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MAGA prefers bullies and hypocrites

But what to the rest of us want?

The Access Hollywood tape did not sink Trump in 2016. So after Roger Sullenberger’s Daily Beast column (below) on Herschel Walker hit Monday night, it’s hard to think it a knock-out blow for Walker.

Will Bunch responds, “I hate to be so cynical but after Trump I wonder if this changes one damn vote. Georgia Republicans will vote for an apostate hypocrite who’ll install their judges, and also to spite the Democrat who inherited MLK’s altar.”

It was a double hit for Walker on Monday. But a string of tweets from one of Walker’s sons won’t hurt him either.

The cult thinks Donald Trump’s bad insult comic shtick in orange-face is macho. Walker could be filmed beating hookers in a brothel and it would not dampen the MAGA hunger for sending him to the Senate for vengeance.

But bad press for Republicans is not good press for Democrats.

Medhi Hasan thinks this attack ad against Kevin McCarthy is the bomb. I expect it will bomb.

Dobbs is proving to energize Democrats and perhaps depress turnout among conservative rural voters (Politico):

Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign, said rural voters may have felt complacent after the conservative movement’s decades-long effort to strike down Roe v. Wade was successful.

“A lot of rural voters, they’re more conservative religiously and they were very mobilized by abortion and now they think they’ve won,” she said. “Whenever you see a kind of falling-off of pro-life voters because they’re less engaged, you’re going to see that particularly in rural areas.”

Steve Bullock, the former Democratic governor of Montana and co-chair of the liberal super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, offered an alternative theory about the recent special election results: The end of abortion rights is actually turning off some rural voters, he said.

“Unfortunately, the Republicans have been doing a lot better in rural areas over these last few cycles. And they finally kind of caught the car bumper. Urban and rural folks didn’t necessarily think that Roe would be overturned or they’d work on a nationwide abortion ban,” said Bullock. “I think it’s suppressing some of the Republican interest in rural areas.”

He added that “in rural areas where access to affordable and quality health care is already challenged, when you turn around and say that you’ll have no reproductive health care in many states, I think that’s in part why we’re seeing what we’re seeing.”

Democrats need to offer more than criticism of Republicans. GOP candidates are generating bad press for themselves. Democrats need to hammer harder on improving the economy, says pollster Stan Greenberg:

And fortunately, Democratic campaigns in practice are delivering a message consistent with that finding. The NBC poll tests the message that Democrats are actually saying, and it starts with their advocacy for working people on the cost of living: “we need to keep delivering for working Americans by lowering costs, including health care and prescription drugs, and ensuring the corporations pay their fair share of taxes.” That message gives the Democrats a 7-point advantage compared to the Republican message.

Our poll shows that we make our biggest gains when Democrats take on the corporate monopolies that are driving up prices, despite making super profits. It contests the cost of living by hitting Republicans hard on doing big corporations’ bidding on price-gouging and taxes.

It is important that Democrats get it right, as this poll shows the power of the Republicans closing with the ugliest possible message on crime and the border. All the respondents in this survey hear Republicans say, “Americans have never been more at risk for those who made America great. Crime in our country is escalating. People are pouring through our borders unchecked.”

It’s a tough tightrope to walk. Democrats need to watch out for being too rosy about the economy in a time when voters aren’t feeling it. If I knew what the best message was, I’d offer it.

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