We Know Democrats are Self-Destructive, But This Is Ridiculous

For the 70-zillionth time, repugs will never, never, NEVER vote for a Democratic candidate. For any reason. Not in return for their heart's desire, not under threat of having to watch their children ripped limb from limb and fed, still screaming, to gay mooslin terrists.

Never.

Any attempt by a Democratic candidate to attract republican votes is far, far worse than merely wasted effort. It actively LOSES votes in the only place where votes for Democratic candidates can be found:

Among Democrats.

Who CAN be persuaded to vote for Democratic candidates - but not if those Democratic candidates have been shitting on Democratic principles in a vain chase after repug votes.

There are millions of Democratic voters out there who need a fire lit under their asses to get them to get out and vote. The combination of repug failure, Barack Obama's promise and the threat of Sarah Palin did it in 2008.

But the insistence of the Obama maladministration and cowardly, bought-off, corporatist dems in Congress on destroying the lives of Democratic voters to gain repug approval is going to act as superglue in November, keeping Democratic voters away from the polls.

Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars:

It's a cynical political strategy almost beyond belief, but it's becoming obvious that President Obama and the Democratic leaders plan to let the Republicans do what they've tried to do since the days of FDR: Cut Social Security.

Members of President Obama's deficit commission huddled behind closed doors Wednesday despite pleas from the left and right that they hold all their meetings in public.

The move only heightens suspicion that rather than forging a national consensus on future spending priorities, the commission's work will consist of backroom dealings in which members of the Washington aristocracy find high-minded excuses for cutting the social safety net.

[...] Reed said the "actual deliberations are going to be in public, at the full commission meetings."

Uh huh. Right. And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.
When I wrote about this last week, some readers insisted it would "never" happen, and questioned whether there was any logical reason Obama would support benefit cuts. So I talked to a couple of D.C. Social Security activists this week and posed that very question. I was told that Obama's reelection strategy was based on allowing Social Security cuts to win over independent voters. (Apparently it polls well with the Tea Party crowd.)

Read the whole thing.

The GOP could nominate the ghost of Ted Kennedy in every red district in the country, and "independent" (translation: republican) voters still would not vote for the Democratic candidate.

Voters who dislike their party's candidate do NOT vote for the opposing party's candidate; they stay home and don't vote at all. It is possible, with enormous effort and at enormous expense, to so tar the opposition with, say, its support for BP, to make enough voters stay home to swing the election. But that's taking the long, hard, costly road.

Far easier, cheaper, quicker, more effective and more likely to work is inspiring your own natural supporters into overcoming inertia and voting for you.

That's what elected Barack Obama and Democratic majorities in 2008. Doing the opposite this year is going to destroy them.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....