The Democratic Party is Being Overly Vitriolic: Agree, or Disagree?

[FionordeQuester]

I bring this up, because even though I'm a Republican, I actually signed up for Obama's official website because I wanted to hear what he had to say as well. I don't like voting unless I actually know about the issues after all. And at first, I was stunned at how much better Barack Obama was at communicating with his voters. If there's one thing I can fault Mitt Romney for, it's that he did a TERRIBLE job at communicating with his voters and organizing his campaign. While I was constantly getting emails from the Democrats saying "Good job! Here's what you accomplished by attending this fundraiser!", or "we need you to donate for this", and other various things like that, I got hardly anything from Mitt Romney's campaign, which...was actually fairly disappointing considering that, as the former co-founder of a company, you'd think Romney would have been better at having an organized campaign...

And of course, even after winning the election, Obama still kept in touch with his voters with emails, and that seemed cool...at first. But then, fast forward to near the end of last November, and I notice a really disturbing trend in the emails, in that the Democrats don't even ATTEMPT to depict Republicans as anything but stupid and unreasonable blowhards who are the bane of our existence. I mean, really, look at this...

Message Title: You won't BELIEVE what Senate just did! (November 21, 2013)

This group of GOP senators has done so much to stand in the way of President Obama's executive and judicial choices that they're responsible for nearly half of all filibusters against presidential nominees in history.

Today, Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats have put a stop to this type of unprecedented obstruction, giving the President's nominees -- except those to the Supreme Court -- an up-or-down vote.

Message Title: I love the Republicans in my life, but... (November 27, 2013 by Matt Compton)

Friend --

This time of year, the only thing more annoying than holiday traffic is an awkward conversation with family about politics.

Don't get me wrong -- I love the Republicans in my life. But nothing ruins a slice of pecan pie faster than talking through immigration reform with a cousin who spends too much time listening to Rush Limbaugh.

That's why we're launching YourRepublicanUncle.com. And if you want to make sure that the political debates around your dinner table this Thanksgiving stay tethered to reality, you should check it out.

(An image that says "the Democrat's guide to talking politics with your republican uncle")

We can't do anything about highway congestion, but we can make sure you have the information you need to answer a bonkers question about President Obama's record on jobs or the perfect fact to respond to a ridiculous argument about the Affordable Care Act.

And to make sure you get that information whenever you need it, we designed YourRepublicanUncle.com so that it looks great and loads quickly on your phone -- no getting ambushed when you go back for seconds on stuffing.

This holiday season, don't stress about the political debates. We've got your back:

www.YourRepublicanUncle.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Matt

Matt Compton
Digital Director
Democratic National Committee

Title Message: Happy Holidays to our Republican friends (December 4, 2013 by Mo Elleitheen)

Friend --

The official organization charged with electing Republicans to the House -- the national Republican Party! -- thinks that telling people "Happy Holidays" is something that only liberals do.

They're even selling coffee mugs and t-shirts with that claim and using the proceeds to elect more Republicans.

It isn't just divisive. It's offensive (That sounds terrible...but where's the citation? I'm not seeing it. )

As Democrats (and Americans) we want everyone to enjoy whatever holiday it is that they're celebrating this time of year. And that goes for our Republican friends, too.

So in the spirit of the season, we thought we'd make it easy for everyone to share a holiday greeting with the GOP!

http://my.democrats.org/Happy-Holidays-GOP
At the very least, it'll be a nice reminder that even though we come from different places with different sets of traditions, Americans everywhere love a good holiday card.

Seasons greetings!

Mo

Mo Elleithee
Communications Director
Democratic National Committee

Title Message: Win 17 Seats and be done with this (December 4, 2013)

Hey --

House Republicans just held their first committee hearing on impeaching President Obama.

Shocking, right? Because being the least popular, least productive Congress in history must not have been embarrassing enough, they want to try to subvert the will of the national electorate and remove the President of the United States from office.

If we win just 17 seats next year, we'll take back the House and put an end to this asinine behavior.

Chip in $3 or more right now to elect more Democrats:

https://my.democrats.org/Seventeen-Seats

Thanks for your support!

Title Message: And now, the Republicans are talking about Impeachment (December 5, 2013)

(The Whole Message is basically the first one, except it's presented with images rather than plain text)

Title Message: Unfortunately, I'm not kidding (December 19, 2013 by Debbie Schultz)

Friend --

Every Republican who holds elected office in the U.S. Congress is an adult.

Adults usually learn from their mistakes. So when October's government shutdown cost us something around $24 billion, you might have thought Republicans learned their lesson.

Per usual, they disappointed us.

Paul Ryan recently said he's willing to do it all over again -- but this time, to our entire economy. He wants concessions from President Obama to avoid a federal default, and he's willing to hold the economy hostage to get them.

Sign your name right now and tell Paul Ryan that Americans have had enough of this brinksmanship.

President Obama has made it very clear that he won't tolerate this kind of hostage-taking again. And the results of October's shutdown have shown us an example of what's on the line.

We have to head this one off at the pass, and then we have to elect representatives who will speak for the middle class, American families, and who will think about our future instead of destroying our economy in one massive temper tantrum.

Help make that happen right now:

http://my.democrats.org/Tell-Paul-Ryan

Thanks for standing with Democrats.

Debbie

Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Chair
Democratic National Committee

Now, the reason I find these so offensive isn't because I disagree on any issues or anything. I haven't researched any of the recent happenings, so, I can't really make a judgement either way. What kills me is the hateful tone that the Democrats (or at least, Mrs. Schultz, Mr. Compton, Mr. Kaplan, and Mr. Elleitheen) are taking.

I've taken Public Speaking, and one of the very basic rules they tell you there is that, whenever trying to convince someone to come to your side, you're supposed to restate their position in a reasonable way and treat them with respect, if for no other reason than that calm people are much easier to convince than angry people (a fact that I've witnessed being validated all my life).

And it is my humble opinion that you're also supposed to be respectful to even groups of faiths/religious parties/sects that are opposed to what you believe in. Heck, I'm Christian, but I'm not going around screaming bloody murder about gay marriage being legalized, or calling the Courts a howling pack of Satanists who want to destroy our American values. And for that matter, I don't rage even at people who insult God, because I don't know them, and in fact, they may even have good reasons for doubting or hating God (maybe their children got molested by priests, they disagree with/misinterpret a lot of stuff in the Old Testament, they hate the wars that religion has caused, etc.).

So when I see messages like this, I get deeply disturbed when I imagine that THESE are the kinds of people who are "reaching across the aisle" to determine policy in our nation. And if the Republicans are also doing this, that message can go straight to them as well.

And then of course, there's the final insult that prompted me to post this...

Message Title: Hey - Is this right? (Today, by Jordan Kaplan)

Hey --

I'm going through our supporter records one last time before our end-of-year deadline, and I have to ask: Is this a mistake?

YOUR 2013 ONLINE SUPPORTER RECORD (click here to update) NAME: You EMAIL: (My email) 2013 DONATIONS: $0

Look, I'm not saying my team is perfect (although they're pretty damn good), but according to our records for this exact email address, you haven't donated online to the DNC yet this year.

That means you haven't given to the only official Democratic party organization that helps elect Democrats nationwide, up and down the ticket -- from the White House to statehouses.

We're closing the books on 2013 on December 31st at midnight. Get your support on the record by giving just $3 or more before then:

https://my.democrats.org/Deadline-2013

Thanks,

Jordan

Jordan Kaplan
Finance Director
Democratic National Committee

P.S. -- We're going to elect the last Congress that Barack Obama will ever work with in November, so we need to get to work now. Chip in before Tuesday's deadline.

----------
If you've contributed by check or by mail, this won't be reflected in your online donor record -- but thank you for your support!

So now I'm being called naughty for not showing my support? They don't flat out say it, but that's the implication ("Hey, I know we're not perfect, but..."). Anyways, is anyone else getting annoyed and really bothered by how belligerent the Democratic (and possibly Republican) parties are being right now?

Edited December 28, 2013 by FionordeQuester

[Lord Raven]

Republicans wouldn't do much of anything different if they were in office. The system is inherently designed to smear the other side before you back up your own side.

[eclipse]

That site sounds like its target audience is Democrats, not you. I think both sides are guilty of tactics like this.

[FionordeQuester]

I see. So Republicans have done this recently as well? If so, do you have any recent links to that sort of smearing? I'm disappointed in them if it turns out they're stooping to the level the Democrats have demonstrated here.

Edited December 28, 2013 by FionordeQuester

[eclipse]

Didn't have to look far

Or hard (first page of their press releases)

[Nobody]

Sorry, but as a non American, the image i have of the repulican party is very bad, and I'd say that's not the democrats' fault. Almost everyone I know thinks terribly of GoP, because of many things some of their members have said (and their stance on some topics), but especially because of Bush, who has a terrible reputation outside of the US

Edited December 28, 2013 by Nobody

[Chiki]

Yeah, that was a stupid email. But Republicans are worse by far. Caring about the poor is a bad thing! No one should be doing that.

[Redwall]

politics is a contact sport; this is really nothing new

[Constable Reggie]

Damn, I knew I should have voted for the turd sandwich instead of the giant douche.

[FionordeQuester]

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/09/us/political-memo-for-gop-arsenal-133-words-to-fire.html

... ... ... ....

So...how about those Libertarians? They seem fairly cool, at least, from what I gathered from talking to the executives of one of their groups on the phone. It seems to be a little disorganized as a group (when I asked them their plan, unless I was mistaken or not listening enough, it seemed to me like it amounted to 'we've got a ton of different groups in different states...but those groups don't actually communicate with each other at all, so we're all just off doing our own thing'), but cool.

Edited December 28, 2013 by FionordeQuester

[Esau of Isaac]

The Democratic Party is becoming warm to tactics that Republicans and indeed many conservative personalities and pundits have used extensively, to great effect, over the past several years. You cannot be serious if you think this is at all notable or worth singling out. Finding a party that doesn't characterize its opponents as misguided fools is about as easy as jumping to the moon.

[FionordeQuester]

I guess it's only now occurred to me that both of the parties are hot-headed rabble rousers who spend time treating their political debates like they're fighting a war against each other (though to be fair to one of the links posted, Sarah Palin's remarks didn't seem all that heated to me. She said she was surprised by how liberal the Pope's ideas sounded, and that she wouldn't trust the media too much just yet...so?).

Edited December 28, 2013 by FionordeQuester

[Rapier]

Yeah, that was a stupid email. But Republicans are worse by far. Caring about the poor is a bad thing! No one should be doing that.

"Look at us, we care about the poor. They don't, they are capitalist monsters". I don't see how democrats are superior if they go so low as to make child rants about the other side. Saying the other side doesn't care about the poor is a very cheap (and unfortunately high acclaimed) argument, because of course it's better to have a high cost and bad public health system (made evident by how many people signed for the Obamacare) than let the poor keep more of their money so they can spend on an average health plan.

It is natural to expect parties calling each other and nitpicking, but the democrats are champions of making fallacious claims full of emotion. See the Mitt Romney and Obama elections and what they say about each other; the former shows at least an ounce of respect for Obama, while the latter flat out calls him a monster. The 'not caring about the poor' example is good enough to demonstrate how low their propaganda can get, I think.

You may also want to explain how these two links are worse than the examples Fiordesquester gave.

About the libertarians... I don't really like them. They come too close to anarchcapitalism, believing that order will come from chaos and that money-driven societies work better than having a government. I still prefer a minimum sized government that can protect others from injustices and maintain people's rights.

Also, I don't really side with the republicans. I'm not even american. I consider myself center-right winged, so of course I agree with some of their things.

I guess it's only now occurred to me that both of the parties are hot-headed rabble rousers who spend time treating their political debates like they're fighting a war against each other (though to be fair to one of the links posted, Sarah Palin's remarks didn't seem all that heated to me. She said she was surprised by how liberal the Pope's ideas sounded, and that she wouldn't trust the media too much just yet...so?).

Politics is a war of opposition and marketing plays a huge role on it, so I find it natural that parties criticize each other and try to promote their image. The problem is how they do it, in my opinion.

[Chiki]

I don't see how democrats are superior if they go so low as to make child rants about the other side.

Huh?

because of course it's better to have a high cost and bad public health system

Huh? What on earth are you talking about? Obamacare makes health care CHEAPER for POOR people. And why is it bad?

See the Mitt Romney and Obama elections and what they say about each other; the former shows at least an ounce of respect for Obama, while the latter flat out calls him a monster.

This is conclusive proof that you have no idea on what you're talking about. Obama didn't call Romney a monster. A REPUBLICAN called Obama a monster. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/mitt-romney-town-hall_n_1683912.html

[Phoenix Wright]

Damn, I knew I should have voted for the turd sandwich instead of the giant douche.

Dis guy. Dis guy get it.

Both sides suck ass. If you watch either MSNBC or FOX, within just a few moments you'll be bombarded by childish political slandering tactics used to evoke an emotional response from either Democrats or Republicans, rather than a response from reason.

[Nobody]

I just want to let you guys know that parties calling each other names, rather than explaining why their ideology is the best or politely arguing, is not something exclusive to the American politics, It happens all over the world, and while I really dislike that, it's the way it is, sadly.

Edited December 29, 2013 by Nobody

[dondon151]

It is natural to expect parties calling each other and nitpicking, but the democrats are champions of making fallacious claims full of emotion.

still better than that birth certificate crap, though.

[Sublime Manic]

I've taken Public Speaking, and one of the very basic rules they tell you there is that, whenever trying to convince someone to come to your side, you're supposed to restate their position in a reasonable way and treat them with respect, if for no other reason than that calm people are much easier to convince than angry people (a fact that I've witnessed being validated all my life).

Oh honey... it's politics. Claiming to be respectful when you're really mud slinging is the de facto.

[Defeatist Elitist]

Dis guy. Dis guy get it.

Both sides suck ass. If you watch either MSNBC or FOX, within just a few moments you'll be bombarded by childish political slandering tactics used to evoke an emotional response from either Democrats or Republicans, rather than a response from reason.

The answer is not always in the middle. MSNBC is not the left wing equivalent of FOX, it is the left wing equivalent of CNN. The United States political culture is heavily skewed to the right. Most other first world nations' conservative parties are near or even to the left of the Democrats. Make no mistake, I don't like Obama's presidency or his policies, but that's because they haven't been nearly leftist enough. The problem for me when Democrats argue is that they refuse (or perhaps can't due to sacred cows, doing what I want would probably make them unelectable) to call Republicans out nearly enough.

Go ahead and criticize both sides, they are both worthy of criticism. It's good to understand that most of politics is appealing to the voter base as opposed to proposing meaningful solutions. But don't pretend there is an equivalency here, that both sides are the same. Both sides are not the same.

Characterizing the Republicans as obstructionary and callous is much better, and more accurate than the dog whistle racism, idle fear mongering and flat out lies constantly invented by the right wing. Give me a mainstream Left example of birthers, or benghazi, or death camps, or ACORN, or voter fraud and maybe then we can talk.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Defeatist Elitist

[FionordeQuester]

Characterizing the Republicans as obstructionary and callous is much better, and more accurate than the dog whistle racism, idle fear mongering and flat out lies constantly invented by the right wing. Give me a mainstream Left example of birthers, or benghazi, or death camps, or ACORN, or voter fraud and maybe then we can talk.

Doesn't this make you fall into the same trap I'm accusing both parties for?

Politics is a war of opposition and marketing plays a huge role on it, so I find it natural that parties criticize each other and try to promote their image. The problem is how they do it, in my opinion.

The problem is that even at THAT, they fail because both of their platforms are "the other guy is evil and we are right" rather than "we believe in having a lot of government power and weak states as well as Socialist economic policies as opposed to the other party, which proposes the opposite". So by resulting to insults, just like the other party, they make themselves look MORE similar to the other party than they would've otherwise, right?

Edited December 30, 2013 by FionordeQuester

[BK-201]

Doesn't this make you fall into the same trap I'm accusing both parties for?

No. One side is more extreme than the other in its abuses. If one party's abuses are large enough, doesn't that warrant some discussion?

Edited December 30, 2013 by BK-201

[FionordeQuester]

No. One side is more extreme than the other in its abuses.

Alright, so say that instead of "you're evil". There's a difference between "your actions are stupid" and "you are stupid".

[Defeatist Elitist]

Alright, so say that instead of "you're evil". There's a difference between "your actions are stupid" and "you are stupid".

I didn't say the Republicans were evil. I didn't even call them obstructionist or callous (they sort of are, and I implied they might be, but that's beside the point). I said that Democrats referring to them as such was very different from the Republican tactics, and crucially is not nearly as bad.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Defeatist Elitist

[Phoenix Wright]

The answer is not always in the middle. MSNBC is not the left wing equivalent of FOX, it is the left wing equivalent of CNN. The United States political culture is heavily skewed to the right. Most other first world nations' conservative parties are near or even to the left of the Democrats. Make no mistake, I don't like Obama's presidency or his policies, but that's because they haven't been nearly leftist enough. The problem for me when Democrats argue is that they refuse (or perhaps can't due to sacred cows, doing what I want would probably make them unelectable) to call Republicans out nearly enough.

Go ahead and criticize both sides, they are both worthy of criticism. It's good to understand that most of politics is appealing to the voter base as opposed to proposing meaningful solutions. But don't pretend there is an equivalency here, that both sides are the same. Both sides are not the same.

Characterizing the Republicans as obstructionary and callous is much better, and more accurate than the dog whistle racism, idle fear mongering and flat out lies constantly invented by the right wing. Give me a mainstream Left example of birthers, or benghazi, or death camps, or ACORN, or voter fraud and maybe then we can talk.

I am aware that the two major parties in the US are both conservative.That said, there's no question that MSNBC/CNN (really it doesn't matter which) are the "other side" to FOX culturally speaking (at least in my experience).

I don't really care who's worse, the problem simply is that both parties resort to what I deem to be poor political tactics.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Phoenix Wright

[Constable Reggie]

Message Title: Hey - Is this right? (Today, by Jordan Kaplan)

Hey --

I'm going through our supporter records one last time before our end-of-year deadline, and I have to ask: Is this a mistake?

YOUR 2013 ONLINE SUPPORTER RECORD (click here to update) NAME: You EMAIL: (My email) 2013 DONATIONS: $0

Look, I'm not saying my team is perfect (although they're pretty damn good), but according to our records for this exact email address, you haven't donated online to the DNC yet this year.

That means you haven't given to the only official Democratic party organization that helps elect Democrats nationwide, up and down the ticket -- from the White House to statehouses.

We're closing the books on 2013 on December 31st at midnight. Get your support on the record by giving just $3 or more before then:

https://my.democrats.org/Deadline-2013

Thanks,

Jordan

Jordan Kaplan

Finance Director

Democratic National Committee

P.S. -- We're going to elect the last Congress that Barack Obama will ever work with in November, so we need to get to work now. Chip in before Tuesday's deadline.

----------

If you've contributed by check or by mail, this won't be reflected in your online donor record -- but thank you for your support!

*yes i totally did read all of the op when i first saw this thread*

*yes i totally did read all of the op when i first saw this thread*

Goodness this just oozes condescension. The other emails i don't really have an issue with since it's the typical political crap, but seeing "and I have to ask: Is this a mistake?" is eurgh bleurgh.

Now I want to see someone post a repub version of something akin this so we can keep the "but other side is just as bad" status quo.. And no, just stating that repubs are [better characterized as] callous won't do anything.

Edited December 30, 2013 by Constable Reggie