14th
stop saying "Bush's policies"
Democratic candidates are making a big strategic mistake by framing the mess we are in as Bush’s mess. I know they really hate Bush and want to shout from the rooftops that he screwed up the world. They want everyone to know they were right all along and he was wrong. But they are risking the election by making the mess we are in, both at home and abroad, all about Bush’s bad judgment.Of course Bush screwed up and he screwed up royally. But after 2004 they should have immediately shifted their framing efforts toward linking Bush’s policies to the broader Republican philosophy and party. These mistakes simply weren’t the blunders of a comical former drunk who invented them out of thin air and then mismanaged their implementation. This was the first time in a very long time that republicans controlled both the Congress and the Executive branch and the events of sept 11th allowed them to push through many of the changes they have wanted to for decades. These were moves straight out of the heritage foundation playbook. Bush didn’t just dream up novel foreign policy or domestic efforts on education and environmental fronts. He didn’t just think to himself one day that privatizing social security would be a good idea. These are republican philosophies and world views that Bush et al. were able to push toward in a very real way. This was the country’s first full taste of how such world views work out in practice for working people and those less fortunate, and they really didn’t like the taste. And sadly, the dems are letting their anger at Bush potentially create a situation where the American people are going to associate that taste aversion with Bush and not with the entire conservative Republican movement initiated under Reagan.
If they allow McCain to set a framework where he is more sensible than Bush and will make better judgments in implementing what were good but mismanaged ideas, they will have squandered a generational opportunity to link republicans with failed policies and being out of touch with families and their futures.