Keller @ Large: Democrats New Strategy - Tie GOP To Conspiracy Theorists
BOSTON (CBS) - "We are not going to dilute, dither, or delay because the demands of the American people are so real and so large," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer Tuesday, a statement of policy on a new coronavirus relief bill, but also a clear sign of the political strategy Democrats have settled on in the early days of the new administration.
And the reasoning behind it is explained in detail in a post-election polling memo written by Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio and published Monday night by Politico.com. His research found that the coronavirus was overwhelmingly the most important issue to voters in key swing states. And in the states that went for Trump in 2016 but flipped to Biden last fall, the Democrat won those voters by nearly a three-to-one margin.
Among the reasons why Dr. Anthony Fauci, after being dissed and mostly sidelined by Trump, is now front and center in the Biden pandemic response – his approval ratings swamped those of both Trump and Biden. And the early Biden emphasis on mask-wearing is surely endorsed by the 75% of voters who supported public mask mandates in those Trump-to-Biden flipped states.
All that's left for the Republicans in the current debate over pandemic management is quibbling over the size of the relief package, which leads to unlikely-to-succeed spin like this remark on CBS This Morning by Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy: "We've actually done a pretty good job of meeting the needs of the American people."
And the release Tuesday of a string of brutal new Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee attack ads on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and a slew of other Republicans that tie them to Trump and Qanon-loving Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene signals another prong of the Democratic strategy – make sure conspiracy-averse voter groups such as college-educated men and independents who deserted Trump in droves last fall according to the internal poll, have yet another reason to shun him and the GOP.
The Democrats will now force Republicans to take votes on these topics, sure fodder for more 2022-cycle campaign ads.
Will it work?
When you see Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who saw his power stripped away in large part due to Trump's ineptitude and the "stop the steal" excesses of the lunatic fringe, denouncing Greene as a "loony liar" (not to mention his increasingly blunt post-riot distancing from Trump) that's a sign of fear of the political consequences.
