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Republicans don’t have a clear boogeyman for this year’s midterms (www.politico.com)
submitted 2 days ago by to c/politics@lemmy.world
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Some of Democrats’ once-hateable figures are out of the picture. And emerging democratic socialists haven’t made for strong lines of attack nationwide.

Republicans have tried to find a new boogeyman this year as they rail against Democratic socialism and the “radical” left: Zohran Mamdani. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Bernie Sanders.

Still more mentioned than all of them, at least in campaign ads: former President Joe Biden.

A POLITICO review of hundreds of ads running in battleground House and Senate races in recent months shows Republicans largely haven’t seized on progressive icons in paid media. Instead, Biden is the Democrat most likely to be mentioned in GOP ads this cycle, coming up across dozens of races.

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[–] 2 points 14 hours ago

I'm more afraid of the idea that they think they don't need one anymore because they can't lose anymore.

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    [–] 3 points 17 hours ago

    They do. It’s just unfortunately Trump.

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    [–] 1 point 14 hours ago

    Biden is the Democrat most likely to be mentioned in GOP ads

    What even the fuck. The guy who left these dolts with an economy that was "the envy of the world", and they proceeded to fuck up royally?

    And the guy who isn't even running in any races, and is battling cancer?

    The right are just unhinged monkeys.

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    [–] 36 points 2 days ago (8 children)

    Trans-Commies are coming for YOU!

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  • [–] 1 point 14 hours ago

    I had to laugh: even that dumbass Marge could see through their bullshit "ZOMG! CARAVANS ARE HEADING FOR THE BORDER!" ploy. It's amazing that goobers in Sisterfuck Arkansas would literally watch b-rolls of the SCARAVANS and think that omg, those people were going to be heading right to their houses...

    🙄

    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/28/800104836/elections/marjorie-taylor-greene-reveals-gop-scare-voters/

    “We have not seen a caravan headed to the U.S. southern border in several years, why now?” Greene wrote on X. “Oh yeah, there is an election coming and the GOP needs to scare you into voting because nothing else is working.”

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    • [–] 8 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Trans people

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    • [–] 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

    The problem with the GOP right now is they keep adding "demons" to the mix. Too many "demons" confuse people. We got; woke, libtards, democrats, trans, furries, illegal immigrants, and on & on. In the past they picked one "demon" and pounded that group to death. Abortion or "the gays" are examples. The GOP will always fine a group to become the latest "demon" to fight (LOL). Too many choices confuses people and humans will just give up when overwhelmed with decision fatigue.

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  • [–] 4 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

    Their real problem is they won. They have the presidency, the house, the Senate, and the supreme court.

    They keep trying to blame people who are clearly nowhere near actually having the authority to do what they claim.

    To this day the best they can try to do is blame Biden for the inflation, years after he is out. They never exactly presented a clear mechanism for how Biden was the cause, and now we have glaringly obvious mechanisms that that squarely are responsible for.

    The problem is they can't find any credible demon, so now they are shotgunning hoping something will randomly stick.

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  • [–] 3 points 14 hours ago (1 child)

    They never exactly presented a clear mechanism for how Biden was the cause

    IKR? While he was in office, IRL, some people would be howling at me about gas prices/inflation. "Aren't you glad you voted for this?" and how "Biden's policies did this to us".

    I'd ask them: what policies? And did Russia attacking Ukraine have any impact here? What about the Covid pandemic? Many of them were Covid denialists, so it'd immediately devolve into a whirlwind of idiocy.

    None of them ever had any answer for the supposed policies, other than vague bullshit about pipelines or not doing drill, baby, drill, LOL. One particularly hilarious one for inflation was to talk about stimulus checks. It was hilarious to ask them when those stimulus checks went out....

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  • [–] 1 point 4 hours ago

    Yeah, Biden-era inflation was supply chain shock from onset and recovery from COVID (which I can't imagine any government doing well), the COVID stimulus (technically on Trump's watch, but I'm not going to blame that government since it's hard to say what the better approach would have been if there even were a better approach), avian flu (narrowly on egg prices, but GOP milked the election year avian flu for all it was worth), and Russia's invasion (which Trump asserted that Putin would have obeyed him and that he could negotiate that away in a day, and Trump proved him wrong).

    Trump-era inflation is ongoing Russian invasion (not Trump's fault), AI bullshittery (in the ways that would matter, not Trump's fault), terrorizing laborers (100% Trump's fault), tarriffs (obviously his fault), and the Iran war (again, totally his fault).

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    • [–] 16 points 2 days ago (3 children)

    Normally when that happens to countries in history they just default to “the Jews”

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    • [–] 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    The biennial Migrant Caravan^TM^ will surely begin its arduous journey once again any day now

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    • [–] 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    A bit of good news this morning?

    Too bad Joe is still hanging around. I suppose him dying wouldn't have stopped them from invoking his ghost, though. Their bag of tricks is running dry. It's hard to keep blaming Biden two years after he left. It's comical, really. I hope they keep it up.

    I'm also hoping gas prices keep going up, we're at $4.36/gallon national average. Love to see that hit $5 before the election.

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    • [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    So basically it's everyone now?

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    [–] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

    Communism! Hasan Piker! Zohran Mamdani and his scary fast and free buses are coming for you! We're losing the culture war to Abdul MOHAMED El-Sayed because he's walking away from it on Fox News! Turn up the Islamophobiaaaa!

    Is what Republicans will fall back on

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    [–] -2 points 2 days ago

    They don't need a boogeyman. They get 100% of what they want 100% of the time. They will likely stay in power regardless of the midterm results. No one has pushed back in any significant way to cause change, so why would it change?

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