EPISODE · Feb 13, 2025 · 44 MIN
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 - 'Fractured' Democrats actually win on issues but lose on messaging
from The Ron Show · host Ron Roberts
Greg Bluestein's reporting that Democrats are "fracturing" over Trump's "hardline" immigration agenda (literally the headline) included a nugget that - to me - was the story. "...a poll published this month by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed that roughly 60% believe there should be a way for most people who have come to the U.S. unlawfully to “stay in the country legally if certain requirements are met.” As Donald Trump's polling begins to take the predictable slide, Democrats seem to not realize that they still win on issues, but they definitely lose on messaging and branding. Hell they could call on the ghost of GOP past: Ronald Reagan (who'd be branded a fire-breathing liberal by today's MAGA standards - gave amnesty to three million undocumented immigrants in 1986. Did Joe Biden even utter the "a" word? Nope. Should he have? Mmmmmaybe? I mean, if 57% of reddish-state Georgians feel there should be a way for the undocumented to "stay here" but "with conditions," you have to believe that number is at least that high if not higher, nationally. Get this: House Democrats are "pissed" that grassroots ogranizations like Indivisible and MoveOn are applying heat on them to "do something." I get it; what can a party almost completely out of power in Washington actually do, right? Still, bellyaching about grassroots activists being active at this point seems tone deaf. Brian Tyler Cohen went off on Elon Musk's self-serving via DOGE trying to root out "waste & fraud" while actually dismantling USAID, whose inspector general was investigating SpaceX and its Starlink terminals used in the Ukraine War front. Mere coincidence, surely. Cohen also notes that a neutered USAID gives China room to step up globally and fill the 'humanitarian goodwill' void. You know, "soft power." How's that benefit Elon? Tesla just opened a 'megapack' battery plant alongside its vehicle manufacturing faciity in Shanghai. You connect the dots. There's also the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - which actually nets a positive return on investment (ROI) for taxpayers. Not exactly 'waste, fraud and abuse." Instead, from Elon and his 'Muskrats' boyband, we get noise about condoms in ̶G̶a̶z̶a̶ Mozambique - which is traced back to George W. Bush's PEPFAR program to eradicate HIV from the third world. Losing goodwill ground in the same Mozambique where ISIS has a presence seems ... shortsighted.
What this episode covers
Greg Bluestein's reporting that Democrats are "fracturing" over Trump's "hardline" immigration agenda (literally the headline) included a nugget that - to me - was the story. "...a poll published this month by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed that roughly 60% believe there should be a way for most people who have come to the U.S. unlawfully to “stay in the country legally if certain requirements are met.” As Donald Trump's polling begins to take the predictable slide, Democrats seem to not realize that they still win on issues, but they definitely lose on messaging and branding. Hell they could call on the ghost of GOP past: Ronald Reagan (who'd be branded a fire-breathing liberal by today's MAGA standards - gave amnesty to three million undocumented immigrants in 1986. Did Joe Biden even utter the "a" word? Nope. Should he have? Mmmmmaybe? I mean, if 57% of reddish-state Georgians feel there should be a way for the undocumented to "stay here" but "with conditions," you have to believe that number is at least that high if not higher, nationally. Get this: House Democrats are "pissed" that grassroots ogranizations like Indivisible and MoveOn are applying heat on them to "do something." I get it; what can a party almost completely out of power in Washington actually do, right? Still, bellyaching about grassroots activists being active at this point seems tone deaf. Brian Tyler Cohen went off on Elon Musk's self-serving via DOGE trying to root out "waste & fraud" while actually dismantling USAID, whose inspector general was investigating SpaceX and its Starlink terminals used in the Ukraine War front. Mere coincidence, surely. Cohen also notes that a neutered USAID gives China room to step up globally and fill the 'humanitarian goodwill' void. You know, "soft power." How's that benefit Elon? Tesla just opened a 'megapack' battery plant alongside its vehicle manufacturing faciity in Shanghai. You connect the dots. There's also the dismantling of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - which actually nets a positive return on investment (ROI) for taxpayers. Not exactly 'waste, fraud and abuse." Instead, from Elon and his 'Muskrats' boyband, we get noise about condoms in ̶G̶a̶z̶a̶ Mozambique - which is traced back to George W. Bush's PEPFAR program to eradicate HIV from the third world. Losing goodwill ground in the same Mozambique where ISIS has a presence seems ... shortsighted.
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Wednesday, February 12, 2025 - 'Fractured' Democrats actually win on issues but lose on messaging
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