Note To Democrats: Wise Up
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections, General Politics, Smart Things Said By Smart PeopleThis editorial from Joan Vennochi is so spot on I wish the Dems would reprint it and distribute it among the faithful. Especially sections like this:
Democrats continue to fight the last campaign, while Republicans are planning for the next two. While the Democrats are busy bashing Bush — a second-term president who is not running for anything — the Republicans are working on their strategy for victory in 2006 and 2008. Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, continues the GOP outreach to Latino and African-American voters. Dividing up the Democratic base and conquering even a small piece of it helps Republicans in future elections and hurts Democrats.Already, Democrats are beginning the familiar waltz down losing paths, courting liberal activists in Iowa and New Hampshire. Why? If Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack runs for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Iowa caucus is irrelevant. If Kerry runs again, the New Hampshire primary is also less important.
Indeed.
Still more wisdom and some specific strategy that is VERY timely (emphasis mine):
Democrats should also do with stem cell research what Republicans did with gay marriage: present the issue for a vote on every possible state ballot. Republican Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader from Tennessee, just demonstrated the power of the issue. Frist’s surprise endorsement of a bill that would approve federal funds for new lines of stem cells enraged the right. But Frist knows the political center supports it, and the political center is where a presidential contender wants to be. In stem cell research, Democrats, for once, have an issue that fires up their base and cuts to the center, across diverse demographic groups.
If this isn’t required reading for Democrats, I don’t know what is. Thanks Joan.
(Hat Tip: Memeorandum)
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August 4th, 2005 at 6:37 pm
The more I read about this, the more I think that the Democrats are in danger of imploding. They’ve gone all passive-aggressive. Instead of taking this advice, they’ll continue to stew in their own juices. Since 2000 they’ve stopped looking forwards. Instead they keep trying to revive old battles already lost.
This is a major reason why I left the party. But I’m not a Republican either.
August 4th, 2005 at 6:55 pm
“But I’m not a Republican either.”
Didn’t Howard Dean say something like, “If you’re not with us, you’re with the Republicans”?
I know it was something about Republicans…
;^)
August 4th, 2005 at 9:06 pm
I don’t remember Dean saying that, but I do remember Bush saying something like that…
Show your work, goy! ;-)
August 5th, 2005 at 2:13 am
This whole “Democrats are living in the past” thing is a popular refrain, but it is hardly true.
While Democrats aren’t leading the way on policy, they also don’t control a single branch of government. Kinda hard to lead when you don’t have say over legislation.
Also, if you look at where the parties come down on the issues, I think you’ll see which party is looking forward and which wants to go backward: stem cell research, cleaner energy policy, responsible fiscal policy, etc.
One party is in power, the other is not. One party holds the megaphone, the other does not. That does not mean, however, that the minority party lacks vision. It simply means it lacks voice.
But that could very well change. Check out the fundraising numbers for the 2006 senate races. The Dems are blowing the GOP out of the water right now.
(Oh, and I would hardly consider Mehlman’s apology for the GOP’s racist “Southern Strategy” to be “outreach.”)
August 5th, 2005 at 3:38 am
If Kerry runs again, the New Hampshire primary is also less important.
Print this and hand it out: JOHN KERRY IS NOT A LEADER. ALL PREVIOUS REFERENCES TO KERRY AS A LEADER SHOULD BE DISREGARDED.
August 5th, 2005 at 4:15 pm
There’s a strong argument that the Democrats have no voice because they had no vision.
Speaking only for myself: my gut reaction to Democrats right now is that they are the party of hate. (I know those words are provocative, but I did say it was my gut, and guts tend not to be polite.) Dems hate what’s currently going on in politics, and want it to stop. What is “it”? It’s a bunch of things. But they hate ‘em, and they wanna stop ‘em.
Putting my gut aside, I can be more precise. The problem that irritates me most with the Democrats right now is that they can’t get away from the negative, even when it ought to be easy. Gay rights ought to be a positive thing, right? But I keep hearing it trumpeted as a way to tell Christians to stick it.
Now, to be fair, I would have to contrast this with the Republicans. If my irritations were full-tilt against Dems, then I would have to see the Reps as able to present every issue – social security reform, abortion, immigration, foreign policy – without going negative. Well, that’s not true, either. Exhibit A: Karl Rove. “Nothing more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.” That’s prime grade-A red meat for a red-state believer, but frankly, in context, it wasn’t entirely true. (It’s true if we only count the kooks, but that’s a null argument.)
Maybe it’s my upbringing that makes me innately more capable of spotting the positive argument in a conservative screed. I’m more familiar with conservative sacred cows; the underlying assumptions; the heroic figures of the conservative pantheon. I’m less so with liberals. This touches on that comment I made here a while back, in which I asked liberals to tell me their story, and to sell it. I’m still looking for that grand theme, that fire.
There’s got to be a core of great parables, stories, myths, fables, what have you, that are universally (well, nationally) known, universally appealing and positive, and bear that liberal flavor. Maybe that’s what Dems need, among other things; their speechwriters need to re-read the literature that inspires them, and tailor the message with that in mind, instead of some Lakoff-enstein’s monster. Again, however, this is all my personal feeling.
August 6th, 2005 at 1:57 am
[...] First a call to the Dems to “wise up” and now the man who engineered the Contract With America is saying that Republicans should pay heed to their narrow victory in Ohio this week. [...]