"Absolute Chaotic Disaster"
This past weekend, President Obama further bloomed as a politician when he overcame one of his few political shortcomings by creating a simple, repeatable narrative for the incompetent frauds in the Oval Office. While on a conference call with his Administration alumni, Obama labeled the current White House response to the COVID 19 threat as an "Absolute Chaotic Disaster." In doing so, he momentarily demonstrated potential for Democrats in an area that has been a weakness. Obama distilled much of the misgivings of the American Majority over the capabilities of the Trump Administration into an accurate, repeatable, relatable bumper sticker that should be repeated by every Democrat and Democratic ally that gets in front of a camera or recorder. "Chaotic Disaster" should be flying from progressive lips ad nauseum until those are the words chosen by every White suburban woman when asked how they would describe the performance of the Trump Administration. There should be an eagerness to run this phrase into the ground.
But it's Monday afternoon and the only mention of Obama's words so far have been from news folks covering the story of Obama's rare criticism. It's further evidence that effective marketing is not a Democratic strong suit. By contrast, shortly after Donald Trump miraculously delivered the polysyllabic catchprase "the cure can't be worse than the disease," it went up on protest signs and was obediently spit out of hostile MAGA mouths with their customary vitriol. Of course that bumper sticker was somewhat in vain since few people beyond the MAGA ilk are eager to court illness by mingling among the unknowingly infected. That message didn't resonate very far, but the Trump Army awaits orders for the next verbal campaign which will come at any moment.
Last week James Carville griped as to how it takes Republicans to really rattle Trump following release of the Lincoln Project's "Mourning in America" ad. Perhaps James should book himself on a news show and say nothing but "chaotic disaster, chaotic disaster, chaotic disaster, chaotic disaster" over and over and over again just to get the ball rolling. Not that "chaotic disaster" will deliver us to the White House and Congressional majorities. Every commentary on Trump should carry a zippy litany of (some of) his infractions. What a relief it would be to hear unending indictments of Trump laying out the fact that "this is the person who was impeached for pressuring a foreign government to investigate his political opponent so it's no surprise his response to any crisis would be a chaotic disaster."
Amping up the messaging would make the difference not only in this election cycle, but in every one that follows. Democrats don't have to win ONLY when things get really bad. Part of the difference between having the upper hand and being an also-ran is creating the dominant narrative that will percolate down to those 23 swing voters who are already culturally sympathetic to Gopperism. In 2016, "I don't know, I just don't trust her" won the electoral college. It's time to get on the ball.
Editorial Update: I just heard Senator Chris Murphy use the words "disastrous response" in reference to Trump and I am elated!
