"Had Enough? Vote Democratic!"
That's a slogan, according to a recent New York Times Op-Ed piece by Tim Roemer, that will lead the Democratic Party to victory in the midterm elections. It's something all Americans can understand, a good fit for buttons and bumper stickers, and it can serve as the refrain for a litany of more specific critiques, which should only be directed, Roemer advised, to audiences who won't be put off by such critiques. Why say more if "Had Enough?" will do the job? "Had Enough?" has the supreme virtue (this is an important point for boring, wonky, nearly unelectable Democrats) of not saying too much.
There's nothing wrong with "Had Enough?" It's a moderate, reasonable, nonpartisan appeal. I imagine it being said more in sorrow than in anger: it doesn't project uncomfortable feelings and emotions, no Deanlike cry of fury or despair. It may be a little tame, weary, colorless. It's not exactly inspiring, but it's grown-up and it won't offend anybody.
And we sure don't want to offend anybody, do we? The country may have finally seen through the President and turned permanently away from him and his neocons, but there hasn't been a rash of people hanging themselves in the windows of their shops, has there, above signs that read "I voted for Bush!" (You may find this surprising, but it's true.) So we'd better be careful about our slogan. Goodness gracious, we don't want to scare away those skittish but crucial swing voters, or those high-minded (if empty-headed) Independents, or even those rebellious Republicans now so fed up that they're helping to swell the landslide disapproval numbers, those lifelong members of the GOP grimly preparing to be, politically, born again. My heavens, if we campaign too forcefully, as partisans who stand for some things and reject some other things, if we limit our appeal by boxing ourselves into specific critiques of the greed, meanness, catastrophic incompetence, and ideological ignorance that got us into this mess, into all these messes, then we'll risk everything! We might lose!
What, I wonder, do people who think that way think we still have to lose? That's not already lost and gone forever?
I think we might even widen our appeal if we were less bland, so I'm proposing a different slogan, one that conveys a little of our anger, as well as an unmistakable allusion to the failed foreign and domestic policies of the Republican stewardship, and even a subliminal reminder of how stupid and easily manipulated Bush and his Rovers think we are. (So far, alas, this is the only thing they've been right about.)
My slogan comes from the President himself, from the most egregious of his many twists and flip-flops to avoid any accountability for anything he has ever said or done (or not said, or not done). It comes from the double calamity of Katrina, the first caused by nature (more or less, not counting global warming), the second by the nightmarish paralysis of the administration's "emergency" response. How many times, first defending Brownie, then himself, did Bush sneer and repeat, "This is not the time to play the blame game!" Oh, how pleased he was with his new talking point. He said it over and over, and all his henchmen and flunkies repeated it, and Bill and Ann and Rush and Sean all beamed it over the airwaves, and all the Republicans now squirming to be reelected repeated it, over and over and over, as if it were wisdom. "The blame game!" Brilliant! They were all so sure it would surge across the land and win back the hearts and minds of the disaffected flyovers, sure that it would give them time, deflecting all criticism until it disappeared forever in the greater glare from Aruba or some providential small-town homicide, and happy days would come again, and everybody would want to have a beer with George again, instead of with John Kerry.
So let's play clip after clip of Bush and his squadrons repeating their poor little talking point--"This is not the time to play the blame game!"--while we scroll a list of their failures down their faces. ...WMDs..."This is not the time!"...YELLOW CAKE...CHERRY-PICKED INTELLIGENCE...LIES..."Blame game!"...NOT ENOUGH TROOPS...NOT ENOUGH BODY ARMOR...TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!..."Not the time!"....MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!...BRING IT ON!..."Finger-pointing!"...PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY...MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG BILL...KATRINA RESPONSE..."Blame game!"...KEN LAY... OIL EXECS SETTING ENERGY POLICY...DUBAI PORTS DEAL..."Not the time!"...BORDER SECURITY...EMPOWERED IRAN...EMBOLDENED NORTH KOREA..."Blame game!"...NO ALLIES...MORE ENEMIES...$8 TRILLION DEBT..."Playing the blame game!"...OSAMA BIN LADEN (i. e., I DON'T SPEND MUCH TIME THINKING ABOUT HIM)...SCOOTER LIBBY....TOM DELAY!..."Finger-pointing!"... HARRIET MYERS...VALERIE PLAME...JACK ABRAMOFF..."Blame game!"...PREVENTIVE WAR...GLOBAL WARMING...ABROGATION OF TREATIES...NUCULAR PROLIFERATION...THE GREAT TEXAS QUAIL HUNT...HALIBURTON...ADDICTED TO OIL...WIRETAPPING WITHOUT OVERSIGHT...NATIONAL SECURITY...I'M THE DECIDER!...I'M THE DECIDER!...I'M THE DECIDER!...
"THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO PLAY THE BLAME GAME!"
And we freeze there, on the President's ever-attractive smirk, while a fair-and-balanced voice says, in a whisper:
"Is it time yet?...For the blame game?... Is it time?...IT'S NOW OR NEVER!"
Which will win us both houses, subpoena power, investigations, accountability, a return to fiscal responsibility, universal health care, allies, a return to the old-fashioned art of diplomacy, an end of obscene tax breaks for the rich and their corporations, renewed efforts to protect the planet, increased national security, border and port security, stem cell research, relief for the working poor and the middle class, and even a slim chance to stop our precipitous slide into this strange new corporofascist democracy and restore the old constitutional democracy to which we all pledged allegiance, the old constitutional democracy our soldiers fought and still fight for, the old constitutional democracy we've placed in such terrible jeopardy as we tried so foolishly, so ignorantly, so incompetently, to export it and graft it abroad.
That's just what will happen, won't it? With the right slogan.
Had enough? Is it time yet? Is it time?