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Charlie Crist, the former Republican Governor of Florida who is now running for the same position this year as a Democrat, was on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. In his conversation with Candy Crowley, he hit on a number of subjects, such as the state of the Republican Party, CPAC, Chris Christie’s 2016 chances and his own gubernatorial campaign. However, the subject he was most passionate about was how Democrats are not running strongly this year on the Affordable Care Act.

Basically, Crist used his time on the program to promote the ACA and point out that Democrats should not be fearful of using the health care law as a positive campaign issue. He stated that in the end the law will be very popular with the American people and those who supported it from the beginning will reap the rewards in subsequent elections. He also pointed out that Democrats should not be afraid of showing their support for President Obama.

Crist is absolutely right. He pointed out that there are Dems out there that are overthinking the upcoming midterms. They are concerned about poll numbers and approval ratings but doing nothing to bolster the public perception of either the President’s policies or the ACA. Many are running scared because they see negative ads being run against them, paid for by conservative billionaires.

The former Governor said that Democrats “ought to strengthen up.” Allowing conservatives to consistently set the narrative regarding the health care law, or other issues, forces Democrats to always be on the defensive. It means they are always reacting. This also allows the mainstream media to play along with the set narrative. Currently, networks like CNN are still talking about the ‘botched’ rollout of the ACA, or the anecdotal Obamacare horror stories that always end up false, rather than the constantly growing enrollment numbers or the shrinking insurance premiums millions are seeing.

Charlie Crist knows what he is talking about. He sees the GOP for what it is, a quickly shrinking political party that only knows how to run on fear and anger. That is why he left that party. He had this to say about the Republican Party on Sunday:

“This is a party now that is perceived as being anti-women, anti-minority, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-education, anti-environment. I mean pretty soon, there’s nobody left.”

Democrats should listen to Crist on this. He’s stating that the Republicans’ sphere of influence is disappearing, so Dems should not allow themselves to be bullied anymore on the campaign trail. Democrats should be on the attack and run on their record. Because, quite frankly, Republicans really have nothing to run on except obstructionism and inequality. If they had any actual ideas, they wouldn’t have to rely on billionaires spending millions on negative ads complaining about a health care law designed to help millions of uninsured Americans.