Saturday, June 19, 2021

Attacking the Republican Brand

Steve has written often about the need to attack the Republican brand on a national level--to demonize their most repellant figures, and tie them to the party as a whole. I would love to see Democrats run a national ad campaign attacking the GOP, and for various reasons I think now is the time to do it.

Below is a rough sketch of the kind of ad I'd like to see.
Narrator: On January 6, a Trump rally in Washington DC turned into a violent mob that stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn our democratic elections.
[Captioned footage of Trump telling people to go to the Capitol, seguing into footage of insurrectionists attacking cops]

Narrator: The mob was radicalized by lies about the election spread by Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz and Representatives Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
[As each one is named, their photo appears, captioned with name/title. A half-second later the word "Republican" in vivid red appears under each name. This is done throughout the ad, as each person is mentioned.]

Narrator: Representatives Mo Brooks, Paul Gosar, and Andy Biggs helped organize the rally.

Narrator: Senator Josh Hawley cheered the mob on.
[Hawley fist-raised photo]

Narrator: As attackers inside the Capitol were searching for Speaker Pelosi to kidnap or kill her, Rep. Lauren Boebert gave them her location.
[Image of Boebert tweet]

Narrator: And when it was all over, 140 Republican House members voted to give the violent mob exactly what they wanted.
[Scroll list of names, with "Republican" in red next to each name, under the heading "Voted to Overturn the Election"]

Narrator: All of these Republican politicians are accomplices in the greatest attack on democracy in 150 years. And not one of them has been held accountable in any way by Republican leadership.
[Photos of Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy...Republicans.]

Narrator: This is the GOP.
Ham-handed? Sure. Effective? Maybe. I'm sure someone who actually knows what they're doing could put together something much better. The point is, we need something like this. And now is the time to do it.

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