Democratic Strategy Review

So as I was watching the Sunday talk shows yesterday I noticed that almost everyone is talking about the democrats taking back Congress in the upcoming midterm elections and the strategies of both parties to either make that happen or not. Then I remembered that a while back, on this blog, I laid out what I thought the democratic message should be including several talking points democrats could use to be more effective in their campaigns. I'd like to take a few minutes and review those comments and discuss if those are being used or not. If you don't remember, I discussed this in my Feb 2, 2006 post.

1) Talking points:
-Contradictions in Republican policy
-Republican cuts in education funding
-Failed Medicare Part D role-out
-Mismanagement of Katrina (NOT mentioning the word crony)

So far Democrats really haven't done any of these things effectively. The one thing I have heard a lot of lately is the Dems are going to talk a lot about Katrina and general incompetence throughout the administration. I just don't think that will work. When you are the minority party you have to be specific and use overwhelmingly clear logic as to how the majority party is incompetent and what they did wrong. The other thing that bothers me is whenever a Dem gets on TV and someone asks about healthcare instead of talking about Medicare Part D (which is frustrating everyone in America) they start rambling on about universal health care coverage. STOP TALKING ABOUT UNIVERSAL COVERAGE!!!!!!

Any time someone thinks about universal coverage they thing about communism or massive government programs or anything except making sure all Americans can get adequate healthcare. If Dems can't control their urges to about healthcare then talk about the plan passed recently in Massachusetts, it's close to universal coverage but it's not a huge government program.

Ok Matt, enough attacking and let's start talking about action. As you said before, the Dems can criticize all they want but if there's no plan of action for a return to a great America then the Dems don't win.

What I said before:
1) All about education
2)Create personal interest in rebuilding Gulf Coast
3)Reform Medicare Part D by reducing the number of available plans from the hundreds to tens and requiring companies to be more flexible with covered medications
4)Start real alternative energy program
5)No gay marriage talk

Again, the Dems have been way too general in their criticism of this administration. Yes, they talk about high gas prices and that the federal government was asleep during Katrina, but COME ON!!! I'm dying over here in ambiguously unspecific land. Everyone knows they screwed up!! How do we fix the response? Get involved! Why isn't someone on the Homeland Security Committee out there making speeches? Why aren't people calling for specific reforms? Hell, I've been through a few hurricanes, I could almost be an effective FEMA director.

What peeves me the most these days is all the talk about high gas prices. Get over it!! We need to invest in alternative energy, and not just research, actual infrastructure. We have the technology, we have several alternatives like ethanol and other biofuels but we don't have the infrastructure to process it or transport it. One of the big reasons that gas prices are the way they are now is that we can't get enough ethanol into the gas supply so we're supply limited because we didn't have the necessary piping, shipping, and processing infrastructure in place for this transition from MTBE's.

If gas prices continue to be an issue this summer and through fall I'd make this a big issue. If there was one issue besides Iraq that would decide the election it's this. If you build the infrastructure then we buy less oil from middle east and we become less dependent on them, meaning we can be more forcefully diplomatically in resisting their attempts at acquiring nuclear weapons and denying Israel's right to exist.

Whew! And I didn't even touch on Iraq yet. That's all I got though, it's getting late and if I started talking about Iraq I'd write for about another hour. Hope you found this interesting.