Democratic Values How to start winning the red states. By William Saletan Posted Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2004, at 1:15 PM PT Hey, Democrats! One silver lining in last night's debacle is that for another 24 hours or so, you might be open to rethinking what your party stands for. So, while I have your attention, here's an idea. Go back to being the party of responsibility. I'm not talking about scolding people. I'm talking about rewarding them. Be the party that rewards ordinary people who do what they're supposed to do—and protects them from those who don't. If you think this kind of moral talk is anathema, you're the sort of person Karl Rove wants to be running the Democratic Party. Get out, or get a new attitude. Nearly 60 million people came out to vote for George W. Bush yesterday because they think that he represents their values and that you don't. Prove them wrong and you'll be the majority party again. How? Start by changing the way you talk about pocketbook issues. Remember Bill Clinton's commitment to help people who "work hard and play by the rules"? Your positions on taxes and labor would be assets instead of liabilities if you explained them in moral terms. The minimum wage rewards work. Repealing the estate tax helps rich people get richer without risk or effort. Lax corporate oversight allows big businesses to evade taxes, deceive small investors, and raid pension funds. Yes, Republicans will accuse you of waging a class war. I can see you cringing already. Get off your knees and fight. It is a war, but it isn't a class war. It's a culture war, and if you talk about it that way, you'll win it. Some of you are dismayed by the emergence of a huge voting bloc of churchgoers. Stop viewing this as a threat, and start viewing it as an opportunity. Socially conservative blue-collar workers don't believe in the free market. They believe in the work ethic. Bush wins their votes by equating the free market with the work ethic. Show them where the free market betrays the work ethic, and they'll vote for the party of the work ethic—you—against the party of the free market. What's your strongest issue among these voters? Outsourcing. Why? Because it's the issue on which you talk most naturally about right and wrong. It's also the issue on which you're most comfortable appealing to nationalism. That's another lesson you need to learn. People are voting Republican because they think you're weak. And, let's face it, you are weak. You say you'll defend this country, but then you go on about consulting other governments, cultivating goodwill, and playing well with others. You make a world full of terrorists sound like kindergarten. Democrats in the Roosevelt-Truman years didn't have this problem. They called tyrants by their name, and they didn't sound like they were faking it. A party that believes in right and wrong at home must be assertive about right and wrong abroad. You need a serious antiterrorist agenda. Otherwise, when you object to a war like Iraq, you sound like the peace party. I'm not asking you to act like you care about this stuff. I'm asking you to care about it for real, and not just at election time. When a Republican president runs a TV ad accusing you of failing to protect us from wolves, you should be able to point out that he's the one who emptied our shotgun into a fox, leaving us helpless against the wolves. And you should sound credible saying it. Once you eliminate the sincerity gap between you and the Republicans on national security, you can exploit the reverse sincerity gap between you and them on responsibility. Think about the values of our armed forces: shared risk, shared sacrifice, and reciprocal duty between officers and soldiers, regardless of race or class. Those are your values. When leaders betray troops through bad planning and false pretenses for war, that should be your issue. When Republicans cut taxes for the rich while the nation is at war and the Treasury is empty, that should be your issue. When soldiers from poor families die while corporations skim from the war budget, that should be your issue. I've heard John Kerry talk about each of these issues separately, but each time, he sounded opportunistic. To be powerful, they must flow from a common message. That message is responsibility. All the issues Democrats like to run on—education, the environment, the deficit, energy independence—would be vastly more powerful if united under a single theme. Clean up your mess. Take care of your children. Pay your debts. Stand on your own two feet. It all comes down to responsibility. The Democrat who talks this way most naturally is John Edwards. (I know, I've got to stop advertising for him.) He's the one who frames every issue in terms of values. He's the one who argued during the presidential primaries that Republicans were favoring unearned wealth over work. He's the one who connected Republican tax policies to make the point. You don't have to teach him the language, because he learned it growing up in one of those red states. So, there's your candidate, and there's your message. Now go and live it, so you won't have to fake it. William Saletan is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War. Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2109128/
Will is right that the Democrats need to free some states from their red-ness and put them into play each and every election. I quite unsure that what he suggests would work though. In particular, would Edwards carry his home state of North Carolina if he had headed the ticket? I don't think so. One thought that I have is that the Democrats need to play just as many dirty tricks as the Republicans. Phone banking white collar Republican neighborhoods with night before election messages like "Dick Cheney raised a gay daughter. I don't trust him and neither should you." Completely dirty and offensive. But it might get 1% of the voters to stay home. Lest we all forget. Winning is all that matters. How you win is merely a footnote, soon forgotten.
Oh, then you propose to use all the campaign money to buy guns to stage a coup because "winning is all that matters" and "how you win is merely a footnote, soon forgotten." P.S. That's "Lest" not "Least" and "merely" not "mearly." (I'm glad to see the intelligentsia wants to take over the country.)
Yeah, as long as the people with guns are allegedly Republicans. The only thing turning the cheek gets you is two slapped cheeks.
If this kind of rationale were typical of Democratic Party political thought, I would hold no hope for their future. None. Thank goodness it is not.
Mr. Gore's and Mr. Kerry's campaigns were nice? The Democratic Party should try running a Presidential candidate with vision, accomplishment, courage, wisdom and charisma. Come to think of it, so should the Republican Party.
as opposed to a "reformed" drunk who is intellectually incurious, who has got special treatment his entire life, who sells himself to the highest bidder, etc. GWB has shown "vision, accomplishment, courage, wisdom and charisma" are way overrated.
Your words, not mine. And, although you may not have noticed, I did not prefer either Mr. Bush or Mr. Kerry in the White House. But, although you may not have noticed, I applauded both men for the courage to put their ideas and ideals out in front of the American public. Most of us shrink from such vicious scrutiny.
I really don't think this is a good article by Will. He says Demos are weak on defense. Not true, but they do oppose aggression. It is true that Demos did not support the unnecessary preemptive Iraq War, which Saletan did support at least for awhile, but that, again, is not about defense. He says Demos didn't talks a lot about outsourcing. Not true. He says Demos don't talk about rewarding hard work and the minimum wage and the estate tax. Not realy true, but they could be stronger on this. I also liked Clinton's line about those who play by the rules and it should have been emphasized. Will vastly underestimates the ability of the GOP to spin these issues. All the issues Democrats like to run on—education, the environment, the deficit, energy independence—would be vastly more powerful if united under a single theme. Clean up your mess. Take care of your children. Pay your debts. Stand on your own two feet. It all comes down to responsibility. This is certainly true, but again it is hard to go against the right wing echo chamber ranging from all the radio talk shows, to Fox TV etc.. I really think Saletan could write a better article about these issues, and particularly how to frame them drawing from what he learned while writing his book on abortion.
Will makes a great point. The democrats need two things- clarity and backbone. They will need to reframe economic and military responsibility issues as the moral values they are and marginilise the fundamentalists by clearly explaining their beliefs before the public. They need to hone their message and make clear distinctions with the Republicans. They also need to pick the right wedge issues in Congress, fight like hell and understand that this group of republicans aren't like those in the past. They should not work with them at all, but they should develop alternatives. When the house of cards falls in the military and economy the democrats can welcome back 8 million, or so, that voted for Bush and be the majority party again. It's not rocket science. The republicans can't blame 9-11, Clinton or even the New Deal anymore...this mess is their baby and when it craps out they get to explain their failed ideas before the people.
Will has the right spirit here, if you ask me, but I don't agree with the details. The problem is this (stated by some stuffy academic, but I'll summarize in my type of language): the republicans ran on the mantra of myth, while democrats tried to counter with facts. Before any republican voters get upset, let me say I think myth is powerful and (obviously now) much more important for a campaign. By "myth" I don't mean falsehoods or distortions. What I mean is sentiments like "I am strong. I am steadfast." That is emotional, speaks to the gut. Contrast it with "You people in Ohio have lost 312,871 jobs during the last 27.8 months, and 18.9% of injured soldiers are without artificial limbs today due to these heartless republicans! In my administration, we will give artificial limbs of the most advanced scientific materials to returning soldier amputees!" Seriously. The democrats did not have a myth to drive home, and they/we/I need one, badly.
Bush consistently runs the dirtiest campaigns. The push polling that Ann Richards was a lesbian? The push polling of McCains alleged black kid in the primaries? This years push polling of Kerry and gay marriage? Consistent attempts at voter suppression?
Look, I'm not defending Republican shennanigans. I am merely pointing out that the pot is calling the kettle black. Both parties were guilty. No Worries was trying to make it sound like the Democrats were victimized when, in truth, both sides were hip-deep in mud-slinging.
