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Don't let the coming FBI personal attacks become the narrative. Focus on Musk's harm to real people. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-02-26

At some point in the next few months if not sooner the pain from the radical right wing policies is going to cause real pain in large parts of the population- red and blue. We already see the beginnings of raucous townhalls and Republican voters calling their congressmen. When Medicare funding hits home...and cuts in Veterans services hit home...and large pockets of the nation suffer from avoidable illnesses….and when a hurricane or tornadoes hit….and when most importantly gas and food prices rise….the red hats who voted for him will be scared and unhappy. When billionaires give themselves a huge tax cut while they directly pay for it, many of the red hats may well figure out they they have been had,

They won’t agree with Democrats about a lot of things, but there is no doubt that the presence of oligarchs and the rule of obnoxious rich people is being shoved into everyone’s face and they won’t like it. There are a lot of red hats who hate Democrats but they are also going to hate the oligarchs who run the nation now.

Along with the Democrats that is a lot of unhappy citizens, The one thing that the oligarchs don’t want is for those unhappy people to find common cause

Donald Trump, and indeed the Republican party, have for a long time thrived upon the politics of personal destruction. Their best play has always been to assault the character of any Democratic leader. Go back to John Kerry and swiftboating. Look at the decades long campaign against Hillary Clinton based entirely on lies and misogyny. They spent 4 years yelling about “The BIden Crime Family!!” and feasted upon Hunter Biden.

The oligarchs are going to try to return to that practice, and now they have the FBI and the IRS as tools to attack anyone they identify as a threat. At the moment there really is no Democrat who stands out as a clear leader. There is no Biden or Clinton or Obama or Harris. However there are a number of Dems who will be attacked. Anyone who was on an impeachment committee like Adam Schiff or Jamie Raskin or Jasmine Crockett will be a target. You can bet that they would LOVE to label AOC as “Scandal ridden” and ride that misogynist racist horse as far as they can take it.

Kash Patel and Dan Bongino are running the FBI specifically for that purpose.

The point, or course, will be to keep the focus on DEMOCRATS and “Scandals”. They will publicly question and impugn character from the White House podium on a daily basis. They will accuse (And convict!) them of treason and other crimes right there with help from the fawning White House “Press corps”. Fox news will have daily interviews “Just asking questions” about non existent crimes. They want ANYTHING to keep the people from watching the oligarchs steal everything. For whatever reason, political messaging in this nation is often most effective when it is personalized. When one party can put a face on the other party and demonize him or her, their own prospects rise.

Trump and the right wing media will be screaming all day every day about the “Corrupt Democratic crime spree!” . It will work with a large percentage of their voters- but not all of them. One strategy is to not allow the entire conversation to be about defending Democrats or the weaponization of the FBI and DOJ. Yes those attacks and the weaponization of the FBI will be infuriating. The innocence of those victims of the attacks and the fascistic nature of the attacks need to be part of the conversation but that alone simply will not help to unite unhappy red hats with Dems against the oligarchs.

When Dems are on defense we lose. We need to unite unhappy citizens by going on offense. Keep the focus on the ruinous oligarch policies while following the GOP playbook of personalizing the oligarchs with Musk as the face to concentrate on.

Ironically, Elon Musk is such an unlikeable rich...asshole...(Honestly that is just the best word to describe him) that his presence might serve to mitigate some of that damage. Musk is a gleefully obnoxiously arrogant ketamine fueled caricature of an uncaring oligarch who is openly dismissive of the pain of others. The red hats loved that kind of thing when Trump was talking about “Libtards” but Musk is not even able to help himself from treating the non rich red hat people as anything but peons.

Fortunately for the Democrats Musk is both personally unlikable AND directly tied to the Democrats essential economic message about arrogance, greed and unfairness of the oligarchs. Hammer that home all day every day.

Elon Musk took your health care. Elon Musk hurt veterans. Elon Musk wants MORE tax breaks while YOU suffer. Elon Musk dances gleefully with chainsaws while you pay more for prescription drugs. Elon Musk LIED about the money he has been saving the government while collecting billions in government payouts. Elon Musk does not give a damn about inflation because he is filthy rich. Elon Musk is bad for you and your family.

We cannot allow the Trump regime to control the narrative- but we DO have to find a narrative that divides him from his base. That is the best way to weaken him.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/26/2306312/-Don-t-let-the-coming-FBI-personal-attacks-become-the-narrative-Focus-on-Musk-s-harm-to-real-people?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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