the 2004 election and post 9/11 era was so deranged. Democrats approached Bush's "strength" on national security the same way a kid getting bullied as a "four eyes" thinks getting contacts will stop the bullying.
They aren't bullying you because you wear glasses, but because they like hurting you!
Ah yes, the Dems didn't understand that 2004 was about national security which is why they didn't nominate a Vietnam vet to contrast with the combat-avoiding incumbent and why the vet they didn't nominate didn't repudiate his antiwar past and launch the national convention with "reporting for duty!"
"Democrats are unpatriotic pussies"
"Oh yea?! What if we nominated a WAR HERO. Who's a pussy now, huh?"
"Democrats are unpatriotic pussies. John Kerry is Democrat therefore he is unpatriotic and a pussy. QED"
The "liberal" US media was more than happy to play along of course, with mainstream sources giving extensive coverage to the manufactured lie that Kerry's military record was faked and his medals undeserved. Pretty shitty strategy by the Dems who thought they could win on the GOP's terms!
So much confusion caused by people in politics thinking "conservative values" are stuff like "respect for honor and duty and patriotism" when they're actually "respect for power, wealth and violence." Former view would leave you mystified, latter view explains McCain and Kerry's humiliation
lol ya weeks of joe the plumber coverage because the media found one (1) blue collar-presenting guy who was willing to voice an uninformed right wing opinion about taxes
The non-skeptical coverage of Ohio's Joe-the-not-Plumber is one warning sign that journalists weren't ready for the violent dishonesty of Trump and his followers.
He did an interview on Thom Hartmann where he was only asked plumbing questions.
I did learn how to maintain a clear drain, so at least it wasn’t all a ruse.
Fucking ACORN!! I was a reporter in LA during that time and did a ton of stories about them and was absolutely baffled by the right wing portrayal of them as this demonic force. They were my favorite people at the time to cover because it was this big group of kindly but determined little old women
who would feed me and tell me how proud they were of their grandkids at events. They registered people to vote en masse was all. They changed the culture of LA for the better. Anyway... I'm still mad about it obviously
No one explained to me how bad faith these attacks were! I couldn't get a satisfactory explanation. By the time I figured out it was all in bad faith, I had lost so much faith in human nature. Haha
I will spend the rest of my life insisting that ACORN was the single biggest unforced error by the Democrats this century. Think we'd have lost by 78,000 votes in 2016 if we still had them doing voter registration/turnout?
Joe the unlicensed, possibly scab, plumber at that. But not so different than the reports that DJT & Biden were courting the the UAW during the recent UAW strike, no Trump didn't. He spoke to a non-union shop.
Is it actually possible the circus is less fucked up now? (It's because nobody is doing town halls or debates and the two choices are absolutely permanent, despite 34+ convictions)
bill clinton beat two vets, W beat two vets, obama beat one of the most famous vets of the 20th century. politics knowers cared way more about vet status than actual voters. i think that era has passed though
100%. That’s one reason why I hate it so much when Biden and other Dems try to play the “tough on border security/immigration” game. You’ll never impress the bigots! The only difference is millions of refugees will be hurt in the process.
It's all the more shocking given the swift boat lies. It was clear that the "truth" was Dems were soft on NatSec and anything that went against the "truth" was spin.
And now we are in a situation where half of Republicans support sabotaging NATO and letting Russia just conquer whole chunks of Eastern Europe, while Democrats are mostly business as usual, and somehow the GOP still has a reputation of "strong on defense." 🤷♀️
