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Midterm Election Analysis: Robert Parry and Prof. David Coates

Midterm Election Analysis, Part 1. Robert Parry of ConsortiumNews sees the election as a continuation of Reaganism; Prof. David Coates of Wake Forest has 3 points of advice for Democrats. Parry is a veteran Washington-based journalist who traces the latest Democratic loss to Reagan’s depiction of government and liberals as evil. We talk about the failure of Obama and the Democrats to clearly blame Bush and the Republicans for creating the mess that led to bailouts and the stimulus bill, and the larger failure of the media to offer context and to contradict the misleading narrative offered by the GOP mainline and Tea Party candidates that the deficits are all Obama’s fault. Parry also points out that Democrats and the left have failed to build media and think tank infrastructure to challenge the unlimited spending on the right. Read Parry’s post-election commentary here. Prof. Coates is the Worell Professor of Anglo-American Studies in the Department of Politics at Wake Forest University, and he returns to offer commentary on some of the elections in the southeast, notably Marco Rubio, the new right wing senator from Florida. Starting at 28:16, Coates has 3 powerful tips for the Democrats: defend the New Deal, forget bipartisanship, and the best defense is a good offense. Coates is the author of Answering Back: Liberal Responses to Conservative Arguments.