The Winning Argument Democratic Candidates Won't Make

Steve M. writes that Chris Coons missed a huge opportunity during his debate with Christine O'Donnell:

Yes, Coons should have said, as he did, that he was referring to himself facetiously when he said a college trip to Kenya turned him into, in his friends' eyes, "a bearded Marxist." But he should also have said:

Ms. O'Donnell, this is a McCarthyite attack. It's the kind of attack that's very common among you and your friends in the conservative movement and the tea party. You can't accept that we have some disagreements on tax rates or the role of government -- you have to accuse anyone who disagrees with you of being disloyal to this country and of not having this country's best interests at heart.

And excuse me, Miss O'Donnell -- the capital gains tax is Marxist? We've had a capital gains tax in this country for nearly a century, under Republican presidents and Congresses as well as Democratic presidents and Congresses. Republicans as well as Democrats have sometimes felt the need to raise taxes as well as lower them. Are you calling all of these leaders Marxist? Ronald Reagan raised some taxes. Was he a Marxist? Was Franklin Delano Roosevelt a Marxist? Was George Bush the father, who was shot down fighting for this country in World War II, and who raised taxes -- was he a Marxist? Were these people disloyal to America? Were they trying to destroy this country because the tax rates they presided over were higher than the ones you support? Was Eisenhower's use of taxes to pay for the interstate highway system Marxist? Are Medicare and Social Security Marxist? Were those who fought for those benefits being disloyal to this country?

I just want to know how far you think the disloyalty goes. I'm just one candidate, and you're free to smear me all you want. But you and your movement spend a lot of time smearing everyone in this country who sees things differently from the way you do, and that is outrageous.

This isn't Alan Grayson-style I'm-not-the-Antichrist-you're-the-Antichrist hyperbole. This would be somber, measured righteous indignation. It's something we never get from a Democrat. And this country is in peril the longer we go on without a single politician who'll say something like this.

Personally, I don't think Grayson's attacks are remotely close to hyperbolic, but I take Steve's point.

Righteous indignation is exactly the missing element in Democratic campaigns over the past 20 years.

The only logical response to every single thing the wingnut freakazoids have said and done - from shutting down the government and impeaching Clinton to handing $700 billion we don't have to the already obscenely rich - is this:

Are you fucking kidding me?

But instead of toning that down slightly - to perhaps "Ask the doctors to check your medication - it's making you hallucinate" - Democratic candidates accept the parameters of republican insanity where facts and reality can never win.

Have you made phone calls for your Democratic Congressional candidate today?