Americans for Prosperity's Tim Phillips' declaration to Bloomberg News dovetails nicely with Fox News' business model. What a coincidence!
So earlier this year, AFP dropped its economic argument against Obamacare in favor of TV ads with a bit more human drama, spotlighting people who had to drive twice as far to get to a doctor, for instance. Watch for AFP to continue with ads about environmental regulations putting business owners under water and Medicaid expansion causing doctor overload, Phillips said.
"I'm just going to say this, though it probably comes out sounding like a joke: We need to keep taking back victimhood," Phillips said. "The Democrats cannot own that."
Fox, of course, tailors every story to make victimized heroes out of every viewer sitting on the couch. Roger Ailes structures it that way intentionally. Brave viewers, enduring every slight, every liberal wrong, all victims. But they can be HEROES! All they have to do is reach into their pockets and of course, vote.
Good Republicans tithe to organizations like Americans for Prosperity and the College Republicans like the church of Saint Politics the Divine, all for the privilege of watching those same people destroy the government they rely upon for their Medicare and Social Security benefits.
This is the cognitive disconnect Democrats have got to overcome. No one needs to own victimhood if there aren't any victims. In presidential election years, messages of "real change" or promises that rarely stick reach into voters' heads and overwhelm their bent toward whining. But in midterm years, that's rarely the case, which is why fear works so well.
Reclaiming victimhood. There's a campaign slogan for the ages.
