Donkasaurus Post

Chris Matthews says some incredible things at the beginning of this video, but truly, there is little that is more incredible than this statement at around minute :30.

How come you knew that the way to beat these guys was to put em on defense.

The common sense mind boggles. It reels.  Very uncharacteristically, it grasps for air.  Truly, Democrats did not know this. And this is what, more than anything else, defines the past nine years.  The story behind the story — as always, more important than the one that is commonly “known,” or maintained.

How come you knew that the way to beat these guys was to put em on defense.

Mind you, Matthews is not talking about just Republicans here, or even the “Right,” but the far right (as he illustrates by way of example at the outset), which has come to take over, and largely define the Republican Party today.

Largely because Democrats did not know. Among other things, not so known.

Update: Matthews says something else pretty interesting on that video.  Minute 2:00

Why did the Democrats spend the last year or so attacking the way things are, as  a way of getting them fixed.

There are some things wrong with this statement; it plays to right wing framing, and it is somewhat misleading.  But there is also a great deal of truth in it. Or, more accurately a great deal of truth, in terms of how things are perceived. Democrats spend an unfailingly small amount of time defining the issues, and an even unfailingly smaller amount of time, defining their opponents.

Matthews, bad as he is, is not making these statements in a totalvacuum.  Democrats have spent a lot of time telling Americans what their opponents are, concluding what there opponents are, noting how “obvious” it is what there opponents are, but they have spent precious little time defining their opponents. Or even defining the issues, for that matter.

They usually play defense. It’s almost as if the Right is paying them. But it’s not. Democrats really seem to ofteh think that everyone knows what they “know” and so engage accordingly.  And this gets wildly self reinforced online, where the phenomenon is even worse.

Grayson — a pretty bright guy, self made, wildly rich, grew up dirt poor, put himself through Harvard and Harvard Law — may also think a lot of this stuff is obvious. But at least he shows what this stuff is.  And he does not play unnecessary defense.

As we noted earlier, Republicans fear him, because, as he put it;

The Republicans are serious about getting rid of me, because they are scared.  They have already set up a site to attack me. And the reason is simple; they don’t want my tough attitude to rub off on other Democrats.

No doubt. Whether Republicans  realize it, or not; they don’t.

By the way, it is important  to note — particularly given the level of vitriol on the web — that tough attitude is not defined by getting mad and calling people names.  It is defined by showing the case to the American people, breaking it down into terms that they — and not just the self reinforcing choir — can understand, and by turning their opponents miscues and misrepresentations into defining stories about them; not playing into them, and, as Matthews put it, “playing defense.”

Update II: We heard Matthews’ statement incorrectly.  Which lead to a fairly interesting analysis of how Democrats are often perceived to be “complaining.”  It turns out that we had it backward, and heard “did” when Matthews said “did not.”  Matthews: Why didnt the Democrats spend the last year or so attacking the way things are, as  a way of getting them fixed.

Well, interestingly, before agreeing with Matthews (well, agreeing with the opposite of what he was saying) we first noted “There are several things wrong with this statement” (the statement that was, in fact, the opposite of what Matthews was saying.)  Frankly, we don’t like the new “correct” statement either, but this is in some measure a function of framing. If Matthews simply meant “Why didn’t Democrats make the case as to what the issues are,” and then of course tie those into their opponents’ leadership and constant rhetoric, then it works.