Democrats continue to try to personalize policy disputes

Washington Post:

Democratic strategists debate future anti-Koch ads

After midterm losses, some want to expand attacks against the Koch brothers.

This is a losing strategy for Democrats but they can't seem to help themselves.  The Koch brothers helped to sponsor issue oriented ads critical of Democratic policies such as Obamacare.  Rather than defend those policies, the Democrats responded by saying insulting things about the Koch brothers.  Attacking the messenger rather than the message does not work and makes the Democrats look like they are trying to avoid the issue.  It takes more than just telling critics to shut up to win an argument.  But from the IRS abuse to the attacks on the Kochs the Democrat focus seems to be on suppressing dissent rather than engaging in debate.