Headline of the Day

Republicans Hate You

—Paul Waldman

They don't just hate you, they want you dead.

They don't care if it's starvation, industrial accidents, Covid, Measles, lack of insurance, or the elimination of public health infrastructure, they want you dead.

Republicans in Congress are currently working through the process of passing a giant budget bill that will fundamentally reorient the federal government, taking the combination of malice and incompetence that has characterized the first four months of the second Trump term and solidifying it into law. It’s not an easy task for Democrats to explain to the public what’s happening, since federal budgets are extremely complicated and this one in particular is a kind of fractal nightmare, with equal horror no matter what level of magnification you examine it at.

The message Democrats seem to have settled on is that Republicans want to do a bunch of bad stuff, especially taking away health coverage from millions of people on Medicaid, in order to pay for a huge tax cut for the wealthy. Which is factually true, and a reasonable summation of the bill. But this is a good opportunity to talk about what’s missing, not just in the Democratic message of the moment but in how they approach politics, campaigning, and their opponents.

What Democrats ought to be saying

This is what Democrats ought to be saying, not once or ten times but a thousand times, over and over again until they’re sick of hearing it come out of their own mouths. They want a message that will resonate with the working class voters they’re so worried about appealing to? Here it is:

REPUBLICANS HATE YOU

Allow me to elaborate. If you struggle to pay your bills, if you have anxiety about your economic future, if the cost of housing and college and just ordinary living weigh on you all the time? There is nothing more important for you to understand than this: Republicans hate you. They think you’re lazy, they think you’re stupid, they think you don’t deserve anything better than to be a wage slave working your ass off so they and their billionaire buddies can have more servants and vacation houses and private jets, while they sit around laughing about what a sucker they think you are. They hate you.

This is a good message, not just because it is catchy, but because it is TRUE.