Here's what DC's image makers have given the Democratic Party

[Capn Sunshine]

This letter in yesterdays LA Times says it all. Folks, this is what the 37% (Bush Supporters) ACTUALLY BELIEVE about us. I left the guys name in because it was printed in the LA Times.

Brooks is wrong to say that Democrats do not stand for anything. They stand unapologetically for an unrestrained right to abortion — including the barbaric partial-birth abortion procedure — at any time for anyone. They stand solidly against the war on terror and as advocates for the rights of any American citizen to engage in a tete-a-tete with an Al Qaeda member free from government eavesdropping. They stand like a rock against judicial candidates who believe that the Constitution should be the law's final arbiter.

These core principles reverberate throughout most of the party activists louder than a Howard Dean scream.

STEVEN FANTINA

Phillipsburg, N.J.

There you go, folks. This is the REAL product of the Rove control of the media. And the image the tepid "don't scare the middle of the road voter" DC consultants have left us with. We have totally given the framing of things over to them. We respond with their language. We allow them to define where the middle is. All of it.

[blm]

1. Dem party needs to expose GOP control of media and voting machines.

The DNC needs to hear this from us RELENTLESSLY. It cannot be ignored any longer. We've had EVERY Dem and every leader who has stuck their necks out successfully ATTACKED by the corporate machine since 1997.

[mrgorth]

2. I like the image makers as little as you

Yet, this is the product of the RW media machine. Also, you can find plenty of active threads on this board saying the very thing about abortion that this person accuses of if not worse.

[Capn Sunshine]

6. It's a two-sided thing

Failure to strongly address this RW spin has led us to this state today. The image guys insist if we react strongly and forcefully to this that we'll lose votes.

In my opinion, M, this is exactly the opposite of what it is.
The people are begging us to give them a reason to vote for us, to say we're different.

For example when anyrepublican asks me why I'm a Democrat ( I get this all the time, being in the Finance Industry) the FIRST thing I say is :

I'm a Democrat because I'm against torture.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. That HAS to be astroturf

Can't be anything else. Let's start searching for the same text at every local newspaper. It's just a hunch right now, but I bet that's not the only LTE like it out there.

[Capn Sunshine]

5. I hadn't thought of that

You're probably right. The Times editors hate to be sucked in by such crap

[Mythsaje]

4. My reply?

Dear Average Republican,

There is NO "liberal agenda" but the shared interest of liberals who want to see things get better for everyone. You, your parents, and the guy who bags groceries down at the corner market. Liberals want to see you with enough money to buy groceries, pay off your house, and put at least one fuel-efficient vehicle in your garage.

It's not an agenda. It's people hoping for the best for other people.

It's about hoping that your Uncle John, who's been farming the same plot of land for the last 40 years, doesn't lose his farm because he falls off his tractor and breaks his leg and can't pay his doctor bill. It's about hoping that you have some options when your town's biggest employer goes belly-up because it can't compete with that textile factory in China.

It's about making sure you get paid enough that you don't have to take two or three jobs just to make ends meet. So you can spend more time with your family...so you can play catch with your kids, or take them fishing on weekends, or take them to the local swimming hole or municipal pool to teach them how to swim.

It's not an agenda to want the best for people. It's just humanity. It's about being a good neighbor, even if that neighbor lives half a country away.

Ask a liberal what empathy is...it's about understanding where someone else is coming from. And most of us try very hard, even if we don't agree.

Being a liberal isn't about making fun of God, or your beliefs about him. Most liberals take the Sermon on the Mount to heart. They try to live the teachings of Jesus, even if some aren't sure he's really the Son of God. Thomas Jefferson called him the World's Greatest Moral Philosopher. You'll find very few liberals who'd disagree with that.

It's because of liberals that your ten year olds get to go to school rather than being forced to work in factories for spare change. It's because of liberals that you can trust your workplace to be safe and free of unexpected dangers. It is because of liberals that, should you be injured at work, you can expect fair medical treatment and compensation for your lost work, and have money coming in if you’re laid off. It’s also because of liberals that you have reasonably clean water to drink and bathe in, and that the local swimming hole isn’t completely polluted.

That's what we do. We try to look out for everybody. Even the people who hate us. We don't have an agenda. We don't take marching orders from anyone. We do what we do because we believe in people. We believe in you.

All we ask is that you begin to believe in us.

[Capn Sunshine]

7. That is a very nice letter

I was so pissed when I read that original letter that I couldn't write one without using "fuck" about twenty times.

[Mythsaje]

8. I know what you mean...

That's why I'm putting together a collection of rebuttals that are written when my emotions AREN'T in a wringer. LOL