New Tim Ryan for Senate Ad is Exactly What Democrats Need Across the Board

 Tim Ryan Ad Targets Vance Connection to MTG

Marjorie Taylor Green might have won a conservative congressional district in the deep South, in Georgia, but Tim Ryan is banking on the fact that her conspiracy theories and her nutcase politics won't play well in Cleveland, or Columbus or Cincinnati or Akron.  Or Zanesville. 

And I'm fairly certain that they won't.  

Oh, I am sure there are plenty of Ohioans who buy into everything that Greene thinks represents the real world.  It's a poison that a lot of people can't seem to resist the temptation to ingest, and just because you live in Ohio doesn't mean you aren't susceptible to being gullible or ignorant.  But Ohioans don't see all of the things she does or says, especially the extremist rhetoric based on conspiracy theories that can't be reconciled with any existing or known fact.  I knew she was a nutcase lunatic, but some of what he features in his commercial is as bad and as crazy as anything she says.  And playing, and replaying, Vance's endorsement and approval of her is a great way to help people make the connection. 

I've been pretty shocked at the number of Americans who have no clue about constitutional democracy, how their government works, what's in the constitution, or that the President and his energy policy have no control over the price of gasoline regulated in a global market of supply and demand.  And I'm also shocked that in the midst of prosperity, and abundant, free public education the number of people who buy into these crazy, lunatic conspiracy theories is as high as it is.  More than international academic assessments, this fact is a testimony to the failure of American public education.  Isn't one of the goals of a tax supported educational system an educated and informed electorate to preserve democracy?  

But I think countering those social agendas by tackling them directly, rather than debating policy and political experience, is the way to beat the fascist Trumpies at the polls.  And take down some Republicans as well.  

An Evangelical Epiphany? 

Greene is an Evangelical, and a member of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, a non-denominational church considered "moderate" in the Evangelical theological spectrum.  I don't have any information on how involved she is there, how much she attends or anything like that, but her conspiracy theories are out of step with the image that the congregation projects.  It is getting more difficult for some Evangelicals to reconcile extremist views that clearly subvert their theology and there is evidence, plenty of it, that members are leaving churches where right wing politics has been made indistinguishable from doctrine.  

I've seen tweets and other posts on social media, featuring some of MTG's more extreme, paranoid conspiracy remarks and some of her bigotry and white supremacist rhetoric draw a variety of comments from Evangelicals.  It's hard to claim that she didn't say or write something she takes direct credit for doing.  Threads either get down to the "lesser of two evils" discussion, or people just quietly stop posting, not wanting to face the very ugly truth.  There are those within the white, Evangelical community who are genuinely committed to their faith, and can see when something has crept in and displaced the Christian gospel with political rhetoric. Having an organized effort by Democrats across the board, linking other Maga flag-waving candidates to these extremists will have a positive effect on election outcomes. 

There are some hard realities being faced by Evangelical Christians these days.  Attendance in the churches fell off drastically during COVID, and in spite of lifting of restrictions, even in some of the more conservative states where the rhetoric was extreme against vaccines and masks, it has not recovered.  Even though they were denying it during the height of the pandemic, COVID, not the intrusion of secular politics and the watering down of the Christian gospel, is now the culprit to explain the decline.  

But collectively, church membership among those churches and denominations that identify as Evangelical, and are predominantly white, has dropped considerably as well, and was doing so well before COVID came along.  The number of self-identified Evangelicals fell 18% between the 2010 and 2020 census.  Both the census, and at least one religious survey, found that while both mainline Protestant denominations and Evangelicals are declining, there are now more members and worshippers in mainline churches than in Evangelical congregations, for the first time in fifty years.  

The Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest Evangelical denomination in the United States, just a week ago reported a membership loss of over 400,000 in just the past year.  COVID accounts for attendance decline, but not for people who have resigned or left the membership of their church. Something else is causing that, and I think it's the recognition by some church members that their church has become a political cult. And there are some votes to be gained out of that group of people.  Just 50,000 could make a major difference.

Run With Ryan's Idea

I'd like to see a lot of Democrats take this idea and literally run with it.  The crazy, paranoid and ridiculous conspiracy theories, the racism, the outright lies and the connections to an effort to pull a coup are all much better at getting votes than arguing that Democrats have better policies and plans.  We do that as well, but its sound-byte sensationalism that seems to get votes.  So why not take advantage of that, follow Tim Ryan's model here and watch what happens.