It is the economy stupid

[nadinbrzezinski]

That is one reason for the results on Tuesday.

Another... yes the American voter... as an AGREGATE, is dumber than a box of rocks. You do not approach that voter with highly technical analysis that require higher brain functions. You approach that voter with a box of crayons.

This same voter, in the aggregate, responds to leaders that do NOT compromise. That is the reality, deal with it. All this talk of compromise, even after Mitch McConnel has declared war, will make the Dems in general and yes the POTUS in particular, fit that cartoon of the Lib'rul wimp. Muricans don't like wimps.

So that is the truth. If the Economy improves (and it will) you cannot go about how much we are doing with Pubbies, but IN SPITE of Pubbies.

I hate to do this since this country is polarized like it has not been since oh the civil war, but that's the truth.

So get ready to bring out your box of crayons and yes a little REAL populism is needed.

Yes the chicken in every pot approach of Huey Long is exactly what is fucking needed... and for Dems to act like well... DEMS and find a fucking spine.

[Drale]

1. The economy is only as smart as the businessman

who are in charge of the company's. So right now I would say yes the economy is very very stupid and greedy as well.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yeah but people vote or not vote

based on how well they are personally doing.

[suston96]

3. Great post but let me add this.....

It's a government of checks and balances.

We Democrats have the Presidency and the Senate. They have the House.

Now 8th Grade Social Studies: We have them deuced! And remember the last Congress? This Congress going out of business?

The Republicans had nothing - a screeching minority that brought the Democratic controlled Congress a lot of grief!

The Republican House - that's all they have - cannot do shit! They want to impeach Obama? Let them try. They want to legislate? They had better befriend a bunch of Democrats in the House and in the Senate.

Do I have to draw pictures?

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. There is that too

but read what McConnel had to say today at Heritage

http://republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Blogs.View&Blog_Id=5094359f-c864-4679-a9e7-2b54ba08e472

I posted the whole screed before, but read it.

We are at the point where there cannot be any more compromise. That is what the voter respects...

[abelenkpe]

7. They will do all they can to impeach

and investigate and prolong the economic misery of the working class in the hopes that voters will (as they have shown they will) re-elect repubs in the next election. Checks and balances, geezus that's not going to impede the right and their anonymous donors.

[AndyTiedye]

4. It is the UNLIMITED ANONYMOUS CORPORATE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

The USSC did us in (again) with it's "Citizens United" decision.

Russ Feingold was outspent 4 to 1 and defeated by an unknown wingnut.

Every Democrat is vulnerable to this sort of thing now.

We are FUCKED as long as the other side can just go to the insurance companies, etc, for a huge check
(which they pass on as rate increases to their customers — buying elections is now a legitimate cost of doing business).

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Yes but there is also that economy

and why can corporations influence the voter? They are dumber than a box of rocks. They know it. They know that the voter will react to FEAR.

We don't

[Ozymanithrax]

8. The economy, by it's nature, follows a natural wave pattern...

with ups and downs.

Unregulated economies have enormous swings from Depression to runaway booms.

Regulated economies remove the peaks and the troughs, but there are still upswings and downswings.

The economy isn't stupid, it is just a form rising and falling energy.

I don't like saying the population is dumb as a box of rocks. What they are is prey to heard mentality. You can discuss things with an individual member of a herd, but the herd is dumb as a box of rocks. If they are uncomfortable and insecure, quite a few will swing to the other side, because the don't give a fuck about politics and have no clue why they are uncomfortable. They just want the economic pain to go away. They want instasnt gratification.

Partisans on either side will justify remaining with their party because they believe that parties ideas are the best. It is the non-partisans, independents and the non-partisan Democrats and non-partisan Republicans that are prone to panic swings. They are low information voters who don't think about politics until it impacts their lives, and then they vote to stop the pain. If they get gratification, they go back to their lives. If not, they swing again.

If the economy has not improved sufficiently b 2012 (Japan's economy has been in the doldrums for more than a decade since their big economic malfunction) then there will be another wave.

But there is no telling which way that will break.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. But that is the kind of intellectual analysis

that the box of rocks don't get.

They get...

I will give you jobs! Them are against your job. Them will let furiegners in! It is bout you!

Yes it is that simple.

If the Dems start with... WE"RE GETTING YOU JOBS... and PROVE IT... the voter won't care how.

If the dems go after banksters... (populism)

I don't count on it.

[Ozymanithrax]

11. But I'm not talking with boxes of rocks here.

I agree that my argument would not be bought by the right, most of he independents, and even by people here on the left. Too many words.

In my own "Some Planks for a Progressive Platform" I try to take a sound bite approach, with a bit more explanation, but KISS will be essential. Republicans unerstand that sound bites appealing to emotions is the way to win. We like to call them dumb, but they are not dumb. They understand group dynamics and what it takes to appeal to a heard.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. In other words they get fear

and that was the point of the OP.

[laughingliberal]

9. Hell, yeah! nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Kick even if not popular

[Curmudgeoness]

14. It was Hoover with the chicken in every pot. But I get what you are

saying. And I agree. When learning how to write for the general public, we were taught to write at a seventh grade level. People do not want to think too hard. Clear and simple.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. It used to be eight when I started writing fiction

now we are at sixth... I am not kidding you.

And we need to ramp up the fear.

Granpa Republicans are gutting social security... while true... is also simple and easy to digest.

Oh and works in a bumper sticker too.

Or just keep it to

REPUBLICANS ARE KILLING SOCIAL SECURITY.

REPUBLICANS ARE KILLING THE VA

REPUBLICANS ARE KILLING MEDICARE.

Yes I could use gutting, but that is too complex of a world and I want to get the reptilian brain.

[Curmudgeoness]

16. You've got the point. Bumper sticker messages. Easy to read,

simple, concise. I like.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Feel free to use

I think we should make this a cottage industry since the DNC wil not go there. It is ... unseemly. (There I go with the one dollar word)

[unkachuck]

18. you're right on, nadinbrzezinski....

....in this era of political polarization, independent 'dumber than a box of rocks' voters in the middle will win, politicians in the middle will lose....