General Discussion

...for being better on the economy than Democrats over the last 40 years despite the fact that their policies tend to wreck it over and over leaving Democrats to fix it.

Of course, the fixing it part almost always keeps Democrats from showing what they could really do if Republicans weren't such bad stewards of the economy, but that fact is quickly lost on Americans.

Part of it comes down to the fact that Republicans have been effective at convincing Americans that Democrats are going to raise their taxes--helped in part by Democrats expressing support for raising taxes. "Tax-and-spend" has been a pretty effective mantra for them. Of course, they spend and don't tax, but that message doesn't resonate. Americans love to get something for "nothing."

The rub is that a lasting sustainable economic agenda DOES depend on raising taxes on the very wealthy and corporations at the very least.

So how do you create a message that isn't lying and still achieves the goals of the Party?

The only message Americans seem to actually support are magical "you can have everything but pay for nothing" messages--the kind Republicans sell on a regular basis.

It is as if your task were to write popular science fiction books that must adhere to science fact.... Yeah, they probably aren't going to be really popular.