The New Media Journal | Democrats Embrace 'Fear Politics' in Demonizing Tea Party

The New Media Journal | Democrats Embrace 'Fear Politics' in Demonizing Tea Party
Democrats desperate to convince their base to show up at the polls in November have begun talking less about issues and more about the possibility of a “Tea Party Congress” next year.

The passage of landmark bills such as healthcare and financial regulatory reform has not triggered as much grassroots enthusiasm as initially envisioned, Democratic strategists say. And while the right is engaged this cycle, the left is deflated...

So Democrats have turned to a strategy that may be their next best bet: demonization of the “insurgent” Tea Party. “These are not your run-of-the-mill Republicans we’re talking about here,” said one Democratic organizer working in a state with a contested Senate race this fall. “When you actually start telling voters what these candidates are about, it scares the hell out of them.”

In the past several weeks, when Democratic activists cite the ramifications of a “Tea Party Congress,” they say, more volunteers have signed up to knock on doors to preserve a Democratic-led House and Senate.

President Obama does not fire up the left as much as he did in 2008, and polls indicate independents are turning on him. A recent Gallup survey shows that Republicans are far more enthusiastic about voting than Democrats, leading by a 50 percent to 25 percent count.

Many liberals have expressed frustration with the White House on issues ranging from the war in Afghanistan to the military prison in Guantanamo Bay — which Obama pledged to close by last January — to the lack of a public option in healthcare reform.

Uniting the party, and making sure their voters don’t stay home this fall, has become the No. 1 issue for the Democratic Party.

“The argument that we’ve made is that the Republican Party has been taken over by the Tea Party,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokeswoman Hari Sevugan said. “It not only energizes Democrats, but it’s the fundamental choice that independents and moderates face in the fall, too.”

Some in Democratic circles are unsure whether they can convince voters that this election is a choice instead of a referendum on Obama and the Democratic Congress. Still, there is a consensus that it’s the best game plan they have.

Editor's Note: So, let's state for the record that in the 2010 midterm election cycle Progressives and Democrats are using "fear tactics" to scare their base into voting for them despite the fact that they have thrown their base and Independents under the bus with a grotesquely Progressive-Leftist, quasi-Marxist agenda. We hope everyone remembers this the next time they accuse Tea Party members, Republicans and Conservatives of employing "fear politics."


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