I'm not convinced that the Democrats can turn the Koch brothers into a major issue in the 2014 elections, but they shouldn't let concern trollery like this, from The Atlantic's Alex Roarty, dissuade them from trying:
The Democratic Party's Foolish Koch ObsessionYou know what, Alex? I don't know if they can do that. I've argued that they probably can't get swing voters to care.
A Quinnipiac University poll in January ranked, in order, the three issues voters cared about the most: the economy, the federal budget deficit, and health care. Not included on the list? Charles and David Koch.
And therein lies the dilemma for Democrats, who of late have turned the full fury and might of their political operation against the billionaire brothers from Kansas. Can they persuade voters to care about two private citizens whom regular people have barely heard of -- especially when the country's still-underwhelming job market has many of those same people more worried about just getting by?
But are you suggesting that no one should ever try to raise an issue in a campaign that isn't already one of the voters' top concerns? If so, I'd like you to take a look at the Quinnipiac issue list you cited:
Do you see Benghazi on that list? Or the IRS scandal? Or Obama's use of executive orders?
So are you going to tell Republicans that they're "foolish" to raise those issues obsessively? (If they are, I sure wonder why they seem to be doing so well in the polls.)
Now, let's go back a while. Before Republicans started talking about it, where would ACORN have ranked on such a list? Or "voter fraud"? Or the "Ground Zero mosque"? For that matter, among voters overall, where did any of these issues rank after Republicans began to be obsessed with them? And yet they seem to have motivated a lot of base voters in 2010 -- which is what all this Koch talk could conceivably do for Democrats this year.
Are you arguing that parties simply shouldn't try to move an issue to the forefront by sheer force of will? Or is that prohibition only for Democrats?
So: we shouldn't publicize the actions of two major public, political, actors because people are ignorant of their real role in screwing over the country? The Democrats shouldn't manufacture an Emmanuel Goldstein of our own because it wouldn't work? Because the right hasn't had a screaming hissy fit over everyone from Michael Moore to Nancy Pelosi to Benghazi all in an attempt to manufacture a recognizable enemy that they can destroy at each and every election?
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