Cross-posted from Smirking Chimp
It's working so well based on a simple statistical reality.
The majority of Americans -- depending on which survey you look at, between 60 and 75 percent -- cannot name which political party controls the House of Representatives,which party controls the Senate, or either.
Because most Americans don't know who controls Congress, when Congress misbehaves, as they have been doing for six years, most Americans aren't sure who to blame.
Enter the Republican Chaos Strategy, based entirely on this statistical and political reality.
And common sense suggests that well over 90 percent of Americans know that Barack Obama is the president and that he is a Democrat.
The Republicans know this, too, and it's the other half of their strategy.
Therefore, what the Republicans know, is that if they can cause damage to the American economy and to American working people, the average voter, not realizing it was exclusively the Republicans who did it, are going to assume that the president -- and the Democratic Party he is a member of -- must bear some or maybe even all of the responsibility.
It's a brilliant strategy: Damage the country and you damage the Democratic Party.
And just in time for the midterm elections.
For six years now, Republicans have been hard at work damaging America and the American people. When the Democrats briefly controlled Congress, Nancy Pelosi got passed legislation that removed tax incentives for big companies to move jobs overseas and reversed those incentives to encourage companies to move factories back to the United States. This would seem to be a no-brainer, but Republicans filibustered it in the Senate and it died.
Why? Because it would've helped the economy, it would've lowered unemployment, it would've brought back good paying jobs, and it would've helped the American people.
The Republican Chaos Strategy dictates that you cannot allow these things to happen when there is a Democrat in the White House. Under their theory, if anything positive is done for the American people by Congress, the American people -- who don't know which party controls Congress -- will assume that the president and his Democrats must've had something to do with it. And therefore, the Democrats will get the credit.
Similarly, since three days after last Christmas, Republicans have denied millions of Americans an extension of long-term unemployment benefits. This has torn apart families, increased child and spousal abuse, increased divorces, and even increased suicides. It has exacerbated homelessness, despair, and depression.
Why would the Republicans do this, and even do so publicly and gleefully?
Because they know, consistent with the Republican Chaos Strategy, that most Americans, when they go to the polls, won't realize that it was exclusively the Republicans who were responsible for this.
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