How’s that for an advertisement in every down-ticket Republican race, from the school board to the Senate?
“We’ve heard it before,” you might say. Sure you have.
But have you heard it from the top of the Democratic ticket?
How about this one?
We have to ask ourselves, ‘Why should we work within the Democratic Party if we don’t agree with anything the Democratic Party says?’
“But wait a minute,” you tell me, “I kind of agree with that — and more important, The Bern is going to change it, so Go Bernie.” Okay, I understand where you’re coming from. But my question is, do you think that would make for a more successful ad for the down-ticket Democrat or the down-ticket Republican?
Right. The down-ticket Republican.
If, as Sanders said, “there essentially is no difference” between the two Parties, why would people oust their Republican congress-critter with some seniority in exchange for a new one? After all, according to Sanders, “the two-party system is a sham.”
This one will be on a flyer that hits every mailbox in America:
Democrats have no ideology. Their ideology is opportunism.
Yeah, that should really help Democrats this November.
Will down-ticket Democrats thank Sanders for saying Democrats and Republicans are “tweedle-dee” and “tweedle-dum” for their “ideology of greed and vulgarity”? I don’t think so.
None of this is particularly surprising coming from Sanders, who was, until he decided to run for President, never a Democrat. But what is surprising is that people actually think Sanders, as a candidate, will be a boon to down-ticket races. His own words will be Republicans’ strongest weapon in every race in the country.
I know many of you are truly enamored of the guy, and I get why. He’s saying a lot of things many of us have longed to hear from quite a long time. But we, at one time, prided ourselves on being the reality-based community, and without even discussing who might win in a race with Sanders on the ticket, I think it’s reality-based to understand that Sanders’ own words will be devastating to anybody else running with a (D) after their names.
Go for it. Attack at will. Distract, accuse, and twist. Say “strawman” and “ad hominem,” dredge up old comments and old diaries. None of that will change Sanders’ own words. And none of it will change the very simple fact that Bernie Sanders himself will have written every Republican attack ad for the 2016 cycle if he’s the Democratic nominee.