It's Time for Republicans to Stress Offense

Horowitz is valuably right. Republicans treat politics like badminton. Democrats treat it like battle.

When a Republican enters a TV studio for debate his heartfelt aspiration is to come off looking well. A Democrat has a clearly defined set of simply expressed talking points he intends to jackhammer repetitively into the brain cortex of the listeners. Republicans want to best the foe at the polls. Democrats want to rip the foes' lungs out and nail them over the fireplace.

Horowitz stresses OFFENSE. He has contempt for defensive rhetoric intended to reason away the propaganda of the enemy in the minds of reasonable people. Occasionally, however, a good defensive play is called for. And one of those occasions is right now.

The time has come for what I call "Defensive Demagoguery."

One year from right now will you remember what you had for lunch today? One year from now will you remember what you did last weekend? One year from now will you remember whom you dated or visited next weekend?

Some of the finest financial minds fear America is in the early stages of a serious economic downturn. For more than another month now the president will still be Bill Clinton.

Here's the killer question. One year from now will you remember that the downturn started during the Clinton administration? Or will you cover your face with your boxing gloves and buckle into a clubhouse crouch and try to withstand the blows you'll get from Democrats shouting, "Clinton gave us the greatest economy in history. Then Bush takes over and, BAM, right away it all goes to hell!"

It's time to pick up a sledgehammer in David Horowitz's honor and smash a millstone of American political tradition into face powder. That wretched tradition holds that, whoever is president when bad things happen gets the blame, and whoever is president when good things happen gets the credit REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THAT PRESIDENT DESERVES IT OR NOT!

President Herbert Hoover did not cause the Depression. Never mind. He lives in history with the Depression around his neck. Roosevelt did not win World War II. He just happened to be president when, after the dastardly Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the American people joined together like never before in a near-miraculous effort to rise from shocking, almost criminal, unpreparedness and become the mightiest military power on Earth. Nevertheless, Roosevelt lives in history as America's Great Wartime Leader.

When Bush the Elder was president we had an economic downturn. The signs of recovery, though, were apparent even before Bush left office. But nobody bothered to make anything of it. So Bill Clinton volunteered to take all the credit, which was accorded him without backtalk. The contributions of the Republican Congress beginning in 1994 toward economic recovery and prosperity – balanced budget, welfare reform, etc. – are rarely mentioned, even by Republican congressmen.

Sometimes history is neat. The Depression happened squarely under Hoover and World War 11 squarely under Roosevelt. And sometimes history gets a little careless and overlaps. President Bush, as stated, takes the blame for his administration's economic downturn but gets no credit for the recovery that began before he handed the White House to Clinton.

And now another President Bush faces another economic downturn, signs of which were mounting weeks ago. And it's still a month before George W. becomes president. And it's a big story. And many more Americans own stock now than ever before. So many more Americans care. And many more Americans are watching. THIS downturn is not just a Wall Street Journal story and the conversation stuff of rich men in private clubs. This one will be a PEOPLE'S downturn.

Enter, therefore, Defensive Demagoguery.

If you're for the success of the Bush team, make sure as many Americans as possible realize and remember that the downturn began under Clinton. You don't have to do it in a mean way to hurt Clinton. Just do it in an emphatic way to defend Bush.

The hen lays an egg and cackles for 45 minutes. The sturgeon lays 10,000 eggs and never lets out a peep, even though those are the eggs we call caviar.

It's time to be a hen. My advice to Republicans is to cackle unto exhaustion in order to deny the Democrats the ability to blame Bush the Younger for a downturn he didn't originate the way they successfully denied Bush the Elder credit for a recovery that started on his watch.

Better than a hen, be a "Louie."

The legendary black jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong had a personality that spoke for him just as effectively as his trumpet. Whenever anybody asked Louis Armstrong, "What's new?" he would smile and reply loudly, "White folks still in the lead!"

Not a bad idea.

In case there is an economic downturn, when anybody asks you, "What's new?" raise your voice and reply, "Downturn did NOT begin under Bush!"