is just part of the resistance movement language that Dems are running on for the midterms because they have nothing to add. Democrat leaders have no platform and no new ideas. It looks like they got together and said "Let's just say we'll do the opposite of what the Republicans do. And then we'll add some football-like motivational talk to get people motivated for the elections." What else are they going to say?
2
The opinion shifts seem more subliminal than rational. We are currently experiencing a a pro-Trump moment based on white folks identifying more with Kavanaugh than with his accusers. It's a political Rorschach test: you see what you want to see. Not a very satisfactory way to run a democracy.
1
Holder's comment is like the nuclear counterstrike policy we used against the Soviets. We never had to act on it then, but Democrats don't have the power to counterstrike effectively now. Democrats need better strategic weaponry.
Since when did bullies stop bullying because you asked them nicely? Since when did bullies respect good manners? Since when did standing up to a bully actually work, without threat of dirty tactics or force?
Just sayin', folks. Michelle O.'s sentiments are admirable, in a world mostly populated by saints. In this down and dirty real world, though, the Democratic "saints" we hold as exemplars were gunned down by right wingers. Let's not allow that to happen again. In our real world, Gandhi and MLK were assassinated. We can't afford to believe that playing nice will yield the result we want: Power.
6
“When they go low, we kick them”.
I have no problem with this sentiment. Try to honestly work with the Republicans, but if they choose to go low, kick them really, really hard. Never start fights, but do decisively finish them. Democrats have tried the roll over and play dead strategy, how well has that worked? It's time to try something else.
2
The left had better tread carefully when it comes to going low. Vituperative assaults on the president, however warranted, do not win elections. Now on the debate podium in 2020, I might suggest going a bit low if the candidate can pull it off. But not everywhere else!
7
The phrase "when they go low, we go high" is inherently problematic.
The issue with the Democratic party is in its assertion of a moral high ground. People are beginning to attach their political ideology to their moral fortitude. Being a Democrat doesn't make you a "better" person than being a Republican. For example, being "pro-choice" just means your "pro-choice." It doesn't mean you're less likely to cheat on your spouse than someone who is "pro-life." Everybody is susceptible to making poor choices. There is no party of the righteous.
Most American voters are not that naive that they think every Democratic candidate is a "good" person simply because he/she is a Democrat. If this election has taught us anything, it's that there are enough people in this country who will vote for you regardless of your character.
If you want to win the election, convince your voters that the policies, not the man in the chair, aren't helpful. Explain to middle-class white Americans why building a wall doesn't improve their lives other than just saying it's wrong.
Use logic, explain complex concepts in terms that middle-schoolers can understand. Sure, that's more difficult than name calling, but it's the way Democrats will win. Most politicians are highly educated. Breaking down concepts and explaining policies is task they have been trained to do. Let's get back to that.
15
People will not get it in the long haul. The Republicans have been playing dirty since before Clinton. The high road is the road to nowhere. Adlai Stevenson should have taught us that. Democrats need to grind Republicans to dust. Fortunately, we can do it with the truth.
22
Trump has said the most vile, despicable things about Democrats since he infamous trip down the escalator at his tower to announce his candidacy. He advanced his brand by being boorish, ignorant, blatantly mendacious, and just plain stupid. Democrats need to let him have it double-barrel. He has been treated with kid gloves to date. Time to leave him bloodied and emotionally feeble. He so deserves a potent reckoning — now more than ever, and relentlessly.
16
When Michelle Obama originally said her signature phrase, my first thought was that is should be "When they go low, we go lower". There is no way that taking the moral highground will work with these criminals. Democrats need to take a bazooka to the knife fight.
12
There is an enormous difference between the words "fierce" and "violent". There are many of our leaders calling for physical confrontation. Eric Holder “When they go low, we kick them." Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi "I just don't even know why there aren't uprisings all over the country.” New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker “get up in the face of some congresspeople.” Hillary Clinton : “You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about.”
And then of course, there is the openly left wing group Antifa which promotes and practices outright violence. If this is the overall strategy of the Democratic Party in some mad effort to show "strength" to the base, and by all accounts it would appear to be just that, than the inevitable results will be catastrophic.
9
@NYer - Catastrophic, or revolutionary?
1
President Trump has truly tapped into the suppressed anger that (apparently) many Americans have been enduring for years. Maybe it's time for our county to reconsider many of the policies (USUALLY liberal) that might have been instituted. President Trump is speaking with the anger many of his supporters feel.
6
it's not about going low or high to fight Trump and other Republicans. it's about effectively calling them out for all their lies, their duplicity, and their contempt for any American that is not in the top 1%.
11
This is not the real problem Democrats face.
The real problem is that Democrats think that negotiations begin with compromise (only by Democrats) and that the whole point of negotiations is to give away everything with nothing in return. Surrender is not a strategy!
Republicans understand that the point of negotiating is to make the other side compromise and to give up as little as possible while getting the other side to give up a much as possible.
The fact that they are willing to lie, cheat and steal Supreme Court Seats, is secondary to this basic misunderstanding of how two party politics is supposed to work.
Here is what a political party is actually supposed to do.
1. Define you values and principles.
2. Formulate policies that will put your values and principles into practice.
3. Explain clearly and passionately to anyone who will listen why your values are important and how your policies will make them reality. This should be done before, after, during, and between elections.
4. Build a strong coalition of people who support these policies and (instead of asking them for $3 everyday) ask them to go out and spread your message. People that work on issues don't miss elections (unless neither party fights for those issues.)
5. Win elections. If you lose, prepare to protect policies that are important from attack.
6. By building powerful coalitions (for example winning the support of the 60% of the population that works for a living) force compromise by THEM.
8
Holder and Clinton have no political program beyond anti-Trumpism, and now think going Vince McMahon will win elections. Defending pre-existing health coverage is the official national focus of the establishment Democrats—totally out of touch with the lives of the two thirds of the population with no more than one month’s expenses in savings. Trump doesn’t have a program either, but his message of racism, sexism, right-wing Christianity, and authoritarianism is a superpower for 40% of the American people. Until we have a Left determined to defend democracy by transferring wealth from the 1 percenters to the people through taxing the banks and corporations and spending the money on social services and infrastructure, Trump will not just retain power, he’ll consolidate it.
7
I want the 2020 ticket to be Amy Klobuchar and Kamala Harris.
They're both brilliant and engaging and without any taint of corruption.
What I also like is that neither one has taken on the "fighter" persona of anger, belligerence, shouting and acting 'tough.'
But both were once successful prosecutors and are outstanding at not suffering fools (Brett Kavanaugh...) and getting their point across.
Klobuchar in particular has a calm, soft-spoken strength and intelligence that is in strong contrast to Trump's horrible macho bellowing - and it's more likely to be palatable in the long run than the 'fighting persona" antics of Biden, Warren, Booker, Avenatti and others. We're going to get enough shouting, anger, threats and belligerence from Donald Trump. I'd like to have some civility and reason.
Kamala Harris seems to be the rare person who can convey passion without being loud or appearing angry. That's why I want her on a ticket with Amy Klobuchar.
I don't think I'm the only person who is sick to death of Trump's loudmouth ranting, lies, insults, preening and overall strategy of turning everything into WAR. WAR all the time is the GOP playbook and I believe by the time we're done with the 2020 campaign, if folks don't have an intelligent, reasonable, decent, honest relatable human being to vote for who isn't shouting in their faces, they're going to stay home and not vote.
Klobuchar/Harris in 2020.
Because the stupidity, rage and incivility has to stop.
11
That would be a great ticket.
It would be a land slide of historic proportions, not a contest at all.
but after that trouncing, how would Democrats recover on time for 2024?
3
Being strong and effective doesn't mean lying and behaving badly. Going high does not mean you cannot be angry. It means you need to be honest, in the long haul people will get it. We need brave folk with a conscience to stand up and run for office. People that put country and community first. Lots of people are getting tired of the hate and lies and the plain ugliness of discourse today. We can do better, each and every one of us. We can encourage differences of opinion and engage with people that disagree with us. When they go low, let them do that, we don't have to grovel in the slime with them. Stand up calmly and tell the truth.
4
No, if the Democrats want to win the Senate and the House, they need Independents-Republicans. Mr. Trump is the jujitsu expert in the lies and manipulations of hardball politics. If Democrat national leaders go low, Trump will blow it right back in their faces and the Democrats will be left with their electoral base and another defeat.
5
@Jim Tokuhisa I beg to disagree.
Democrats need to get fired up and stay fired up.
They must argue and debate each other and Republicans.
I suggest Jay Heinrich's book: "Thank You for Arguing",
and his blog: www.ArgueLab.com
Trump dominates the daily media with arguments.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Democrats must learn from Trump to stay alive!
3
It is grimly ironic that it’s the white working class, which Joe Biden refuses to abandon, that elected Trump as their champion. This is the man that bilked working class people out of fortunes for work contracted but never paid for. It is Trump who defends the same people who offend the working class, exploiting them at every turn by destroying organised labour and general dereliction of employment conditions. To Democrats’ shame, they allowed the betrayal of the working class by supporting what are widely viewed as effete liberal causes at the cost of nuts and bolts loyalty to its wage enslaved base, something which cannot be reconciled by the average American proletarian. As a result, the working class is vanquished to make stark, desperate, choices between someone who traditionally rips them off and someone who untraditionally allows it.
All credit to Biden that he still identifies with the American worker, and we can only hope he steers the ship of party to his and her distress call.
4
I hope Michelle Obama might consider an accompanying rally for Beto O’Rourke-SAME night/SAME time as Trump’s ugly rally will be in Texas for Senator Cruz.
4
Me too! She would draw a larger crowd for sure.
Cruz is 8 to 10 points up over Paddy O'Rourke.
Watching her campaign for a losing ticket might not be what the DNC has in mind for her.
In fact anywhere she goes GOP can say, a vote for that blue candidate is a vote for Obama, and that campaign is dead.
2
If someone is trying to kill you, destroy public education, collude with foreign adversaries to over throw the United States, and appont life time judges who will rule against the rights of minorities and women, it's not the right time to turn the other cheek.
Democrats don't have a long term strategy. Democrats refuse to get rid of rich old deadwood with tin ears like Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer. Republicans are master minded by brilliant scientists like the Kochs and Mercers, with bit players like Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Don Trump, Sr., (etc), and wimpy Paul Ryan. Democrats run wimps like Beto O'Rourke who thinks that just being nice in TX will beat meany Ted Cruz (and watching Cruz beat him by 10 percentage points today!). Democrats are in the fight of their lives for the future of their country and the earth, and they are still brining cookies and ice cream to a nuclear battle.
In the meantime, the entire news industry is at risk of being controlled by right wing oligarchs. Saudi Arabia, with Jared Kushner's complicity, just killed a Saudi journalist in the Saudi Embassy/ Trump knew about the prospect and did not warn the journalist.
Michelle should stick to school lunches. She's a lawyer, not a strategist. Democrats need a 2- year strategy, new leadership, and strong young leaders who understand that we are in the fight to preserve the earth as well as American democracy.
15
@San Francisco Voter, Wonderfully put. Thank you.
To start with, I think Democrats need symbols that they can use over and over, again, from now to the 2020 election.
1)They might try showing an inverted US flag of distress.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you state, American democracy is on the line
2) They might explore symbols of Trump's insanity.
---------------------------------------------------------------
For example, they might play with Trump's OK sign,
to suggest that he, Trump, is not OK.
3) I suggest that Democrats hold "idea contests"
to get new ideas for winning elections...
2
It’s all local, republicans have to be cast out everywhere by smart democratic decisions
2
The key sentence in this essay is the one about Obama's having to avoid vulnerability to the charge of being an angry Black man. But to codify his justifiable caution into a vow to always go high and hopeful is a huge error. Being afraid to throw a punch politically is the same as going to war without an army militarily. Of course, one should not throw low blows, as Trump constantly does, and thereby give up the moral high ground. But there is a middle ground: Although Trump couldn't answer back at the time, Obama's witty White House correspondents dinner dismantling of Trump is an example of how to deliver a knockout blow without ever throwing a low blow. A Democrat who can think fast enough to do that spontaneously, without help from joke writers, would be the ideal,likeable Democratic tough guy. He or she would be a perfect contrast to Trump. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any Democrat of substance who is that quick on his or her feet. Maybe the party can find and coach a convincing approximation.
4
No War But The Class War.
1
Time for Dems to "go smart." Figure out who can win and how to get the democratic agenda through - something that did not occur with the anointing of Hillary in 2016.
7
True to form: the Democrats are always supposed to take the high road despite the fact that the Republicans continually hit below the belt. Why shouldn't we be angry and vocal about the intransigence of Republicans and this administration. When Obama was elected they vowed, on day 1, that they would obstruct any and all of his initiatives. And, they did, including through his last year in office to refuse to even give Merrick Garland's nomination a fair hearing. And, what about the Tea Party and those noisy, angry "Republicans" who were supposedly so upset but, in reality, were the creation of conservative groups and donors but portrayed as voters who had "legitimate" grievances. Ugh: I am sick of mainstream news outlets that continue to write stories like this.
10
And let's not forget the "Brooks Brothers mob" that disrupted ballot counts in Florida back in 2000.
1
Toughness and civility can and must coexist. By going low in response to Trump’s debasement, we hand him a needless victory, sacrificing our souls to the craven image of a demagogue. We must lead by example: through strength, persistence and unwavering commitment to decency.
9
The last thing my party, the Democratic Party, needs is empty controversy that can be exploited by the screwball in the White House and his enablers. I hope it stops for the sake of our party and our future ability to claim seats in Congress.
2
The "we stay high" Democrats must be high indeed at this point. As the Trump gang pieces together a justice department, FBI, and Court willing to give broad leeway to policies that would make his obvious-enough desire to "lock up" opponents, and label all Democrats wild, radical mobs, Michelle Obama's advice has become yesterday's lace curtain etiquettes. Fight back or be squashed.
1
Speaking of not going low, of bringing a salad fork to a gun fight, there is this: "Former President Barack Obama could seem removed, ever mindful of the minefields underfoot for a black politician emitting fury." I really admire Obama: his brilliance, grace, felicity with the written word -- his fundamental decency. But there is one lingering question I have about his presidency -- a question brought into sharp and painful relief by the Kavanaugh debacle. Why, oh why, did Obama not fight tooth and nail -- go the mattresses -- against McConnell's democracy-destroying refusal to entertain the Merrick Garland nomination? Of all the damage Trump is doing, the longest-lasting will be the 5-4 reactionary majority on the Supreme Court. How could what McConnell did possibly be constitutional? "Advice and consent" means the duty to take action not to remain inert. Why didn't Obama, a professor of constitutional law, not mobilize every progressive lawyer in the land -- from Harvard's Lawrence Tribe on down -- to struggle against this, to devise legal and political strategies to seat Garland? Think of what it would have meant: a 5-4 liberal majority instead of its polar opposite, decades of progressive change instead decades of reactionary holding fast. I don't mean these as rhetorical questions. I'd really like to know what readers think about this.
28
Because the Dems thought that Hilary would win, that’s why they seemed to not push hard with Garland
5
@Barry Schreibman.
I have wondered the same thing.
@Barry Schreibman Some good points, but Obama was hamstrung after the 2010 House "shellacking" and hog-tied after the 2014 loss of the Senate. Stop blaming him, and start blaming the fools who thought he was the Second Coming in 08 and 12 but couldn't be bothered to show up for the midterms.
Now is the time to conduct ourselves with dignity. As Democrats, we should frame our most compelling issues, communicate them clearly and display what true leadership is. There is never an appropriate time to debase our opponents - leave that to Trump.
3
Should you collaborate with a non-collaborator? Game theory - for instance by exploring the Prisoner's Dilemma in a repeated interactions scenario - provides clear guidance for what to do those who "go low" and "defect from collaborating". 1) Don’t overlook “defection” – i.e. the lack of collaboration. In fact, impose a penalty in scope and kind every time it happens. Then – but only then – return to collaboration. 2) Bring the price for the non-collaborative behavior in the now. A vague penalty to be paid some time in the future is just not as effective a deterrent as a penalty paid in the now. 3.) Take the guess work out of it for the other party: Clearly signal expectations about what you expect in terms of collaborative practices. (This and more about the conditions that support the emergence of cooperation is explained at https://collaborative-coaching.com/to-collaborate-or-not-to-collaborate/ )
So it's neither quite Mrs. Obama's "they go low - we go high" or Mr. Holder's "they go low - we kick". It's - as the vernacular goes Tit for Tat.
5
Regardless of whether they go high, low, or somewhere in between, Democrats need to have an actual message to go with it. Simply being angry and bitter about Trump, and preaching identity politics will not cut it. Policies that focus on middle class issues like jobs, education, and healthcare are essential for Democrats to win. They can package those policies in whatever heated terms they want, but content is more important than rhetoric. Also, I think it's the height of hypocrisy for people like Holder and Hillary to pretend, up to now, they, like most Democrats, haven't also been down there in the mud and slime as well. One only need to watch a Democratic political ad on TV to see that they are just as mean and nasty as the Republicans.
16
Michelle Obama should continue to take the high road. However, other Democrats can afford to deliver bruising blows with the facts. To do that, Democrats may have to let go of some of their own hypocrisies.
3
How do you call someone a repugnant liar if you are also lying? Is getting down and dirty just more lying, cheating and stealing? Democrats have FACTS on their side, POLICIES to enhance lives and enough of a BASE to win IF they don't just play sleazy games but MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO VOTE.
1
Handing over your lunch money to the bully may keep you from being beaten up, but it doesn't stop the bully. Stand up to the bully, look him in the eye, challenge him, and expose his weakness to stop him in his tracks. You cannot shame a bully by pointing out that he did something wrong. A bully's followers don't care if he lies or hurts others. They see his trangresssions as signs of strength. They follow him because he makes them feel safe and strong. To separate the bully from his followers, you must expose his weakness, not his trangressions. If he seems weak in their eyes, they will not follow him.
Call it going high, going low, or anything else you want.
28
@kndtate,
Yes. You got it - of all the comments I have read on this article yours gets right to the heart of the matter with clarity. In the end, followers, especially those who are going along mainly because they don't see better options, won't peel away from Trump until his weakness and inauthenticity are exposed and _they_ can see it for themselves and come to that conclusion themselves.
President Macron from France did that so well from their very first meeting, exposing and making Trump look like the cretin he is - on the world stage.
Kamala Harris did that to Kavanaugh at the hearings, too, and literally made him squirm in his seat and stutter. She was fierce without ever raising her voice. She wasn't playing. We need more of that.
The answer is neither. Democrats need to lead the dialogue. Then let the Republicans choose to go high or low if they wish. This is what the last two winners did, WJClinton and Obama. They had a vision that didn't need any other party to participate in.
12
Democrats like Beto are offering hope with a dash of reality. He listens to voters unlike many politicians. He ignores the dog whistles and angry noise from Cruz and the GOP. Ignore their nonsense and address the needs of most Americans. I am as angry as any progressive but our anger will not sustain us. Anger and fear is the GOP game as they resist the changes that have and will come to our society. Sooner or later they will burn themselves out. Resistance offers no future just despair.
3
And...he’s running behind in the polls.
3
And why should we care about the political strategy of the likes of Eric Holder?
After all, he was the AG who decided that it would be a mistake to criminally prosecute Wall Street big banks and investment bankers who broke the law. "Great" for our nation, respect for laws, and the Dems political strategy! Most American want these character to have to fear criminal penalties. And this would increase compliance with the laws too!
8
Can the US afford a further Republican victory in the forthcoming mid terms
a bent narcissistic president .
A Republican senate that is as good as corrupt in effect .
.
.A Supreme Court and other judges appointed that are showing wilful intent in terms of their federal and state related decision making ..
rigged voting systems .gerrymandering , wilful obstruction to regular registration of voters etc etc etc ..
America ,you are not contesting as to whether there is a Republican or Democratic majority in power .....You are fighting for your freedom ,fairness to all in society and what so many former men and women gave their lives for belief and defence of the American system and principles ..
in war you must do what you have to do..!!
You want two more years of Trump arrogance and crazy rule ...??
6
I admire Michelle Obama's approach, but the reality is that it isn't working in the face of unscrupulous voting practices, mass propaganda, and outright treason. Republicans hold every branch of federal government and most state governments; they are suppressing the vote, and they are trying to normalize restricting the freedom of the press.
It's high time that someone stood up for truth, facts, and reality with an angry voice that calls out liars and traitors for what they are. The people living in an alternate universe of Fox News and alt-right facts need to be made to feel ashamed, not futilely pleaded with to set aside the certainty of their ignorance.
To use the convenient example, there was no taking the high road against Nazi Germany. One can always hold the moral high ground unto death, but being nice won't succeed in stopping evil in all situations.
21
I think shouting down people during lunch is a great illustration of how far this article is off from reality.
Here's what's wrong:
People in the web space need to be accountable people.
Districts should not be gerrymandered.
Term limits should be set
Congressman should not have to spend their careers fundraising. Let the States pick 'em.
7
Certainly didn't look like the protesters in Portland this past weekend even knew where to find the high road. Behavior like that is one of the reasons Trump actually has a chance in 2020.
18
Going high has resulted in the GOP gaining all three branches of government. One of which will be in their control for decades now thanks to the stolen seat. The Dems need to do *something* drastic as we slip into a dictatorship. Because as far as I can tell 45 and his base and GOP minions would be happy to have one party rule forever.
10
You just called them a GRAND OLD PARTY, so I don't understand the objection.
She should make it clear to the followers that she did not mean for them to get stoned.
After the Trump Russia collusion nonsense fairy tale and then the fake sexual assault allegations from the memory-less accusers, Democrats have the low ground reserved already.
11
If you would like to know the results of Going High when your enemy is Going Low, please consult the descendants of those Native Americans who signed treaties with the United States, were stripped of their land and were shipped to reservations, where they were encouraged to starve.
Or please consult those immigrants whom the US military recruited for their language skills who are now being systematically discharged so they can be deported.
Or please consult those gays who a kind of legal equality only to be told their equality only counted sometimes.
Or please consult those African-Americans who believed they'd earned the right to vote until Republican politicians decided to make take it away from them.
There is no moral high ground; there are only beliefs and how hard you are willing to fight for them.
Gandhi & Martin Luther King had the moral high ground. So did John Brown & Ben Gurion.
Treat Republicans as they treat you: if they are kind, be kind, if they cruel be cruel, if they are violent, be violent.
If that offends your delicate moral sensibility, stay home; you're useless.
14
No one can “go high” and debate Trump “I make things up”, and GOP candidates without being tough. Trump attacked still attacks people on a personal basis all while lying every step of the way. His army of and support from the GOP, NRA and hate groups is his base. To respond Democrats need to be tough and only that couple with smart, really smart can overcome.
Trumps highly attacked GOP competitors bow and kiss his ring. Cruz, Rubi etc all were weak and ost for words.Trumps plug in to the illegal immigration nightmare was good for him. Get tough and stay smart Democrats!
5
Dorothy, if it's not too much trouble, could you pretty please maybe consider some day not referring to that party by its branding statement?
"Going high, these Democrats say, got them minority status across the federal government. Going high got them a president accused of sexual assault, installing a Supreme Court justice accused of sexual assault (both deny it)."
No. Going corporate-centrist is what "got them minority status across the federal government".
With Bill Clinton and Obama, we got moderate, centrist economic policies - and this coincided with the Dems loss of power at the local, state and national level - and now they're going to tell us that progressive agendas won't work and that we need more moderation???
7
I don't if they go High or Low. I just want them to Win!!!
The Dems and Liberals will never follow through with this. Conservatives and Republicans have voided all shame from their lives. The vile statements, lies and immoral preaching spewing from their mouths are never apologized for and their followers love them for it. Meanwhile for us, Al Franken resigned....
Liberal Snowflakes will demand apologies, back-tracking, flip-flopping and course reversing to appease their insane levels of "political correctness." Making us look weak and inconsistent every time.
You can never please everyone. Dems need to agree to upset some and fight for the common good - against true corrupting, despicable evil. If they can't agree to this approach they will continue to fail.
4
If the Democrats fall for his provocations and make the midterms about Trump, he and his crowd wins. If they make the midterms about health care, environment, and bankrupting the country with a huge tax cut for those who need it least, they can win. The less they mention him, the better. They shouldn't need to, either. He's given them plenty of slow pitches.
The message should be "Stop the Agenda!" , not "Stop Trump". "Stop Trump" will guarantee 6 more years of unchecked destruction of everything that made this country good.
The agenda is beyond loathesome. That's what the Democrats need to shine a light on, not the misogynistic crook in the White House.
2
Can we please just start by calling them liars when they lie right to our faces?
8
The biggest and most stupid mistake Democrats have done and continue to do is to cede media power to the minority at Fox News and their rabid right wing base. I’m repeatedly stunned and outraged that the party of Hollywood and Manhattan, the centers of media power, just sits back and allows right wing attack ads to air repeatedly with absolutely no response from the left. During the Kavanaugh debacle, there were pro-Kavanaugh ads flooding cable news channels with nary a peep from the other side. Where is our liberal media power? Where is our liberal Fox News?!
I saw an article today in the LATimes about Samuel L. Jackson’s fight to elect Democrats. Why is it just a little bit of Jackson here, Taylor Swift’s random tweet there, Barbara Streisand hanging with a few Democrats up there, instead of all of these incredible forces being brought together into one media powerhouse that can not only swamp media culture with facts but immediately respond with unprecedented force to attack ads and, more importantly, Fox News’ stranglehold on the national conversation?
Pull our strength and forces together now before it’s too late. Leverage everything we have on our side and go to war with the minority Fox News nation. We have media, academia, labor, youth, culture, science, and so much more on our side. We have the power right now to control the conversation yet we won’t use it. Quit the complacency and internal bickering and seize our future NOW!
10
@left coast finch - Samuel L. Jackson, Taylor Swift and Barbara Streisand live lives so far from our own reality, they really don't make effective advocates. The fact that Taylor Swift was able to influence so many people - adults! - to register to vote is a telling problem. If you take direction from celebrities, you're simply not a serious person.
4
Taking a high ground and losing is really just losing. And it looks weak, like Dems are unwilling to get down and dirty and fight. The Dems should simply develop a strategy similar to the right. Put angry paranoid leftists on the radio everywhere, with rigged callers who agree with them. Create fake stories about how GOP politicians are engaged in evil acts. Close to the truth at this point, but Pizzagate is an example of how far they could go. (Scary? Well, welcome to fear and dismay right wingers.) Create a news station and push propaganda 24/7. Support extreme radical left organizations that advocate uprising and anger toward anyone that disagrees. And a key talking point should be that only Democrats are real Americans and true Christians. Anyone who is Republican is a traitor who hates America and is a fake Christian. Then run garden variety progressives as candidates and point out how moderate and reasonable they are. This should be the playbook. It will create a lot of chaos. It'll be fun watching talking heads call each other names descending into child-like absurdity. But the end result will be a return of the middle and even possibly a renewed interest in the truth and things called facts. And maybe the Democrats will be seen as fighters again, instead of overeducated talkers who are neither loved nor feared. People will always take the side of whomever they perceive is strongest to advocate for them.
3
@Cary mom
Right on! "Taking a high ground and losing is really just losing" hits the nail on the head.If I hear that old trope that Democrats are bringing a knife to gunfight, I'll scream. Fight fire with fire in exactly the way to describe. Cary is lucky to have you for a mom!
2
We could use a Kumbaya moment as in the folk movement of the 50’s and 60’s The song was originally a simple appeal to God to come and help those in need.. Too many scary hurdles for everyone. This Presidency, the unbridled illegal immigration ignored for 30 years inundating us. Democrats need border security and immigration laws including deportation and yes “kick back” smartly so we don’t become a mirror the GOP. The US has to step up secure the country and without question face, participate and be among leading nations to fight global warming, the existing ocean disaster before its too late knowing it may already be. We can’t he chaos of everyone scrambling to stay here illegally while this boat could sink.
Politics are choking us. “I suport women” “I support immigrants” are misleading attempts with tefgivle catch phrase to get voters with unformed and unclear positions.
Brilliant Bernie’s Democratic Socialism is similar hoping it has enough weight to draw votes. Won’t work. Eleni Kounilakis race in CA sympathetic to illegals because her father was one 60 maybe 70 years ago isn’t realistic. Can’t “grandfather” millions of illegals just because they got in. Legal immigration built and is the base of America, not illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants are not refugees. Of course people want to flee counties with poverty and corrupt Mexico with huge assets and natural resources yet not evolved to self sufficiency because drug money and gangs are the power.
4
Anyone who pays attention to polls knows that people listen to the negative. "Going high" when your opponent is "going low" is a terrible idea because it guarantees lost votes. This doesn't mean that you have to give up morality; it can mean simply that you address the low issues forthrightly. When Trump was stalking Clinton on the campaign stage and looming over her, why couldn't she turn around and address the matter of his attempting to bully her? Instead, she chose to ignore it -- and looked weak. Ignore high and low and just show honesty and guts.
8
If the Democratic Party eliminates superdelegates it will go a long way in legitimizing their candidates and their cause
2
In the Marine Corps we learned to leave the enemy NO chance to recover. We were taught in Boot Camp and Advanced Infantry Training to use the necessary force to subdue your enemy.
The republican attack on our democracy is no less vile than our enemies were in WW II. Therefore, Michelle is wrong and Eric is right. It makes no sense to arrive at a gunfight with a pea shooter.
Today we face the largest problem ever to confront mankind and it's known as Climate Change.
What's Trump's answer? Burn more coal!
What's the republican response to the alarming UN report? Complete silence.
If u value your democracy and wish to leave your children a planet where humans can survive, we must defeat the scourge known as republicans in the midterms.
Eisenhower regained the moral high ground after Hitler was defeated but in the middle of the battle, he sent in George Patton.
18
Well put. I think Democrats must balance anger and hope.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The letters of the word "anger" can be rearranged as "range".
Cool Democrats, like Obama, became no drama and aloof.
The letters of the word "aloof" can be rearranged as "a fool".
Now, Trump is firing people up, by threatening the system.
So, Democrats, get involved, at all levels and take the House!
==============================================
With all due respect to Ms. Obama, taking one sided high moral ground approach has never worked. Whether it was John Kerry when he was swift-boated, or McCain before him in the Republican primaries against W., and of course anyone against Trump.
8
The milk toast Corporate Dems that would secretly help the Republicans pass cutting bank regulations and pollution control legislation need to go also.
6
I have no problem with non violently interrupting Administration officials dinners when kids are being separated from their parents. For those who criticize how Democrats treated Kavanaugh, at least Kavanaugh actually got a chance to be a Supreme Court judge. Mitch McConnell took the low road with Merrick Garland, worked out pretty well for the Republicans.
The Democrats can keep taking the high road and they can keep losing elections. Like Bill Maher says, the Democrats bring a covered dish to a gun fight.
8
Every time Republicans exhibit bad behavior, they're rewarded. Deny Judge Garland a vote? Rewarded.
Obstruct pretty much every Obama judicial appointment? Rewarded.
I could go on.
As long as voters do not care about civility and (now long dead) political norms, there is no reason for Republican to change.
So, I see no point in civility and "going high." It's just a very classy suicide pact.
19
@bebopluvr
Concentrate on collecting and excercising power by all legal means. Civility is a whip used to beat losers.
Clearly articulated policies that appeal to the broad moderate/centrist electorate would help. The radical left has become as bad as the extreme right, and most of us detest both.
6
@Jef Missman
The radical left? Depends on what you define as radical. There's no radical left in the USA that is advocating for the nationalization of the energy industry as was done in Venezuela. The US really doesn't have a significant "radical left" by global standards.
And the only murder victims seem to be people on the left. No leftists have run people over with cars.
So, I find your comparison a false equivalence.
4
There is no need to choose between confrontation and decency. It requires effort and skill to channel outrage and determination without demeaning the dignity of others, but it CAN be done.
It MUST be done for if it comes to be accepted that political rhetoric can/must violate the person of others in order to win, it's only a matter of time before fringe elements take the next step to violence.
9
Compare our "leaders" with Nelson Mandela. He spent his entire life fighting for freedom, equality, well being (health care and education etc) and opportunity for all. He didn't compromise and spent a large part of his life in jail.
1
Michael Avenatti, the cable-ubiquitous lawyer flirting with his own presidential run as a Trump-style brawler...."
Mr Avenatti is hardly "a Trump-style brawler". Trump lies almost every time he opens his mouth. Trump rarely produces one coherent sentence. Trump attacks the weak and downtrodden. Trump brags in public about molesting women. Trump flaunts his money in incredibly crass manner.
The differences between these two men is huge. I'm not saying that either one would be my first choice for president, but if I had to choose between them, it would be easy.
4
Yeah, that’s … not what’s happening here.
Republicans are blatantly lying, and writers like you with national platforms are letting yourself be gaslit by them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/10/12/why-is-the-...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/us/politics/trump-rally-opponents.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/opinion/republicans-lies-medicare-pre...
6
Have you ever noticed that screaming at someone doesn't change that person's mind? Nor does name calling, trash talking, intimidation, or violence. Hate begets more hate.
That said, when a bully picks on you, stand your ground with strength. That can be accomplished in many ways, including angrily calling out lies, mass protests, civil disobedience, etc. But I am deeply concerned when we talk about giving up our dignity, and stooping to the juvenile antics and language which President Trump uses on a daily basis. If we do so, he wins.
I haven't noticed that, no. Screaming and insulting your enemies seems to work.
2
Only Republicans would call two female rape victims trying to talk sense into a senator "a mob." It's clear that Republicans believe that two or more people who disagree with their tactics and policies constitute "a mob."
23
@Allison
Looked like a mob to me.
6
Make no mistake, there is a war going on but spending too much time on what has happened will take away from what needs to be done.--“Thus the expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
I love Mrs. Obama but have to disagree with her. In Donald Trump’s America hate and greed win out over hope every time. Republican voters haven’t been about hope, or kindness, or positive forward motion for a long, long time. It’s all about making a buck and punishing those that they hate (racial minorities, the GLBT community, the poor, immigrants, etc). Our society has become morally bankrupt and I’m not sure there is any way out of it. It’s very sad but I’m a veteran and for the first time in my life, I’m ashamed to be an American.
15
Democrats are flattering themselves with the idea that their indignation is righteous. That's complete nonsense, and independents see it that way too. While Trump himself has personally said many disgusting things, Democrats' treatment of Brett Kavanagh, and their desire to drown out any opposing opinions with a mob mentality, is likely going to lose them not a few races in November, 2018.
In January of 2017, I would never have thought Trump could win reelection. With Democrats' current behavior, now I'm not so sure.
16
@G
I guess we are calling Americans that are protesting the mob now. Republicans don't like dissent, so I shouldn't be too surprised.
4
@infinityON
Your comment is disingenuous. We are all aware of cases where conservative speakers are hounded off campus and are not allowed to speak because the liberals are so sure they are right and that conservatives should not be allowed to speak.
That is not protest, it’s bullying
1
@G What about Brett Kavanaugh's treatment of Democrats – half the Judiciary Committee and a good chunk of the American populace? What about his lying and disrespect and partisanship while being assessed for his appropriateness to sit as a justice on our nation's highest court? What about Republicans' treatment of Merrick Garland and President Obama – a man who WON the popular vote twice? Democrats' indignation IS righteous. Our country is being steered toward one-party rule a la the Soviet Union. If independents and others don't see that, well, enjoy your dictatorship.
The Democrats need to counter GOP lies, smears, & fear-mongering by firmly responding with facts & truth, without descending to the depths of the GOP. We, meaning thinking citizens, are all outraged by the GOP’s spins, glib lies, half-truths, & false equivalencies, so it is no easy task to get past this in the first place, but, IMHO, it is best addressed by saying, “XXX has said YYY, but the truth is …”. And then be prepared to do state the facts; a blank denial will not get far.
No, it isn’t a fair fight as the GOP relies upon stoking the emotions & fears of their low information voters, but one question that needs to be constantly thrown back to these voters is why the GOP has such an aversion to the truth. Thinking people know the answer, partly because it works too well, partly because it’s easy, partly because the GOP is an empty vessel, but a key to changing things is to get GOP supporters to ask themselves that question. If they nibble at the truth, there is hope. Besides, it is the right thing to do.
1
For two years, I've been complaining about the complacency and lack of boldness from our Democratic Congress. Unfortunately, Democrats have weak leadership in both the House and Senate. Neither Schumer nor Pelosi are compelling leaders. And allow me to provide a good example... why did the vast majority of our Congress attend Trump's inauguration? There was no surprise this man would be a nightmare. It would have been a bold statement to not attend and let the Republicans know right off the bat we would not accept Trump as our President.
11
There’s an art to projecting strength when staking out the high ground. Too many Democrats project weakness. Weakness in a fight is not helpful.
9
Perhaps not often discussed are the profound underlying cultural differences between the parties. Democrats, with a culture drawing from the law, nonprofit community organizations, educational institutions, and governing as a profession, respect process, traditional behavioral norms, and the need for all stakeholders to be heard. Republicans, whose culture draws from sports, business, and the military, focus on winning.
6
For too long Democrats have been turning up to the fight with a penknife; Republicans show up with Novichok.
Fight fire with fire.
5
It is enormously frustrating noting that Republicans are largely shameless in lying and using character assassination in their campaigns. Trump in number one, and his "base" laps up the lies, even knowing they are untrue. The lies simply cannot go unchallenged. If that is seen "going low," God help us!
4
Going high includes telling the truth.
Saying that Trump is unfit for office, based on long lists of evidence that should be repeated over and over is not going low.
Going low is just making up stuff, and seeing what sticks, as Republicans and right wing media did constantly.
The Party of Trump has more true things that are bad to talk about then we have time to talk. We don't need to make up stuff. We just need to clearly explain why they are bad.
5
One of the reasons this far right Republican cabal was able to take control of all three branches of our government is that the Obama's we're self deluded. They came to the political knife fight with a naive Pollyanna approach espousing platitudes about "working together in bipartisanship", while Republicans came to destroy Obama and ensure he accomplished nothing as President. The Obama's timid, weak kneed politics lost Democrats the State Legislatures and gerrymandering, the Congress, the Courts, the Presidency and now the Supreme Court. The "when they go low we go high" tripe exemplified their naivety of the 'no holds barred' nature of the ongoing political battle for America's future.
1
It would have been near impossible for Obama to be as ruthless as the out-for-blood Republicans without appearing angry. Being cast as an angry black man is the kiss of death.
4
Beto O'Rourke has been relentlessly upbeat, positive and speaking to hope in his Senate race against the reptile Ted Cruz. Beto is finding an audience, and he sure is finding lots of campaign contributions. Obama was cut from the same cloth, and he won twice. A candidate should respond to the more scurrilous lies, but in the end a candidate is defined by their campaign, particularly if it is a first campaign for statewide or national office. Beto's success in this red state is evidence of just how sick people are of unending appeals to fear, of lies, of offering nothing more than "vote for us because we aren't those other guys," of a strategy that repeats over and over that only abortion and guns matter. Healthcare matters. Education matters. Global warming matters. These are complex problems that will not be solved with nasty sloganeering. All of these things will require cooperation, intelligent solutions and a willingness to experiment and adjust. Republicans are simply not up to it -- they used to be great at it, but no longer. Ted Cruz reminds Texans every day that his entire life is all about listening to the sound of his own voice. He likes a whole lot more than do the rest of us. He traffics in wedge issues and he has never built anything in his life, and probably never will.
Democrats: be careful what you wish for. You might just get it.
3
The tricky thing about claiming the moral high ground is the standard that it requires holding.
If you sink to the level of the very individuals that you chastise for impropriety, then what distinction could possibly remain?
46
well ..let's look at the field of battle .
ON it , there are the democrats, the rabid republicans and finally the independents/undecided .
Recently , during /after the Kavanaugh debacle ,pundits and republicans were speaking re the outrageous conduct of the Democrats ..That's a bit like the thug who complains that his opponent hurt his foot due to slapping his head against his boot .
Going high on the repub.party and POTUS is a waste of time and perhaps Hilary C was alluding to that in her comments
US folk tend to be very straight forward , holding either or outcomes or ways ahead .A favourite saying "The best form of defence is Offence " is not strictly true and may be to ones detriment .
Straight offence plays into Trumps hands
To win . the Dems must achieve two things ,More Dem.voters and more Independents turn out +vote Dem.
The art of euphemism and parody allows one to appear high but is more hurtful .like slipping a proverbial stiletto dagger between the ribs
Republican elected can be attacked for selling out to POTUS ,one who they loathed less then 2 years ago .the risky state of the US under their control and failure to address the true issues of importance within the US .
Trump is the Rep's PIMP!
Speak with passion ,from the heart and please desist from the typical 7 word sound bite style which can be infuriating
? Are the Republicans 1) trustworthy 2)reliable 3)Safe re within or outside the US 4) Represent and protect all not just the chosen few !
The old Democratic strategy of not saying anything that might rule up the Republican base was never a sound one, because sometimes you must articulate your feelings forcefully. Fight fire with fire. I live in a very liberal area; even children abhor Trump.
What I find stunning, and saddening, is the white love feats for the president. It further divides the nation and tells the rest of us, this president does not stand for you.
Well, I stand for loving thy neighbor, regardless of color or creed, and not only treating women with respect, but believing them when they speak of sexual abuse. I believe in not putting brown children in cages, and that we must all do our part to accept the reality of, and fight, climate change. And so much more.
6
Do you love them if they don’t agree with your politics - cause all I see is hate in these comments.
3
Homophobic attacks by Democrats and late night comedians who should know better on Senator Graham has made me very concerned. I can not support hate.
Count me out on November 6th.
5
@Charlie
If you have no problem with all the hate racism and homophobia that's already in office and running this country, you've just lost your voice against it.
2
"Going high got them a Supreme Court justice accused of sexual assault . . . "
I don't know in what way Judiciary Committee Democrats' behavior during the Kavanaugh nomination could be described as "going high."
13
Hillary Clinton's approval rating, according to Gallup has been at 36% for over a year. That's lower than Trump's.
Michelle Obama's approval rating holds steady in the mid 60s.
So why are we listening to Clinton? She lost to Trump, had the second lowest approval rating of any presidential candidate (Trump is the champ of that dubious achievement).
Clinton called Trump supporters delporables, and people who twice noted for Barack Obama voted for Trump.
So why are listening to Clinton? Why is she being quoted?
9
@Talbot Could the fact that she is immensely popular and won 3 millions more votes than our president have anything to do with it? Also, the fact that she has been through these wars and has a right to a strong opinion?
1
Shame on you for not revealing Holder’s full remarks until late in the article, letting a completely wrong impression take hold — and maybe never change especially in readers who don’t read the entire article (and you can’t be so naive to think that everyone reads it all). I wasn’t fooled only because I was aware of the full remarks prior to reading the article (thank you, Trevor Noah), so I felt myself getting annoyed mostly at the NYT rather than at Holder — though shame on him as well for exhibiting very poor judgment and/or awareness for not realizing that his reference to kicking would surely (and knowingly) be taken out of context and used to rile up opposition.
1
Michelle Obama can afford going high or staying high. The rest of us don’t have this luxury of losing another election. She is raking in all the cash from the privileges of any ex-first couple. No more, no less.
And while she and her husband stay high, let them donate all their income from lovely deals to charity. Tax payers pay for salary and post-presidential perks.
9
@Blunt
Taxpayers also pay for flights to Mar-a-lago, and all the other places this administration sees fit to fly off to on the taxpayer's dime -- And guess what? They're ALL millionaires!
3
Decency and civility have always been the ideal in campaigning, as it should be. And Michelle Obama, well I really admire and respect that lady as I do President Obama. But sadly these are different times, and Trump supporters, like their president and Congress, play mean and dirty. I am not encouraging for our Democratic nominees and their voters to sink to their level, believe me. After all, we are responsible for our children, those to follow us whom I hope can extricate themselves from too many parents' downright hate. But we have no choice but to be aggressive and passionate in our ideals and how they are for the good of the everyday American not the affluent, not the nativist, not the bigot and racist, and not fanatical Christians. It is simple. We just keep our heads down and work while not verbally insulting or impugning our counterparts across the aisle. We can fight without fighting dirty.
5
How about "They go low- we step over them and VOTE" ?
26
If the Dems were serious about representing their base, they would not entertain the notion of taking the "high road" for one second.
The Republicans, in effect, stole two Supreme Court seats from them. If they regain power and do not either stack the court like FDR did, or at least attempt to impeach Kavanaugh, then I would not consider them worthy of my vote.
If you're not willing to fight tooth and nail to defend your base (as the Republicans do) why should your base get excited about your candidates?
These establishment Dems are all millionaires and business people - perhaps they aren't as opposed to the appointment of a anti-worker, anti-environment justice, as they claim?
9
Softpedaling and so-called civility does not seem to work now. When one takes the high road, one is considered girlish and weak. So, I'm afraid more tough (but truthful) talk is needed.
For example, Dems need to explain to Hispanic people that doing nothing will lead to their expulsion from the United States, EVEN IF THEY ARE CITIZENS. That is the GOP game plan--"repatriation" of the majority of Hispanic people "elsewhere," even if "elsewhere" is not where they came from and even if they are US born citizens (which is the case mostly for minor children).
Dems also need to inform black people that trump is not their friend, even though Kanye West loves him. They must be told in the most brutal way that trump supports police brutality against black folks, and that he supports the criminalization of blackness.
Dems must tell workers that the end of Unions means the end of all worker's rights in the US. Workers need to know that everything from lunchbreaks and weekends off to sick leave and vacations are benefits won solely by Union actions and that destroying Unions will also remove all of these benefits from the workplace BECAUSE THERE ARE NO LAWS MANDATING THESE BENEFITS.
In short, they must use the very same tough talk IN RALLIES in minority, working class and poor communities that trump uses in rural white areas, only they must TRUTHFULLY paint the picture of the bleak future that the GOP has planned for immigrants, workers, minorities and the poor in the US.
9
We need to take back the House and Senate. Then when they go low we can do the right thing: we can step over them.
2
"When they go low, we go high".......does this also include Senate Democrats under corporate Chuck Schumer, without any fight or objection, to allow McConnell and the GOP to fast track 15 Trump nominees to the Federal bench with lifetime appointments even AFTER Kavanaugh was confirmed? That is what Chuck Scumer did this past week for no other reason than to be able to go home early. That is what is being reported by Rachael Maddow. This is fighting back?
If people think the blue wave will save the country and any D will do, think again. The Democrats have the same addiction to the donor class as the GOP. In fact, both parties share the same donors. The difference is the GOP gets paid to win and the Dems get paid to lose. Big money has it made....they win regardless of what party is in power.
3
Where is Dem version of Frank Luntz? Dems need devastating messaging and the best thing is there is so, so much to choose from.
2
When the kid who lives between you and school waits for you everyday to take your lunch money what do you do? I used to walk around the block to try to avoid him and it worked for a while until he got wise and waiting on my new path to school. It was my grandmother who taught me the sweet science and told me to fight back. The bullies on The Right only feels emboldened when they are allowed to go unanswered. It is nothing noble about being a punching bag. Trump presents himself as a tough guy and his base loves it. People want someone who can be ruthless if the situation calls for it. Teddy Roosevelt said talk softly but carry a big stick. Reagan defined The Left as weak kneed liberals and and monicker remains today.When Dukakis could not say he would rip someone head off if they harmed his wife he lost. Anything worth having is worth fighting for.
9
Going high is a nice sentiment but a losing strategy. Going high got us Trump. The terrorists, also known as Republicans, will do anything to win. The Democrats need to do whatever it takes, short of violence, to help save the country.
4
I think Michelle Obama, living in her nice bubble, may not really understand what is going on in our country. After all, under President Obama the Democratic Party lost more House, Senate, state legislative and governors seats than under ANY OTHER PRESIDENT.
There is no value in "going high" when children are being detained in the Texas desert. There's no value in "going high" when 53,000 people, many minorities are having their voter registration thrown out by Brian Kemp in Georgia, just in time for the November election. There's no value in "going high" when regulations protecting our air and water are being gutted, when a Saudi Arabian journalist with an American green card can be disappeared by Prince Salman. And there is certainly no value in "going high" while our planet starts to burn and drown. Yes, MLK and Ghandi were absolutely right about non-violence, by all means. But that doesn't mean letting the Republicans defeat us because they play dirty and the Obama's are more interested in their image as debonair and lofty intellectuals than in keeping our country in tact. After all, President Obama famously disbanded OFA almost as soon as he was elected. WHY?????
10
Democrats cannot descend to the very level of discourse that they decry. That doesn't mean, however, not standing up, clearly and loudly, for what one believes in.
Hold on to yourselves, and stand in your truth with vigor and dignity! And please, as much as you can muster, kindness...
(I hope my friends are reading this!)
49
If they don't they will lose. Being noble is going to cost us the country. When your opponent gets in the mud sometimes you have to go in the mud to get him out. Sixteen Republican opponents played the above the fray act during the primaries in 2016 and Trump cleaned their clocks. It is time to fight like two cats in a bag. No holds barred because the fate of the country rest on the outcome.When will we realize the other side is ruthless?
2
@Steven McCain
I understand that you feel that way. Only you know what you can live with for yourself.
For me, life is process. The process of making life a better life has to match the end result of having a better life. Otherwise, that result which you are seeking has no value or meaning, because its foundation will forever be tainted with the ruthless methods used to attain it.
You cannot espouse values that you do not actually live by. You have to walk the walk to talk the talk.
Of course I'm disappointed that so many people do not actually do that, but I will not join them in that behavior. I will not.
While a firm believer of 'positive effect' and yes, even Karma; at this point I'm willing to entertain the idea of a change in strategy when it comes to countering all the negativity, racism, bigotry and hatred being posited by Republicans in their efforts to maintain their control over all three branches of our government.
The only thing evident here and now is that they will do everything in their power to undermine any action taken against them whether the opposition comes in the form of fair play, or resorting to getting down and dirty.
While most Democrats have tried to harken to Michelle Obama's wisdom of "go high" in the past -- there clearly comes a time when trying to take the high road leads to nowhere, and that time is now.
4
When you are being attacked by a mad dog, you don't try to find out why he is feeling left out of the global economy or why he is resentful of intellectual elites. You smack him with a rolled up newspaper. That's what November 6th is.
21
I don’t want my party to adopt Trumpism. I’d much rather lose elections, than normalize “alternative facts”. It’s not worth it; ask Dr. Faust.
3
As we see from the last sentence, "going High" only works if both sides do it. To the average Trump fan, it's like bringing a bouquet of posies to a gun fight. They like gun fights.
This isn't politics, folks, as in ideas, policy, etc. American politics today is to the world of Kennedy, Lincoln or Churchill what Professional wrestling is to Ballet.
2
I don't claim to know what the formula to combat the Trump Party falsehoods and daily attack should be but neither do the Democratic Party or the reasonable mainstream newspapers and TV journalists or their editorial staff.
The Democrats are passive, collegiate and floundering without a strong leadership and the mainstream media is first a lazy "re-tweeter" of Trump tweets and secondly gives credence to what Trump and his sycophant and prostrate Trump Party people say. They seem to accept, repeat and amplify, for the most part what Trumpians say.
In the age of Trump, traditional journalism has to be set aside and a new breed that questions publicly everything he says and respond immediately. So what if you are not allowed to the briefings? Send in the interns, put the man and his Party below "the fold" or move him to the next page. Focus on the damage his administration is causing. Publicity is this man's lifeblood, choke it off and all he can do is rage, pout and mouth off. People will figure it out, if not already.
Lastly, if the Democrats pay lip service to the middle and working classes, as they have been doing since the 90s they are doomed to lose, no matter what the polls say.
2
Once again, we have another argument of style over substance. Should Democrats go red-hot rage and attack Republicans? The temptation is to answer a shouted-from-the-rooftops “Yes!” But we really have a false choice presented to us.
It would emotionally satisfying to yell and throw things—the Dems’ version of a GOP candidate blowing things up. But will it win elections?
The alternative presented is to take the go high advice from Michelle Obama. That gets rejected because it seems too highbrow to Democrats hoping to score points with working people—because, you know, that’s how they roll. Again, will it help win elections?
Neither path seems to address the problems we face or the passions we want to tap. But there is a third way that is neither and offers reaching the promised land of electoral victory. Cold rage. Quiet responses that are delivered through gritted teeth and dripping with equal portions of invective and sarcasm. Fury at the intended destruction of Medicare, anger at repeated efforts to gerrymander Democrats out of relevance, outrage at the debasing of the dignity of work by declining wages in the face of productivity gains, rage at the lies and lying liars—just to name a few. It’s a long list.
Democrats should show their anger, but pointed in the direction we want to go. If you're going to be angry, make it about something worthwhile.
3
Answer fire with fury.
8
"How will Democrats choose to revise Mrs. Obama’s sentence, with Mr. Trump heaving insults from the White House and the rally stage — his pre-midterm bully pulpit?"
Stay the course at all costs! That's the only answer that works in the long run. Sure, I'd love to slap the heck out of any loud mouth, disrespecting bully who believes in constant yapping lies rather than allowing a single, intelligent thought to be heard from the opposition. At first, the notion of "we kick them when they go low" sounds appealing and probably feels great and satisfying . . . at first. But then reality and good sense sets in (or hopefully sets in) and that approach only brings out the worst in us and down to their level of disdain, embarrassment and gutter rat mentality.
Michelle Obama was a class act then and continues to be one. Her example is not an easy one to subscribe to, but in the long run, I would rather feel good about having self respect, pride, and tolerance on my side than being a bragster about how I shot my mouth off about stuff that only continues to bring this country down.
The Democrats have Mrs. Obama as a brilliant role model. The GOP could have John McCain as their incredible role model if they would only stop screaming and being bullies long enough to realize that. Mr. McCain was also class act. Too bad there aren't more like him out there. What a difference that could make . . . mostly for the better.
4
I'm not sure Beto O'Rourke is a good example for the high/low analogy. Even Republicans don't like Ted Cruz. I believe "oleaginous" was the word used to describe Ted Cruz. In any event, I don't trust the polling on the Cruz/O'Rourke race anyway.
O'Rourke was always a long shot. He's mostly counting on new registrations and voter turnout to win Texas. He needs to stop rural areas from voting against him. However, his potential victory lies elsewhere. The polls are unlikely to capture the votes he needs.
At times, I honestly don't trust my own polling. Management wants a number so I give them a number. It's a ball park; I don't take responsibility for the actual outcome. Personally, I would have easily doubled or even tripled the margin of error on some figures.
As an example, newly registering voters tend to skew young. Young people often don't have permanent addresses. They generally don't have landlines either. You'd have to contact them on a cellphone. The cellphone number may or may not correspond to their geographical location in which they intend to register and vote.
Unless you weight your polling to account for these lifestyle changes, you have an absolutely gigantic bias against O'Rourke. Even professionally contracted analytic companies can't seem to figure this problem out yet.
I'm reminded of an old joke about Vietnam. A 1969 analyst enters all the data in known existence into a computer to figure out when the war was going to end. The computer responds 1965.
3
@Andy: It's really hard to say. Texas Republicans always swarm to the polls at election time. They are bussed in by mega-churches - those supposedly non-political, tax-free entities. You should see the churches bussing their captive children to anti-abortion rallies at the capital. They spend major amounts of money on influencing politics in this state. Why they are not taxed is a mystery, because many of them now have little to do with religion and everything to do with politics. Yes, 500,000 Dems voted for O'Rourke in the primary, but a million Republicans voted for Cruz. Cruz - one of the most hated men in America - received twice as many votes as one of the most decent men in America did. Why? Look to the mega-churches and big business. They are in cahoots together and now dominate every aspect of life in Texas.
Yes, there are now millions more Democrats in Texas, but they are elusive creatures and not cohesively organized. Their very independent natures keep them out of giant organizations, and they pride themselves on not running with the herd. Unfortunately, when numbers are necessary to beat Cruz, this tendency to shy away from organizations works against them.
But you are right: most people with landlines are older and conservative. In our family, we all have our own phones and none of them has a Texas number. So pollsters will certainly miss people like us: three strong Democrats who will very definitely vote a straight Democratic ticket in November.
4
The Democratic message needs to stay on the urgency of addressing carbon-based energy and global climate change. We all know how Democrats stand on all the other issues. Issues that will be non-issues if we don't deal with the energy monopolies that are shoving climate disaster down our throats. We can't have candidates who take money from carbon-based energy benefiters in order to run. We need candidates to run on free-energy and sustainable energy devices. And we needed it yesterday.
2
Going high doesn't mean going soft.
Going high means being honest, factual, and playing by the rules.
Going low means lies, fear-mongering, scapegoating, bigotry, and cheating.
Going high does not mean overlooking corruption and immorality; it means confronting those things forcefully and honestly. Think of it like an intervention.
Going high does not mean coddling racism, self-entitlement, selfishness, laziness, and intellectual dishonesty; it means correcting them. Think of raising a toddler in his Terrible Twos.
And going high certainly does not mean courtesy and respect towards those who are blatantly and doggedly tearing down the fundamental structures and principles of American democracy and American values.
Unfortunately, going high also means having to work twice as hard to get half as far. But in defense of our country against the Republican New Confederacy who seeks to tear it down, it's worth it.
6
Most social-justice movements face this same dilemma:
Who was more effective, MLK or Malcolm X?
Who was more effective, Harvey Milk, or the drag queens who fought back at Stonewall?
Who was more effective, The World Wildlife Fund, or Greenpeace?
Who was more effective, Begin or Netanyahu?
Who was more effective, the Jews who prayed the Sh'ma on the way to the gas chambers, or the Warsaw Ghetto fighters?
Who was more effective, Chamberlain and the Vichy govt, or the Allied Forces?
In a situation in which both sides are acting in a rational manner and both sides want a fair resolution, then of course going high is the moral way to go.
But in a conflict in which one side is intractable and has discarded basic adherence to fundamental facts, truth, and foundational human ethical behavior, then taking the high ground isn't always enough. It's laudable to think about the long game; but what good is that if you get annihilated before ever reaching it?
Sometimes the only way to stop a bully is to fight back.
Every social-justice movement NEEDS the yin-yang of MLK and Malcom X, the people who work to effect change within a system working alongside with the people who are willing to tear down the system.
I believe that we Democrats/Centrists are up against an foe who over the past 20 years has quietly jettisoned adherence to fundamental truth and human decency. We have gone high for long enough.
It's time to fight back (dirty if we have to) in order to save ourselves.
4
Fighting hard and fighting back does not have mean jumping into the gutter with the GOP. Schumer and Pelosi have done Dems no favors by their handwringing. The octogenarians need to go (all octogenarians for that matter).
1
The Democrats have a number of issues that they do not know how to handle properly. First and foremost, they need to learn to exploit the truth, they don't even need to lie. If I was heading up Democratic party I would have tied the GOP to former speaker of the house, Dennis Hastert forever. We literally had a "conservative" Speaker of the House thatwent to jail for paying to cover up the fact that he molested children for years.
You wanna win Dems here is what you need to do:
1) Tie Dennis Hastert to the GOP forever.
2) Ditch Wall Street
3) Tie the GOP to massive corporate tax cuts and the 2008 collapse
4) Come out and introduce a bill that will remove lifetime benefits for all members of congress. Maybe include a small pension since you are serving the public but that's it.
5) Stop talking about what you are going to do until you get the House back. You want to investigate Trump and Kavanuagh, get the House back first then do it, and do it relentlessly! But don't fire up the GOP base to go vote.
Chuck, Nancy, Diane...it's time to let it go.
16
Enough of if they go low, we go high, we need someone to fight for our democracy.
“When they go low, I say hit back harder,” Michael Avenatti, the cable-ubiquitous lawyer flirting with his own presidential run as a Trump-style brawler, told a crowd in Iowa over the summer."
If you don't understand "go high" and how you can also defend yourself while taking the high road maybe this will help.
"It is always the right time to do the right thing."
47
@magicisnotreal
I know what going high means. Unfortunately you can’t make meaningful changes unless you are in the majority. Taking the high road sadly will not win an election nowadays. The Dems need to get tough.
2
Trump is a bully. Most bullies are cowards. Trump is a frightened coward. He’s too frightened to directly fire people.
I love Michelle Obama and initially I and millions of us agreed with her “go high” strategy. But those of us who see Mr. Trump as an unpatriotic narcissist who’ll do almost anything (possibly even going to war with N.Korea or Iran or who knows who) can no longer agree. His bellicose tirades (why, by the way, do cable news shows have to televise them? Or televise Kanye West unhinged, obscene monologue in the Oval? By this time we know what he’s going to say and how his base will respond). It’s free political advertisement.
As one of your op ed journalists noted earlier this week, we’re at war. We don’t go high in war. Not going high does not mean going trump. It means calling him out for his lies, his ignorance and his unpresidential, embarrassing behavior here and around the world. It means excoriating the members of his corrupt cabinet and allies for their behavior. If we don’t do it, we can’t predict the outcome of the mid-term elections. We can’t predict the outcome of the 2020 elections. We can’t predict, as Ben Franklin warned, that we can keep our republic.
7
When has going high ever won an election? This lesson should have been learned after the Dukakis debacle 30 years ago. Democrats need to stop being slow learners.
11
When she said it back in 2016 I thought is was ridicules. Trump was vanquishing the decent people on The Right and telling The Left to stay above the fray I think caused Hillary The White House. When Trump followed Hillary around during the debate if she had of just turned around and told him get off her back she would have had a better outcome. When Kavanaugh and Graham had their temper tantrums at the recent hearing I wished one Democrat had of asked them do they need a time out. When the congressman for South Carolina called Obama a liar at his first state of the union I wished Obama had of had him thrown out by the sergeant at arms. When someone is hitting you below the belt and the ref is not calling it is it noble to grin and accept it? The only way you stop a bully is to stand up to him. Play fair but when your opponent is not you have to answer in kind. I totally disagree with Holder for I think when your hit below the belt you don't kick back. I believe you get out the brass knuckles and demolish them.
3
Matt's throwaway line about the rallies being Trump's "bully pulpit" is too clever to be overlooked.
1
What does " When they go low we go high" have to do with winning elections?
There is nothing higher nor lower in politics than obtaining and keeping power. There is no science in politics beyond the arithmetic of majority vote rule.
Vladimir Putin is still smiling and smirking with a twinkle in his eye. Donald Trump is snarling and snarking with venom in his heart. Putin sends his foes to hospitals, mental institutions, prisons, urns and coffins. No Trump enemy has ever suffered any of those fates by his tweets nor speeches. Barack Obama could not and did not act like either man. Due to his color aka race.
But the Obama's have joined the Clinton's off collecting and counting their coins earned from their public service.
I think Michelle Obama has it right; Having said that, it is not "going low" to tell the truth and counter every single lie the GOP leadership continues to tell on a daily basis. Call these lies what they are. No more use of "misstatements or possible falsehoods" when the lies are clear and obvious for all to see. Tell the truth. That is "going high". Most Americans will see and recognize the truth, as long as it is stated clearly, honestly, and without the bile and anger shown by our President and his supporters. This newspaper and every other serious journal has an obligation to stop glossing over the lies and call them what they are. The completely dishonest Fox News, Hannity, Drudge, Limbaugh, Ingraham, Hewitt, and other messengers of distortion will have to respond to the truth one day, and Americans will see who is really spouting "fake news."
1
Surely this is not so difficult. It’s HOW you hit them hard, not trying to out-nasty the absolute king of nastiness but seeing before you those with pre-existing medical conditions that the GOP seems to have written off, the working poor, the victims of opioids, and those families who can’t keep up because of gross pay inequality. In other words you hit them hard on issues people care about, all the while pointing out how the GOP does not.
8
Wanna hit them hard? Maybe you could stop calling them a GRAND OLD PARTY.
The way you just did. Twice.
Yes, I know it's hard to break old habits. Do it anyway.
Don't adopt their terms.
Don't be a loser.
When they go low, and even when they don't, just call them by their name. And if you're just tuning in, here's a game reset: That name is "Republicans."
Watch. Your. Language.
1
Democrats need to pound the 10 greatest mistruths Trump has uttered relentlessly, especially those with the greatest negative repercussions for his base. Fight truth with real facts.
8
After that disgraceful display put on by the democrats at the Kavanaugh hearings, they won't be able to crawl out of the gutter before the mid-term elections so once again they did themselves in when they were ahead.
7
@Howard J
If Democrats are in the gutter, then Republicans are in the sewers. You can only get punched in the face so often before you finally have to punch back.
5
@Howard J Dennis Hastert!
4
Current Democratic leadership are asleep at the controls. Schumer and Pelosi need to go away and a younger generation needs to fight back.
One can actually fight back and still be seen as taking the high road. One can fight back and still have a positive message on policy to give.
The Republicans continue to show they will not play by any rules and are just too happy to continue pushing the American people around. Be it voter suppression in Georgia, shoving a SOCTUS nominee down our throats, or just lying on campaigns how they are protecting Medicare and Medicaid, they take complete advantageous of the Democrats who are so afraid of saying anything about what is actually happening. Nothing from the leadership at all. I guess it's possible I don't watch the right shows, but MSNBC, MTP,CNN and NBC news simply never have Schumer or Pelosi on beating the drums for the party and the people it represents. They really need to go and make room for those who will fight for the party and the American people.
After all it's been on their watch that the Republicans have grabbed all the power in Congress, the Executive branch and now the powerful Courts. Schumer and Pelosi have failed horribly and need to go.
31
@wfisher1
Well said and yesterday Democrats allowed 15 more Trump appointed judicial nominations so they could go home. Really!
1
Are these the same democrats that folded like cheap tents yesterday, allowing 15 of Trumps life-appointment judicial nominations to pass in order to go home for Senate recess? Did they think the Republicans would just stay in DC until they conceded?
Either the leadership has no brains or no spines and neither is acceptable.
46
@TOM
My best guess is that the Democratic Party "leadership" is paid too lose like a prize fighter that it's paid to take s five in the twelfth round.
It is hard to believe anyone could lose this long and this consistently by accident.
Democratic leadership was caught asleep and catering to corporate influence instead of the entire country. The GOP plays hardball, GerryMandering, no prisoners taken. We need leadership that fights hard - fire with fire.
There is no reason we can't do this without losing our dignity & respect & we need to address the needs of the entire country & call out the GOP non stop. We need fierce leadership - no more compromises.
215
@Will Goubert
Democrats also need to be thinking more critically about how to REACH Americans. How is it they are NOT getting the message?
1
You don’t have to behave like Trump and his minions. But, you don’t have to be a doormat either. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “no one can take advantage of you without your consent.” Democrats are always giving their consent by constantly going out of their way to be civil. As I heard one pundit say, when Graham went on that rant during the Kavanaugh hearings and attacked Democrats so viciously, not one Democrat on the committee said a word. Sometimes you have to take a stand. Call Trump a liar when it is called for (pretty much all the time.). That does not mean you have gone low...it means you are just telling the truth.
148
@Suzanne Victor They couldn't respond to Graham because they knew he was right. The democrats were downright deceitful.
3
@Suzanne Victor Yes, you nailed it. We must speak truth to lies. Call out the president, the v-p, the majority leader, the speaker of the house, anyone and everyone who lies. Call them out every single time they lie. But we also need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot by trying to be so self-righteous that we destroy careers. I'm speaking of Al Franken. He was railroaded by his own party: Gillibrand being the instigator. It was wrong, she obviously did it because she wants to run for prez and she thought that Franken might get in her way and run himself. He was an excellent senator, who did call out the liars, the blowhards. He should still be in the senate. THAT was a big mistake. It's one thing to be ambitious, another to destroy someone else's career by engaging in character assassination. Gillibrand behaved like a Republican, which is not the way we need our representatives to behave if we expect to take back our government from the liars and the sociopaths who are running it now.
5
And Lindsey Graham is not deceitful? It didn’t stop HIM, though.
1
I think the tactics they used at the end of Kavanaugh's hearing hurt them tremendously. Going high, it was not.
15
@J Park What Tactics? As the poster noted above, they barely responded to Lindsey Graham's tirade.
7
@J Park
What a shame that the tactic of seeking truth is a wound.
2
Stop parroting the Republican line
1
There is nothing high or low about defending your own position or pointing out your opponent’s. Mr. O’Rourke needs to expand that very good ad (with explicit language) to highlight what the 30-year Repub mantra against big government, higher taxes has done for Texas. That old Texan needs to visit rural towns- and ask where the hospitals are, where the good roads, bridges are, library buildings.....Big government- video...polluted areas, water sources, whatever the Texas problems are that government might regulate, if it had the money, staff, new laws. Put that old Texan out in the middle of nowhere and ask- where’s the cross-Texas bullet train? Where are the 50-100 small meat processing facilities that used to service local cattlemen?
And explain- as a recent NYTimes article outlined very well- the difference in progressive, regressive taxes, the need for inheritance taxes, changes in corporate taxes. Have that old Texan show his % of income he paid,,,,,and ask what some large Texas corporations are paying.
And start asking, if big government is so horrible, what about big corporations running every aspect of your life- that supposed ‘Texas freedom’ now bound up in user agreements, arbitration clauses, etc. Maybe time for a Dem mantra of breaking up big businesses, targeted taxes.
30 years Repubs have gotten away with those two fallacies. Show and tell time for what it’s done for Texas, and....Kansas, Michigan (aka, Flint).
It’s not low/high, it’s truth/lies.
26
Go high is what led to the ridiculous move of pushing Al Franken out. You are fighting in the cesspool, you may as well get dirty. Holding your nose to go high won't win this fight.
81
Appeasement isn’t a strategy. These are people who very much want a scorched earth destruction of everything Democrats stand for. The Republican Party is a toxic alliance of white supremacists and religious extremists. Neither group has even in human history voluntarily reined in their relentless drive to goal and absolute domination. Civility is a suicide pact when dealing with such people
78
@Doug K
You left it one thing.
"The Republican Party is s toxic alliance of white supremacists and religious extremists..." financed by global billionaires to end the rule of law, because it cuts into profits.
How do you counter a party whose primary "values" are corruption, lying, cheating, stealing, belittlement, bullying? The only way normal people can counter this is to stop coddling them. Stop worrying that you will make them upset by telling the truth about them. Stop pretending that they will suddenly wake up and see their error. Trumps supporters are just like him. They "like the way he talks." They like all his lying and bullying. Because that is what they want to do to get their way. This is who they are. Accept that republicans are despicable people and must be kept under tight control. It is time to stop letting the minority run roughshod over the majority. Get the truth out to EVERYONE and make them understand how what the corrupt republicans are doing affects EVERYONE and the ONLY way to counter them is to vote out every single republican.
66
With all the horrendous violence in the world I do not need more from the Democratic Party. Advocates for in-your-face mob antics has given me pause for providing any support to hate and just plain poor judgement.
54
Do you mean like the Nazis marching with Trump hats and Nazi banners?
Or the right winger who drove his car into a crowd of protesters killing a young woman?
Or those threateningly the life of Dr Ford?
Or those threatening the lives of the Parkland survivors?
Or those screaming “Lock her up?”
12
@Charlie
Advocates like those who said that the white supremacists in Charlottesville were fine people?
Only a coward would call a group of loud, non-violent women a mob.
8
So just roll over for the next generation or so, huh?
1
I don't think the democrats could possibly go lower, as of now they could crawl under a snake with no problem.
11
and, somebody listens to Holder ,or Michelle Obama? Never heard of that before,in fact few ever listened to Obama himself and none of them belong in 2018 politics especially for the benefit of Democrats.The only thing that can save Democrats in 2018 is a wider voter base ,exactly what they're pushing for .The wider base that they've encouraged are the new socialists who are not popular with voters.Holder is a relic of a career strewn with excessive scandals of executive privilege ,the kind of which is not allowed today in President Trumps administration.Speaking of kicking Holder or Obama never kicked a successful goal in an administration overpowered by consistent scandals from illegal gun running in "fast and furious" to the failures of Libya ,Benghazi ,Syria and treasury debt to deep to measure.
5
FDR and Lyndon B. Johnson didn't accomplish what they did by going high. They were cunning political operators and willing to use hard-edge tactics (like threatening to pack the Supreme Court).
Roosevelt in his Madison Square Garden speech described forces which he labeled "the old enemies of peace: business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering." He went on to claim that these forces were united against his candidacy; that "They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred."
Let's have more of that attitude.
86
@Really
Better yet, use the very same pitch, giving attribution to FDR. It is certainly still true.
Michelle Obama stays classy, and the country needs that at this divided time. Obliquely or overtly calling for violence will cost Dems the votes of Independents in November. MLK, Jr. would weep for Holder's invitation to violence.
35
@cdisf
Not going high, is not a call to violence. It’s a call to courageously confront trump, his lies, insults, ignorance powerfully, honestly and with the passion the Democrats have yet to exhibit.
2
@cdisf Which independents? You mean your "libertarian" cousins, aunts & uncles who are holding this democracy hostage? Let them vote Republican, or not vote at all then. 45% of the voting age population doesn't participate anyways; Democrats are better off courting their votes with populist proposals instead of chasing the 5% of "independents" who, for some reason, clearly haven't grasped what's at stake.
2
@cdisf
It’s a figure of speech, not an actual call to violence.
1
No, Michelle is right. It is the only way that will work.
I am horrified by the Republicans' current mob rule. For that reason, Tom Friedman is right that at this moment, the worst Democrat is preferable to the best Republican. But to trade mob rule by the right for mob rule by the left is no improvement. Trump's accusations that the Democrats were behaving like a mob in connection with Judge Kavanaugh were overstated, but alas, not entirely without basis.
Go high.
38
@Neil Grossman No one is encouraging mob rule at all. That is foolish. But telling people the cold hard truth is what is clearly needed.
2
@Neil Grossman
The Constitution says that there shall be no law that prevents citizens from peaceful speech or lobbying their government.
Being loud and rude is not mob rule. Mob rule is marching with torches, shouting Nazi slogans and beating up unarmed people who you outnumber ten to one. That's the Republican base.
You need a sense of perspective.
The president is supposed to implement the law of the land and do the business of We the People.
Trump attacks the law of the land and measures every official decision by how it makes him richer or more powerful. Trump is a corrupt president, by definition.
Trump even picked a Supreme Court nominee specifically because Kavanaugh has said that a president can only be investigated by Congress. Trump picked Kavanaugh to shut down the Mueller investigation. That it's a corrupt nomination by definition.
That is the only thing the Democrats should have said about this nomination. They should have said it loudly, over and over throughout the hearings. Making the nomination about Kavanaugh was yet another bad strategy for by Democratic Party "leaders."
When if it didn't stop the nomination, it would have laid the groundwork for direct attacks against everyone that voted for Trump's nominee.
Instead the Democrats rolled over and played dead, as usual, then hoped that the Me Too movement would save the day.
The first thing most Democratic politicians says about the nomination was, "we can't stop it." That is surrender.
1
@Neil Grossman when Republicans complain about Democratic tactics that means they are afraid they are effective. People make important decisions based on emotion alone. Then they rationalize them later. The GOP (grumpy old people) have mastered that tactic as they use it to sell deodorant, cars and investments to rubes. Democrats try to sell rational ideas, which is laudable but mostly ineffective. We need to inflame passion with powerful images of the damage they have done to turn the tide. That is what works.
I've said this for ages: Lyndon Johnson was the last Democrat who knew how to campaign. The "daisy girl" ad aired exactly once before it was pulled; affiliate stations were inundated with outraged complaints due how shocking and disturbing it was, which turned it into a story covered repeatedly on the nightly news. It went viral a decade before anyone even could tape things onto VHS – and it went down in history as one of the most iconic tipping points in a US presidential election.
It's rare to find a candidate who can get people to the polls with hope and charisma. Democrats always mistakenly assume that's what they need, and when they can't find it, they go straight for this pear-clutching indignation, which everyone patently hates.
The third option works: strategically utilizing the things so scary, we're not debating or discussing them at all. National fears are different than national controversies, or sources of outrage. It takes thought and planning to tap into them, but the time has never been more ripe; the entire country, right and left, is in the grip of terror these days.
Americans vote for candidates who prove they, too, see the danger on the horizon, and promise that they know what to do next. Democrats need to stop tilting at windmills, and focus up.
44
@Januarium
You describe exactly the country where I don't want to be a citizen. I want honesty from government, not manufactured fears. We have a right to be informed and alarmed about climate change. I don't need political parties stirring up bogeymen like Trump's bogus claims about immigration though. The Cold War is long over. The United States has no unified adversary to which we can commonly fear. The fear is therefore necessarily against ourselves. Do you believe in climate change or not? That's not exactly a productive battle. Nor do I think the message will win elections for Democrats.
@Andy It's pretty clear as of 2016 that the Cold War never ended; Russia called for a time out, and we just assumed we won. Two foreign powers with nuclear weapons have made over and covert threats against the United States in the last year alone, and both have caught the US off-guard with their surprisingly advanced capabilities in the realm of breaching cyber security. (North Korea and Russia, if somehow that's not clear.)
There's no need to manufacture fears – people are afraid of things, because they should be. We can either ignore the myriad global crises we're mired in, or acknowledge them and indicate we now how to proceed.
Of course climate change is a major part of that (though it's hardly exclusive to the US; China, and by extension our trade deals, actually are major players in that mess). We're also facing a global migrant crisis; a homelessness epidemic, adjacent to a sharp increase in subprime loans and an affordable housing shortage; plus Europe's steadily increasing number of self-identified white supremacist political parties and elected officials. Just to name a few very real, very scary things that Democrats could be focusing on as a united front.
My country as it now stands is not a place I want to live
3
Anything Democrats say will be distorted by Republicans. Going high will be made to sound weak, going low is "the mob." Democrats need to stop responding to the red noise and wage truth. Fierce and unrelenting truth.
280
I don't think this is such a big issue. If your opponent goes "low," you go low too. If your opponent stays "high," you stay high too. Sounds like that's all that Holder is saying. I think that makes sense. Opponents should not be harassed at restaurants or in their homes, but on the campaign trail, you're entitled to match your opponents' behavior.
A bigger question is whether MONEY or POLITICAL POWER counts for more in election campaigns.
We're about to find that out here in San Francisco. A new business tax (based on "gross receipts" and thus payable even if the business loses money) is on the ballot, projected to raise up to $300 million a year to be spent on the homeless (adding to the $380 million that SF spends annually now). The arguments pro and con are the familiar ones, and so I won't bother laying them out.
More important here, several prominent local politicians, including the mayor (London Breed, a black woman born and raised in SF) OPPOSE the tax, but a local billionaire, Marc Benioff (founder and CEO of SalesForce, which would pay the tax) has pledged to spend $2 million of his and SalesForce's money on the FOR side. (Already I've seen several online ads promoting the new tax, presumably funded by Mr. Benioff.)
It will be interesting to see which side wins. I'm not aware that Mr. Benioff has contributed large sums to political campaigns before, though he's been a generous giver to local hospitals.
1
It's sad that there are no adults left on either side. Democrats can be more forceful with their message without playing the current administration's game. if anything, they'd be wise to focus more on what they'd do for the country and less time wasting precious oxygen and airtime even mentioning the current president.
8
Democrats remind me of teachers pets in school who responded to being bullied by finding solace in authority figures, the types of kids who spent their lunch & recess breaks chatting with their English professor inside the classroom instead of engaging with their peers. These are generally good & nice people, but they are not leaders and they rarely did anything to defend the other kids, even if they ran for and sometimes won class president.
We need people who aren't afraid to fight back the bullies, not ones who brag that they have better grades, or plug their ears and recite "Sticks and Stones may break my bones" when things get rough, because that's not doing much for any of us who must deal with the bullies regularly. Unfortunately we live in a combative world and the only way to put down a bully is to embarrass them at their own game.
10
Equal or greater pressure when dealing with a bully. Not turn the other cheek. Kick back harder. No love taps. Bruises.
5
@DENOTE MORDANT
Right there with you, but bullies don't respect anagrams. What's that line from Manhattan?
"A satirical piece in the Times is one thing, but bricks and baseball bats really gets right to the point of it."
1
We went low as one can
go on Kavanaugh. It was
repulsive. Let's see how
much that worked for us.
16
@Karen
First of all, investigating three separate accusations of sexual assault against a Supreme Court nominee is not going low. It only turned into a mess because Republicans refused to give the allegations the time that the investigations deserved.
Kavanaugh went low when, as a sitting judge, he committed obvious and provable perjury under oath on TV. There is little that is lower than that.
Secondly, the only reason the Democrats desperately relied on the Me Too movement to stop this nomination, is that they forgot to go high in the first place.
Going high is protecting the Constitution from blatant corruption.
Trump picked Kavanaugh to shut down the Mueller investigation. He appointed a Justice to obstruct justice. That is low.
The high road was for Democrats to concentrate on that act of corruption. Talking about Kavanaugh at all was a distraction from the real problem with the nomination.
Trump is a corrupt president, unfit to pick justices to any court.
The Republicans are constantly lying and cheating, but you think Constitutional protest for a just cause is going low???!!!!
1
It is not Republicans or conservatives who have verbally assaulted Senators and House members as they go about their daily lives, dining, shopping and working. It was Democrats, liberals and progressives who did so. It was not Republicans who physically intimidated and shouted at Republican members of the Senate committee considering the appointment of now Justice Kavanaugh. It was radical members of the Democrat party who did so. Civility is a two way street. To date it is the Democrat party that has promoted incivility, violence and hatred for anyone that gets in their way.
18
@paul when it comes to vulgar, it's pretty hard to beat your POTUS. But - I don't think that is the issue here. I'm quite Ok with Howard Stern style vulgarity. Vulgarity is nothing but a cosmetic nuance.
Dems did play dirty on Kavanaugh, but it's not dirtier than McConnell on Garland. So yes, it's a two-way street. And both parties are playing dirty.
The fundamental problem is the actual ingredients. the sympathy with Neo-nazi's, the willing ignorance of lying about drinking or drinking problems under oath, the protectionism policy that no economist with an iota of intelligence supports, the unbelievable retardation of being played by a North Korea dictator for PR photo ops.
7
@paul Republicans intimidated and shouted at Democrat members of the Senate Judiciary Committee considering the appointment of Justice Kavanaugh. Republican Senators were responsible for shouting, one after the another. Everyone saw the Republican mob. Judge Kavanaugh, advised by Republican coaches, discarded civility and decency, and reverted to lifetime habits. If civility is a two-way street, the GOP wants to go one way by stealing elections and anything else dirty, gerrymandering and hacking. Republicans are hogging and mobbing. No politician in America is more civil than Beto O’Rourke. Senator Cruz, following Mitch McConnell and his own inclinations, slaps at O’Rourke for being civil in Texas as if that is a crime. Republicans follow their shouting, mob leader who uses every dirty trick.
@paul You do know Trump is a Republican, right? Verbal assault is his meat and potatoes.
Let's imagine this happened...President Barack Obama hosted Jay Z at the White House. Jay Z starts spouting off during his visit and before the press uses profanities in front of Mr. Obama. The Republicans would have a field day with this outburst, shame the President for having a luncheon with such a shady guest and they would have their spokesmen all over the news that night criticizing Pres. Obama.
So did any Democrats step up yesterday after Kanye West's visit to the White House? NO!
13
@Carl Le Fong: Yet, go on over to YouTube and look at the Fox News headline, which shows up multiple times on different versions of the same video: "Intolerant Dems Criticize Kanye."
They are parroting Democratic rhetoric and turning it back upon us, and have been doing so ever since Trump was elected. They are suffering from a major case of kindergarten incoherence: "I know you are, but what am I?"
2
The only way to stand up to a bully is to bully back. Republicans will only level out after theyve been handed sound election defeats and have to face four more dem senators from wash dc and puerto rico
7
It's funny that I had always thought the Democratic Party to be the one of the intellect, the Shepard for the common person and the moral conscience of the free world. I'm not so sure that's a germane thought since Trump's assent to the Presidency. There has emerged a real element of hate in the Democratic Party. There are no meaningful platforms, legislation or candidates being put forth by the party. The focus is trained solely on destroying Trump, at apparently any cost. The question then becomes; if they can do that to Trump, what's to stop them from doing that to anyone else they don't like? In all of Trump's short comings he can at least point to improvements to the US economy and employment. The Democrats, nothing more than a big pile of hate. That's not a viable platform, is not sustainable and is of no use to their constituency. Trump will run his course, as did Obama, then the voters will once again get to decide the right direction for our nation.
5
The Republicans are wrong on almost every issue. The best way to fight them is with education and truth and VOTING. Remember, they've got guns.
7
"including when he encouraged physical responses to protesters at his rallies and suggested that “Second Amendment people” could stop Mrs. Clinton."
I don't like guns and believe it's way too easy to get a hold of them. And mixing gun ownership with self-righteous tribal anger is truly dangerous and irresponsible. But that's what the right is doing. The left needs its own "Second Amendment people."
It sure would be nice if the Democrats could go high, but they have been down in the gutter for so long, it's all they know. It started with Obama badmouthing Bush, and then attacking the police. And the party followed right behind. Obama brought the "Chicago" style politics to DC. Identity politics, failure to uphold the laws, and name calling is all the Democrats know. Now the Republicans finally have someone that will go down to the Democrat's level, and now Holder is saying that they should go even lower.
10
We go high.
It’s the very longest of games.
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
At some thoughts one stands perplexed - especially at the sight of men's sin - and wonders whether one should use force or humble love. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that, once and for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...
Jesus
3
If hitting back harder means telling the truth , then Democrats should hit as hard as possible .
If hitting back harder means reminding the country that President Trump is a pathological liar who will lie at anything to make himself look "great again" then this is a good idea.
If hitting back harder it means that we must shine a light on the Republican Party's lack of empathy and compassion for their fellow citizens then we must hit them as hard as we can.
If hitting back harder means that we must show that President Trump is a neo fascist , whose behavior is frighteningly reminiscent of dictators of the past, then we must hit those that support him so hard that they fall.
And if hitting back harder means that we must stand behind the very likelihood that this president has been compromised by a hostile foreign power, and that he has become "poodle" of Vladimir Putin then we must deliver a knockout punch.
What we must remember is that we are not attacking them as much as we are attacking their destructive and divisive actions . It is important to understand at the same time that we hit back as hard as possible , but always truthfully. Truth will always prevail in the face of a group of liars.
America has lived for years with laws that are not moral, but we must appeal to the laws that are written within every human heart.
8
When the Democratic candidate for Texas's congressional district 10 sent his campaign manager to deliver a letter to Waller County officials, who are trying to suppress the student vote at an historically all-black college in the county, the officials questioned the campaign manager. They asked him what party he was affiliated with. "Democrat," he replied. Ten minutes later, he was arrested. What for? For delivering a letter to county officials, asking them to rescind orders they had given that required students to produce extra documentation beyond what was already required by the state of Texas, in order to vote.
Why isn't the Times writing about these incidents? The Republican party is abusing its power in the worst possible way: preventing opponents from engaging in civic activity, and jailing its political opponents. What is this? Are we a representative democracy or are we a paranoid authoritarian mob of white nationalists?
Republicans are provoking everyone's anger. They are inciting rage with their egregious, un-American intolerance. And have the gall to call the Dems "intolerant" on top of that! Yes, we are intolerant of unfair, unjust treatment. Yes, we protest arbitrary arrests. We will not stand for the bad treatment that Republicans are dishing out to anyone they disagree with or disapprove of. I have never been so angry and disgusted with a political situation in my life.
8
It has been obvious for years--maybe decades-that our two political parties are playing by different rules. Democrats keep appealing to voters' rational self interest, while Republican do anything they can to gain power. It is also clear which is the winning strategy. I heard two stories yesterday about voter suppression in Georgia and Texas that was race based and flagrant. Since Republicans control the courts, they will get away with it. I could go on with a list of misdeeds, but I suspect most NYTs readers know the facts as well as I do. It turns out you can get away with a lot when your opposition is incompetent and does not fight back. How can ordinary citizens get the entire leadership of the Democratic Party to resign or, in most cases, retire.
5
Follow the money
From Politico 10/09/18
"Super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited sums of money in elections, are supposed to regularly disclose their funders.
The move worked like this: Start a new super PAC after a deadline for reporting donors and expenses, then raise and spend money before the next report is due.
If a super PAC launches right before the election, voters won’t know who’s funding it until after they go to the polls.
The strategy — which is legal — is proving increasingly popular The amount of super PAC spending during the 2016 congressional primaries in which the first donor disclosure occurred after the primary election increased from $9 million in 2016 to $15.6 million during the 2018 congressional primaries and special elections.
As Republican Martha McSally battled two opponents in the Arizona Senate primary, a super PAC called Red and Gold spent $1.7 million attacking McSally. Red and Gold notified the FEC it was to file on a monthly basis, with meant i disclosure due Sept. 20, three weeks after the primary election.
When Red and Gold finally disclosed its funders, it was revealed that Senate Majority PAC, which is aligned with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, was the main funder of Red and Gold and had meddled in the primary in an attempt to hurt McSally’s chances of victory and boost a weaker Republican."
Politics is a dirty business. The Democrats are just as good as the Republicans
3
The Republicans have waged a successful 38-year war against democracy and representative government.
They have shown their true colors and they are Russian-Republican, where elections are happily rigged by Republicans choosing their voters and disenfranchising those who don't support their special combination of white spite and Greed Over People.
Democrats support free and fair elections, affordable healthcare reform, taxing the rich, public education, voting rights, science, contraception, the environment, living wages, a safety net, regulation of greedy corporate psychopaths and campaign finance corruption reform.
Republicans support the gerrymander, voter suppression, the slave-era Electoral College, science denialism, white tribalism, authoritarianism, a medieval interpretation of religion, a national shooting gallery, complete 0.1% corruption of the campaigns, 0.1% welfare, completely rigged elections and a Con-Artist-In-Chief whose main talent is lying for a living, whose personal foundation's major accomplishment was the purchase of a six-foot portrait of himself.
There is nothing good, decent or American in Republistan.
Republicans can't stand democracy, but real Americans nevertheless have a duty to register and vote in historic numbers if they have any hope of fighting America's worst enemy, the Russian-Republican oligarchy of unfettered greed cloaked in white spite and its Birther-Liar-in-Chief, Cadet Bone Spurs, and its #1 Snake Oiler.
November 6 2018
158
@Socrates. American Republicans and some Democrats voted for Trump and will re-elect him. To say that Russians elected our president only displays the delusion and total meltdown of people with these views. He is our President.
McConnell:" “We will not let mob behavior drown out all the Americans who want to legitimately participate in the policymaking process.”
Left unspoken by McConnell: "I will personally see that Congress uses every increment of its power, constitutional or not, to drown out all the Americans who want to legitimately participate in the policymaking process."
Dear NYT: the historic, epic story unfolding here is that the Republican party has gone full anti-constitutional authoritarian, and not really that many Democrats are responding understandably with anger and indignation. Although the latter is a good thing! Let's hope it's not too late.
45
@TMSquared
Last year a mob of white Supremacists marched down the street with torches and weapons shouting Nazi slogans, than beat up a handful of peaceful left protesters.
In 2011, the Tea Party got its start by going to Democratic Town Hall meetings and yelling and pushing and shoving.
In 2000 a mob of Republican political operatives shut down the recount of the Gore/Bush election.
Google the videos.
The Republicans love right-wing mobs, which are usually armed and violent.
Left wing protesters are almost always unarmed and peaceful. The worst you can say about left protesters is that they sometimes get rude.
Right wing terrorists have killed more Americans than international terrorists. Left wing terrorists have killed almost no one.
It's not both sides. The right thinks hate, greed and violence is the solution to every problem.
The left fights for love, sharing and peace.
Choose a side.
1
Republicans are Bullies and Democrats just hand over their lunch money. It is painfully obvious that we need Democrats with a spine who can fight the Republicans dirty tactics and actually WIN elections.
Schumer and Pelosi have been turning over their lunch money to the Republicans for so long they cannot even remember the last time they actually won a fight.
36
Without cogent substantive arguments to support their positions, Democrats will sway few swing voters, no matter what style they choose. If they remain enamored of the gutter style, the gutter is where they will likely stay.
13
@Admiral
Your personal projections are no substitute for facts. The Democratic Party is not in the gutter and no one is enamored of it's style.
The Democratic plank is well-known and articulated and the arguments compelling no matter what you say.
2
Anger can never be an effective organizing principle because it is the afterbirth of fear. Kindness and compassion as organizing principles: now there's a challenge worth accepting.
5
I never thought I'd see they day when Dems were encouraging political violence. They always claimed that was a right wing tactic and that they were better than that. I guess we know the truth now.
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James....given the Republican coup d'etat track record of repeatedly rejecting the will of the people through gerrymander, voter suppression, Supreme Court corruption, voter file purges, and black-box vote counting, it's quite understandable that America's have lost patience with Russian-Republican vote-riggers.
The country's been hijacked.
Americans can sit back and take it or revolt.
Decent Americans will revolt at the shredding of American democracy.
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@Socrates
The country has not been "hijacked", republicans have just won the argument. American people have rejected the extremist views of democrats.
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@jaco
American elections have been hijacked by Republican vote suppressors.
The evidence is everywhere.
Closing polling places in communities of color
Purging eligible voters from the rolls without their knowledge
Barring felons from voting
Voter ID laws
Eliminating early voting
https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-have-a-secret-weapon-in-the-mi...
Rigged Russian-Republicans can't stand democracy.
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Sad state of affairs the the party of FDR, HST, and Bobby Kennedy has become the party of Cory Booker, Michael Avenatti and George Soros and his well paid army of professionally protesters.
The trouble with not denouncing violence and harassment from radical people who may share some of you ideas is that one day the tables will be turned. What will Maxine Waters say when the next egg or tomato is thrown is her face. I wonder how Eric Holder will like it when someone blows a whistle in his ear at his table at NOBU.
If Dems had any moral back bone they would denounce extorionists like Avenatti, but they are too afraid of being excoriated on social media and CNN. Soon the new Fascists, Antifa will be coming for them too.
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@mbrody
I am a left protester. I know many of the left protesters. We are not getting paid. We do this in our spare time because we love our country and we love our Constitution.
If you know where I can get a job protecting Our Republic from the Party of Trump, please post the contact information below.
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Michelle was right.
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Democrats need to coordinate their outrage like the crew at Fox News does. Pick a topic and grind on it. Corruption is a good one, along with paying taxes is patriotic
I find it hilarious that the folks at trump rallies wrap themselves in patriotism and hate paying their fair share while voting for someone who doesn’t pay any! Think of the projects that we could fund if we went after corruption and tax Cheats.
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what is a fair share? you do know the rich pay way more then the average person right?
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@Barry: And yet, they still don't pay the same proportion of their wealth in taxes as the average American does. When they are paying thr same proportion of their income to the tax authorities as I am, then maybe they can start complaining. When they are left scraping up small change at the end of every month, as many average Americans are forced to do, then maybe they will be paying their "fair" share.
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@Deirdre
Yes, the Constitution is the operating instructions of our country. The flag and anthem are symbols authorized by the Constitution. This makes the Constitution far more important.
Republicans wrap themselves in the flag and sing the anthem while they trample on the Constitution.
Saving the United States Constitution should be the flour tart hold everyone outside of the Party of Trump together. Fight for it with everything we have.
1
The underlying assumption being that the Democrats ever "went high."
It's a lie.
It was always a lie.
Democrats have always played dirty and "low," they just got outmatched and out-hustled by Trump.
He brought nukes to the gun fight.
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To man of us Democratic rabble, "Going high" was always a losing battle, and it's made us furious. Michelle has always been wrong on this count. This is not high school. The only way to win against a party who long ago abandoned any shred of ethics (see: voter suppression, gerrymandering, stonewalling Supreme Court nominations, lying, cheating, stealing, molesting) is to take them down any way you can. If the Republicans maintain control of our country at every level, the Great Experiment that has been the United States will prove a failure. We're on the precipice. It won't take much to fall, and there will be no recovery. Ever.
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It's about time. The " rules " for the GOP: there are none. They lie, cheat and steal, it's the only way they can win. This is War, and if WE continue to play nice and roll over, we continue to get slaughtered. PERIOD.
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Behaving with political ethics, morals and basic decency unfortunately hasn't worked for the Democrats. The Republicans have abandoned all decorum, morality, ethics and any sense of compunction, and they control the House, the Senate, the White House and now the SCOTUS. Unfortunately, taking the low road has paid off for the GOP. The Democrats need to change their approach as, in modern US politics, nice people finish last.
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@Andrew: Was it ethical for Senator Feinstein to hold onto Ford's letter for nearly 2 months, and then to leak it to the press at the last minute of the Kavanaugh hearings without Ford's approval? Don't talk to me about ethics and Democrats. They don't correlate. Democrats will do whatever is necessary to win, including bald faced lying.
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@paul Rubbish. For starters, one swallow does not a summer make. Second, Feinstein was specifically asked by Ford to maintain the confidentiality of the letter. Have a look at the sworn testimony.
The Dems are far from perfect but are Saints by comparison to Republicans, who now don’t even attempt to disguise lies.
@Andrew
Democrats changing their approach does not mean responding with mean, angry, lying, hateful, rants that divide the country. Strength does not come from those sources; only a certain type of power--weak, craven, corrupting power. The only power worth having is that based on fundamental morality, ethics, decorum and some modicum of compassion for all of our countrymen and women.
Mrs. Obama is absolutely right, if the United States of America is to maintain it’s status as a world power and leader we need to show our own country and the world that we are led by civilized adults and civilized diplomats.
Anyone can have a bad day, but to act like a thug on a regular basis is in no way showing the next generation the correct way to live.
No matter who you are rich, poor, educated or uneducated most of us appreciate a person with good manners and understand that if you give respect, 99% of the time you get respect back.
Go high America.
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BTO.....go high America ?
With the Trump-GOP Toilet driving the country into its sewer of greed, white spite, and Grand Old Power hijacking every branch of government via voter suppression, voter file purge, gerrymander, Senate Obstruction, and Supreme Court hijacking ?
You can't go high when right-wing hijackers are driving the national plane into the ground.
The USA has been completely politically hijacked.
It's a national emergency that may or may not be solved through historic voter turnout on November 6 2018.
It's time to storm the Russian-Republican political cockpit.
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@BTO
I like this rhetoric. But the high road is incredibly difficult. Giving in to anger and resorting to violence and war is much easier than overcoming differences and building coalitions and working together (unless, of course, those coalitions are brought together in order to fight war).
Trust in God, but don't leave your house unlocked.
@BTO "most of us appreciate a person with good manners and understand that if you give respect, 99% of the time you get respect back." That may be true "99% of the time," but we're dealing with a bunch of 1%ers.
5
What the Democrats need to propound is a clear vision of where they want to take the country and what it will take to get there. Revisiting the vision of Vice President Henry A. Wallace would be a sound starting point, with a clear message on climate change added for good measure.
Actions speak louder than words and what we need is right action. Let the Republicans define themselves as they will, the Democratic Party needs to be the party of good governance, governing of the people, by the people, and for the people, all the people.
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