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David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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June 11, 2007 8:00 AM
New Poll Exposes Idiot Dem Consultants As Idiots
You know the conventional wisdom from DC consultants which says that Democrats from "tough" and "rural" districts have to avoid talking about the war? Seems like this new bipartisan poll shatters that BS meme entirely.
Here are they key excerpts:
"A new national poll indicates rural Americans are no longer reliably Republican, and the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq seems mainly to blame...The poll was commissioned by the non-partisan Center for Rural Strategies, a Whitesburg, Ky., group trying to attract candidate attention to rural issues. Republican political consultant Bill Greener of Greener and Hook also participated in the design and analysis of the survey...The numbers reflect a plunge in Republican support among rural voters...Concern about the war in Iraq seems to be the reason for the decline in Republican support, according to respondents in the new poll. Three-fourths of those surveyed know someone who is serving or has served in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan...Forty-one percent named the war in Iraq among their two top issues for the president and Congress. Half agreed with the statement that 'the current course [in Iraq] cannot bring stability, and we need to start reducing the number of troops.' Half also agreed with congressional attempts to reduce troop levels in Iraq...These responses show a complete reversal from earlier surveys of rural voters, where clear majorities favored the president's approach."
Again, this cuts directly against the conventional wisdom that is spewed inside the Washington Beltway. As just one example, let's remember pollster Fred Yang, who said that Democrats' recent move to give President Bush a blank check for his Iraq policy was "obviously a good move" - yet according to the actual data, it was only "obviously a good move" if Democrats' goal was to alienate voters.
Of course, these pollsters tend to cite their concern for political prospects in "red states" as the reason why they tell Democrats not to oppose neoconservative foreign policies. And very often, we find out that such prescriptions are idiotic, and not just on Iraq as this new poll shows, but on other security issues as well.
You may recall that it was Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) who said his concern for "red states" was why he was telling Democrats to not oppose reauthorization of the Patriot Act. He said this at exactly the time red state Democrats were using their opposition to the Patriot Act to make inroads with conservative voters.
Let's hope this new poll breaks through the Beltway echo chamber - and gets Democratic politicians to stop listening to their insulated, cliche-driven consultants who play into the Fox News meme of "supporting the war means you are strong on national security" - a meme that most Americans do not believe.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
"New Poll exposes Idiot Dem Consultants as Idiots..!"
Who Knew..?
Thanks for this, I'll file it with The Department of Redundancy Department..!
The rural areas and small town have sacrificed more young lives per capita than any other part of the country.
They have learned first-hand about the neglect of these kids by the Rumsfeldian military, policies that are being continued by now Secretary Gates.
They have seen the lack of support for the wounded, and far too many military funerals.
Their questions are not being answered, their kids are being abused, and more and more are growing disenchanted with the Bush administrations lies, corruption and stone-walling.
Only the Democrat Losership Committee is dumb enough to keep telling candidates in these areas to keep sounding like Republicans.
It is a sure way to prove to these people that there's no difference between Republicans and Democrats, so you either vote for the devil you know or go third party.
There may be a number of third-party legislators in the next Congress.
Yep Democratic consultants(like most consultants in general) are idiots. They've done a great job at alienating independents by telling Democrats to be Cheney's doormat on the Iraq war, by ignoring the economic plight of the middle-class(no, the minimum wage increase doesn't count towards helping most folks), by supporting corporate written trade and immigration legislation, by doing nothing when China dumps its toxic products on us, by letting Bush gut the EPA and FDA.
Of course not all of Democratic incompetence can be laid at the feet of idiot consultants. There is of course K Street and their sock puppets like Hoyer, Rangel, Rahm and Pelosi who are rapidly turning the blurring the lines between Democrat and GOP, and in the Senate Reid and Schumer are doing a fine job as Bush's puppets(the immigration bill).
That said, you sure got a hostile reception at DailyKos. There seems to be a group of posters there who hate you with a passion and no matter what you post, you get labeled as a troll.
Its really pretty damn sad, as you are one the few folks in the progressive movement that is a full time reporter and writer and who writes about working class America. Something BTW which is almost serially ignored by the liberal blogosphere.
Consultants who have never actually organized people aren't much use. People expect authenticity - which you don't get from people who sound like the commercials that some consultant has drummed into them.
K-Street crowd assume we in Idaho and other "tough" or "red" states can't connect with real people any other way. How absurd. We have organized people, have heard real stories about how this war has torn families and communities apart (usually in silent agony), have seen systematic disinvestment in living wage jobs, health care in rural areas, public schools. People respect organizers and candidates who take the time to get to know them and to speak honestly with them.
Case in point: if you actually spend time talking to people in small communities in the west, most will tend to agree that a system of health care that covers everyone will help their community survive. You get to this realization not from polls or ads but from ORGANIZING people where they are... A completely lost art on K-Street.
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