Democrats still don’t have a clue. They still think “resist” is a winning strategy. And the reason they’ve got this so wrong is that they don’t understand positive media coverage is not the same thing as appealing to the people.
All you have to do to understand this is look at what happened in last week’s special election here in the Atlanta area. Democrats thought they could steal this red-district seat by pumping money into GA-6 from bastions of east-coast elitism and from Hollywood. And pump in money they did! Democrat Jon Ossoff had nearly $30 million to spend in his race against Republican Karen Handel.
Do I have a problem with that? Not at all. I’ll never object to Democrats wasting $30 million and getting absolutely nothing in return for it. And if Hollywood and the east-coast elites want to send more of their money to the Atlanta area, we’ll gladly take it.
Come back any time, folks!
But honesty compels me to warn these people about a few things before they do.
Unlike what they apparently believed before this race, Georgia voters are not stupid, and they can’t be bought. Democrat consultants apparently thought all they had to do was blare the resistance theme long and loud enough, and it would put Ossoff over the top. Ossoff himself promised that one of his primary objectives would be to “annoy Trump.”
Apparently their market researched told them that Republican voters in our area, many of whom are college-educated, do not like President Trump and would be receptive to a message like this.
Um, no. Some Republicans are less enthusiastic than others about having an unconventional president like this one. But that doesn’t mean they want an unserious Obama impersonator (and not a very good one either) who gives every indication that he will do nothing but follow in lockstep behind Nancy Pelosi.
This is where political types tend to outsmart themselves: Even if some people who normally vote Republican aren’t that wild about President Trump, you can’t leap to the conclusion they wanted: “They don’t like Trump so they’ll vote for us.”
People are smarter than that. They know that if they elect Ossoff, they increase the chances that ObamaCare will remain in place. They make it harder to replace the tax code and reduce rates. The make it harder to get spending under control. They make it harder to lighten up on business regulations and continue making progress on the development of domestic energy resources.
All of these issues are more important than whether you like or don’t like a certain politician, even if it is the president.
Besides, Georgia voters know better than to believe everything the media tries to tell them about President Trump. The know he doesn’t do things the usual way, but they also know that the usual way hasn’t gotten the country very good results for the past few generations. Inside-the-Beltway types might freak out about President Trump’s breaks from convention, but ordinary people just want to see good results.
And they know that, so far, the results are better than the media and Jon Ossoff would have you believe.
So sure, send more money to Georgia. We’ll take it! But if you don’t learn the lessons of this election, you’re going to get the same return on investment you just got: Absolutely nothing.
And I’ll be smiling every time I think about it.
Democrats still don’t have a clue. They still think “resist” is a winning strategy. And the reason they’ve got this so wrong is that they don’t understand positive media coverage is not the same thing as appealing to the people.
All you have to do to understand this is look at what happened in last week’s special election here in the Atlanta area. Democrats thought they could steal this red-district seat by pumping money into GA-6 from bastions of east-coast elitism and from Hollywood. And pump in money they did! Democrat Jon Ossoff had nearly $30 million to spend in his race against Republican Karen Handel.
Do I have a problem with that? Not at all. I’ll never object to Democrats wasting $30 million and getting absolutely nothing in return for it. And if Hollywood and the east-coast elites want to send more of their money to the Atlanta area, we’ll gladly take it.
