When They Go Low, Go Lower

"When they go low, we go high," Michelle Obama declared at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Campaigning three months later with Hillary Clinton

Our vote is the ultimate way we go high when they go low!” she announced. “Voting is our high!”
She updated the call-and-response, then, yelling, “How do we go high?”
“We vote!” came the answer.

Her presidential candidate won a plurality of votes but lost the election to Donald Trump, aided by Vladimir Putin and James Comey.  Still with no clue in January, Mrs. Obama in an interview with Oprah repeated "When they go low, we go high."

That's not the approach favored by The Rude Pundit, who argues

Forget about the odious cabinet picks, forget about the business conflicts, forget all that other shit that people either don't care about or don't understand so they don't care about it. Instead, hammer Trump and the Republicans on the one goddamned thing that is easy to understand: Was Trump elected because of the Russians? 

On every news show, in every appearance, in constant tweets and all over social media, demand, again and again, for an investigation into Russian hacks. Be as fucking hysterical and hyperbolic as needed. Go fucking nuts. When a Republican accuses Democrats of playing politics, respond with something like "Oh, so you're just fine with Russia electing the president of the United States?" And if they try to evade, push them to say "yes" or "no." Whose side are you on? Russia or the USA? And if you're on the side of the truth, then you should be demanding an independent investigation, no? 

Trump's loathsome idiot hordes will choke on their own troll phlegm in rage, but they're just cult members now,...

Less profanely, Dana Beyer of Gender Rights Maryland remarks

The government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” is perishing at the hands of a small proportion of its people, and the apathy of its majority. Drastic measures are needed. The Marquess of Queensberry Rules no longer apply.

Hit below the belt.

When you hit below the belt, do it repeatedly. Stressing the need of the Democratic Party establishment to frame its message more effectively, cognitive linguistics devotee and author George Lakoff explains

Repetition is a way of changing people’s brains. What Trump was doing all through the nomination campaign was that every day he managed to get on TV, and he would repeat different things that activated the same moral framework, and it really worked. In addition you have particular frames that were repeated: “Crooked Hillary,” “crooked Hillary,” “crooked Hillary,”  over and over. There wasn’t anything Hillary did that was crooked. But he kept saying it until people believed it. And they believed it because it was heard enough times to strengthen the neural circuitry in their brains. It wasn’t just stupidity. It’s simply the way brains work.

"Corrupt Donald" won't do because the adjective already has been practically trademarked by Trump.  "Devious Donald" is inadequate and "Terrible Trump" might only endear the President-elect further to his cultists. "Vladimir Putin" has the advantage of both linking Trump to the Russian despot and reminding voters that his election is tainted.

"When they go low, we plunge under the ground beneath them so that the earth swallows them," says Rude Pundit.  "Vladimir Trump wouldn't meet with the approval of Michelle Obama or even Barack Obama but, given the results of the last eight years (Congress in January 2009 below, Congress in January 2017, below that), that would be a good sign.

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