NYC 17 asked an important question in the comments of the voting laws post, so I feel somewhat compelled to clarify a few things.

I would never and have never considered members of the Republican party to be “bad” people. I used to be one. So, when I say something like “Republican abuses” I am talking about the leadership of the party, though I might be talking about the national, state, or local organizations.

That being said, I also mentioned that Republicans that follow the national playbook on electoral politics and strategy are complicit in the lies and abuse. When your leadership lies to raise funds, and you use the funds to win your local elections, you’re part of the problem. Leadership means standing up to people who perpetually lie to boost your chances at the poll.

There’s an interesting debate on why the Democrats can’t compete with Republicans on messaging. Here’s the money quote from Duncan Black (aka Atrios):

… it just seems like the Democrats really don’t know how to work the media on these issues. It is true SCHIP has the advantage of being easy - “Bush does’t want kids to have health care” - and the Democrats have been better at their media push than usual.

I get the sense that Democrats craft these things behind closed doors, try to come up with palatable bipartisan agreements, and then show up on the teevee the day of the vote and announce that they passed it. That’s wonderful, if it’s a good bill which actually passes and gets a veto override if necessary. What isn’t wonderful is if they do all that and it doesn’t get enacted into law.

The Republican version would’ve been to spend 6 months telling people that kids are GOING TO DIE RIGHT NOW UNLESS THIS BILL PASSES and beating the Democrats into submission. That isn’t how our team works. Which is fine, if it achieves something. Not fine if it doesn’t.

He’s absolutely right, and the depressing thing is that while I want the Democrats to win, I don’t really like the idea of blowing every issue out of proportion in order to get the public to support you. It’s insanely dishonest, and it’s why we have such polarized politics.

Republicans are always going around warning of how Democrats are out to get you. It’s the party of scaring people. If Democrats pass changes to the Patriot Act, or bring the NSA and CIA back into FISA compliance, terrorists will attack you in your home tomorrow. If the Democrats want to bring troops home, they aren’t supporting the troops. If they criticize a general whose activity is entirely political, they scream about how Democrats don’t support the troops. Every potential vote or resolution that might be politically inconvenient for Republicans WILL KILL YOU.

Or, make you gay. Or destroy your family. You get the idea.

Stand up, sensible Republicans. You must exist, but you’re happy to be silent when your team is winning. That’s pathetic.

PS. One clarification on my politics moratorium. It’s not that I won’t post links to political topics or stories, but that I’m not going to do long form original commentary like this. I just get worked up and it’s not really good for my concentration or general sanity. This country is in trouble, and it stands at the feet of the Republicans who lie to win, consequences be damned, and Democrats who can’t figure out how to win even when the truth is on their side. At least one side is trying to be honorable, but it seems in this day and age that’s simply not enough.

So, commentary like this is generally out. Besides, as I said before, I don’t think my thoughts are original, so go read the smarter folks out there.

Update: Gosh, I forgot the most obvious example of lying imaginable, President Bush’s claims in 2003 that he hadn’t made up his mind to go to war. It was garbage then, as the transcripts of his conversation with Aznar show. It’s been reported in books and newspapers before, but it doesn’t matter. He lied. No Republican will criticize this and no media outlet will make a big stink about it. Indeed, media organizations like CBS, The Times, and others have actively suppressed stories critical of the administration. There’s something to be said for over-consolidation in the news media, but honest Republicans can also stand up and speak truthfully about these things.