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From the diaries -- kos)
atrios riffs on an interesting Harold Myerson column on the success of the non-existent antiwar movement:
In the absence of an antiwar movement, the American people have turned against the war in Iraq. Those two facts, I suspect, are connected.
Atrios sez:
I suspect he's right. They're desperate to keep Dixie Chicking people, to put the blame on the opposition rather than themselves.
This is also related to the instapundit game - criticize the Democrats for not speaking out on something, and then when they do criticizing them for "politicizing it." The only way to oppose torture is to support it, the only way to oppose the war is to support it. Apparently the only way to have an anti-war movement is not to have one.
I think this is a keen insight and very much related to the meta-battles about reality-based diarying we are having here recently. Let me explain why I think so on the flip.
On April 16, I wrote a post,
Passive Aggression:
I have noticed a fair amount of criticism from the Lefty blogs and many kossacks of the Democratic leadership's approach to the political and legislative battles we have faced so far this year.
Pick your issue - Rice, Gonzales, the Class Action Bill, the Bankruptcy Bill, Bolton, Schiavo and now the Frist Jihad, and there are many smart Dems who think the Dem leadership has mishandled, even bungled, these issues.
I disagree. I think we must keep in mind two essential points when evaluating the decisions made by our Dem leadership:
First, we are in the minority. We do not have any control over the agenda. For that reason, Dems are necessarily in a reactive mode. Dems must react to the initiatives of the majority GOP on legislative matters. There simply is no other way. I hear much talk of how Dems must lay out a positive agenda. My reaction is - not yet. Why? Because the election is next year. No agenda proposed by the Democrats has any chance of even being debated (other than "compromises" with the GOP, see Nelson, Ben, Lieberman, Joe), much less voted on. It will be less than meaningless - because you give the GOP a chance to react to what you will propose.
I think Atrios and Myerson make my case for me on this. A positive agenda on Iraq - i.e - a plan, get out now, etc. - creates a target for the wingers to latch onto. As in Durbin's case, the Nazi comment gave them a line of attack they would not let go.
So why has the country turned strongly against the war? Is it something We've done? OR Dems have done?
Partly yes and partly no. First off, the events have been what they are and they have been awful.
Second, the blogs and the roots have fought hard on the issues we care about - torture, DSM, Bolton, etc. And we are making headway. I'll talk about why in another diary, but one important factor is that we have engaged in Passive Aggression. We attack the moves made by the GOP. We are on offense.
Dems have picked up on it, particularly Harry Reid, who has been a magnificent poltical leader of the Senate. He has put the GOP on the defensive and has shaped the GOP image in many ways.
Which is my next point - image. In April I wrote:
[T]he Democratic Party has for some time lost the image battles with the GOP. Dems fight a negative image in most respects while the GOP has escaped the negative consequences of their extreme Right Wing agenda and constituencies.
But opportunity knocks. With the Schiavo travesty, the DeLay scandals and now with Frist's Nuclear Jihad, the unmasking of the the extreme Right Wing fringe-controlled Republican Party is a real possibility.
I'm a broken record with this, but I will repeat it again here. Lincoln 1860 is the strategy for us. And the tactical situation is primed for its use.
I think the blogs have been doing it. I think Reid has been doing it. And I think it has been working.
Keep that in mind when we want to trumpet an issue. Passive Aggression. The Politics of Contrast. Not drowning out your message about the Republicans. Find the right approach.
This lesson applies to use here at the blogs as well. If DSM had been about Impeachment, it would have been DOA. but the folks who created downingstreetmemo.com were smart. They didn't make it about impeachment. They made it about Bush's Lies.
Leave a Small Target for attack. It's true for the Dem Party and true for the Lefty Blogs.