In Colorado we have been beaten to death with commercials on both sides of the political spectrum which assume everyone listening is an absolute idiot. At the least, they think enough people out there are idiots enough to get swayed by these ridiculous commercials to put millions of dollars in them. I do not know how these strategists come up with their strategies but here is my two cents:

Don’t let the other side set the narrative. The Republicans have totally set the narrative for the 2014 elections. The Democrats are constantly caving, placating and playing defense. You do not get ahead by playing defense in politics, you only minimize your loses. In the long run, negativity and fear based propaganda tire folks out, discourage them and make them apathetic. That strategy is not the strategy that works for the Democrats. Even the smartest Republicans have figured out that happy, smiling, ‘apparent’ non-nut-case-politicians go further than gun totting, ethnic and government hating, religious fanatics. Make no mistake, Cory Gardner is as right as they come and will vote Republican 99.999% of the time but he plays a good happy, go-lucky optimist. No matter, the Koch brothers own him lock stock and barrel. He has obviously been groomed very well to portray the image that Democrats find most natural, happy and positive. Why are our strategists thinking they can play the Republican game and win. Hey guys, go to the other side if that is how you want to play. You are not playing to our strengths as Democrats as the current election cycle should tell you.

Democrats have a positive agenda unlike the other side and need to set that agenda. Many Republicans tend to vote because they hate Democrats not because they have a positive agenda. They do not have any social answers except let the market decide. The market decided not to do a damn thing about health care for decades and that was ok for the Republicans but not for us. Many of our Democratic members vote because we have positive ideas for helping the country like health care, economics which help the middle class, address poverty in a way that stimulates the economy, improve our infrastructure and make education better and more accessible. I have done lots of hard core research and written lots of posts on this blog and I know that Democrats have the facts on our side. We do not need negativity, lies or apologies. We have the facts and the results. We actually accomplished something historic in health care on the heels of one of the worst presidencies in our history, George W. Bush. Bush crashed the economy started two absurd wars with the help of the war hawk, neocons in his party and what do the Democrats have to say about it now?…We are sorry. We did not like Obama or health care. We apologize that the economy is much better. You would never know that Colorado has the best recovering economy of any state by listening to political commercials. Are we sorry we got our country out of massive wars and massive national deficits. This strategic response has to go down as the most idiotic, cynical, sniveling, gutless campaign in history. Democrats, please let these spineless strategists go to the other side. Get some folks in there that will be proud of what we have done and advertise the hell out it. We will not win over the cynical Republicans. Cynicism is their game not ours. We own the long term in this country so start acting like winners not losers . Conservative white guys are dying off. We have an evolving electorate that will go for us but we need to show them how we have earned their vote not play the fright night game on them. Our message is positive and has a truthful, solid record of accomplishment. We do not get our jollies off watching all the fear and negative crap on Fox news. Watch Fox and then watch MSNBC. Look on their faces for the sneers, half smiles, one squinted eye, dogged sternness. Look for round faces, proportional smiles, relaxed and unstrained facial muscles. The difference you see will tell you something about who we are and who we are not. Folks that are not in either camp will not get converted no matter how alarming and negative the TV ads are. They are probably not that interested in politics and trying to figure out who is right or wrong, fact based or not. These are not the apathetics. They do not vote anyway. These are the folks that care more about the demeanor than the ideas. They want to see genuine, relaxed faces which exude confidence and positivity. They want to see ‘can do’ not ‘screw you’. They do not like sniveling, apologetic wimps. Don’t cower, tower. People like people that are genuine, never lie or exaggerate, do your homework on the facts, use credible unaffiliated sources. If you are wrong, apologize directly and get back on the horse. Don’t sit in the dust and snivel and cry. Take some pride in yourself. Whatever you do, do not listen to the strategists that want you to be fake and phony and soften the truth. You end up looking like a despicable clown and don’t think people can’t see right though you, they absolutely can. Strategists, if you can’t take pride in what Democrats have done, we do not need or want you. Do us a favor and get another job. You really don’t have a clue.