Feb.
17, 2019
WASHINGTON
— In the 116th Congress, if you’re a Democrat, you’re either a socialist, a
baby killer or an anti-Semite.
That,
at least, is what Republicans want voters to think, as they seek to demonize
Democrats well in advance of the 2020 elections by painting them as left-wing
crazies who will destroy the American economy, murder newborn babies and turn a
blind eye to bigotry against Jews.
The
unusually aggressive assault, which Republican officials and strategists
outlined in interviews last week, is meant to strangle the new Democratic
majority in its infancy. It was set in motion this month by President Trump,
who used his State of the Union address to rail against
“new calls to adopt socialism in our country” and mischaracterize legislation
backed by Democrats in New York and Virginia as allowing “a baby to be ripped
from the mother’s womb moments before birth.”
Then last week,
Republicans amped it up, seizing on a Twitter post by a freshman
representative, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, which even some Democrats condemned as anti-Semitic, and
ridiculing the “Green New Deal,” an ambitious economic stimulus plan unveiled
by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described democratic
socialist. Suddenly even Jewish Democrats were abetting anti-Semitism and
moderate Democrats in Republican districts were Trotskyites and Stalinists.
…
House
Republicans have identified 55 Democrats they regard as vulnerable, including
many freshmen. Some flipped Republican seats last year, some represent
districts carried by Mr. Trump in 2016, and some are in districts held by
Republicans until recently. Bruised by their losses last year, Republicans are
determined to start earlier and be more aggressive on the offense in 2020, and
are hoping to exploit the Democratic presidential candidates’ courtship of the
left.
An
advertising offensive is already underway. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a
political action committee affiliated with House Republican leaders,
began running digital ads last
week that link two freshmen who flipped Republican districts, Representatives
Colin Allred of Texas and Antonio Delgado of New York, to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and
her “radical Green New Deal assault on the American economy.”
…
Democrats see an
insidious effort to use women and minorities, especially women of color, as the
new symbols of the radical “other.” And they are calling out Republicans as
hypocrites, noting that Mr. Trump and other Republicans trafficked in anti-Semitic tropes and racist dog whistles long
before anyone noticed Ms. Omar’s Twitter feed.
…
In the
Senate, where five Democrats are already running for president, Mitch
McConnell, the majority leader, announced he would force a vote on the measure,
drawing howls from Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader,
who slammed the move as a “cynical stunt” intended solely to put Democrats,
including the presidential candidates, on the spot. A vote in favor of the
Green New Deal could help them court progressives in the primary vote, but hurt
in a general election.
“Democrats
have handed Republicans this messaging on a silver platter,” said Andy
Surabian, a Republican strategist and former Trump White House official, adding
that he believed socialism and Democrats’ stance on abortion were more powerful
lines of attack than anti-Semitism. “All these controversies dovetail perfectly
with the president’s messaging at the State of the Union.”
…
Democrats say they intend
to counter the offensive by talking about the issues they ran and won on: reducing
health care costs and prescription drug prices, passing an infrastructure
package and rooting out corruption in Washington.
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