Democrats must stand up and fight Republicans' message that government is the problem

Democrats should pay attention to this message from Michael Tomasky on The Daily Beast. 

"Republicans profit from Americans’ childish hatred of government—and Democrats lose every time by staying silent. . . .  "Democrats disagree about loads of things, but the one principle they all subscribe to is a belief that the federal government can and must intervene in the economic and social spheres to even things out. And the rejection of that belief is the basic reason a person is a Republican. 

". . . .  And yet, for the past 30 years . . . [w]e’ve had one side relentlessly attacking government as incompetent to evil, and the other side saying nothing, being too cowed to stand up and say that government is, and does, good. . . . 

"Think of this: Of all the dozens of groups out there that make up what we call the liberal infrastructure, . . . there is not a single entity whose goal is the defense of government. Given this, it’s perfectly reasonable that such large majorities think the government is awful, because you have the government haters telling them for three decades how awful government is and the government defenders saying nothing. . . . " 

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a speech last week: 

“Together, Democrats must embrace government. It’s what we believe in; it’s what unites our party; and, most importantly; it’s the only thing that’s going to get the middle class going again. If we run away from government, downplay it, or act as if we are embarrassed by its role, people won’t vote for our pale version of the Republican view; they’ll vote for the real McCoy.” 

Schumer is exactly right.   And it's surprising that it's coming from him, known as he is as a friend of Wall Street and "one of the big banks’ best friends among Washington Democrats."

". . . The big idea in the speech is that Democrats have to come up with ways to show the middle class how the party will put the government to work in their behalf. I agree, but I would add that there’s another, prior job, which is simply to explain to middle-class people the dozens of ways in which the federal government already helps them and their communities but about which they have no idea. . . .

 "This hatred of government we see in this country is sickeningly childish and hypocritical. The rot starts from the top—the appalling Republican members of Congress who voted against the 2009 stimulus and then had the audacity to go cut ribbons in their districts at venues given life because of that very stimulus bill . . . .   

"This is the fight. Government’s role in people’s lives. It’s a fight Democrats have been . . . utterly petrified at the thought of having to take on. But they will never be the consensus-majority party again . . .until they do take on this fight again, and win it. . . ." 

Hillary, are you listening?    Here's your campaign theme.

 

Ralph