Yeah, Like That'll Work

On the same subject that I was just blathering on about, Slate asks Why Americans Hate Democrats - and what can be done to restore the party. (The sub-heading, Depressed liberals analyze what ails them, is a delight.)

The problem is, they only ask the question of liberals, and if liberals knew why they were in so much trouble they wouldn't be in trouble. (It's arguable that they wouldn't be liberals either, but let's leave that for the moment.)

Chris Suellentrop presents a reasonably clear view of what went wrong, but provides no ideas for moving forward:

My take on the election: Vision without details beats details without vision. President Bush put forward a powerful and compelling philosophy of what the government should do at home and abroad: Expand liberty. You can disagree with Bush's implementation of that vision, but objecting to it as a matter of principle isn't a political winner.

William Saletan tells liberals to seek their lost sincerity. Well, it's a nice idea. But he doesn't seem to be sincere about it:

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.

So, pretend to be sincere, is that the trick?

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.

The free market betrays the work ethic?

I'm sorry, could you repeat that?

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.

Show them where the free market betrays the work ethic. Pity it ain't so. Well, not a pity exactly...

Timothy Noah thinks that whether the Democrats move to the right, the left, or spin in place, they're still going to lose. I'm not arguing with that, but he also accuses the Republicans of no longer supporting the "promotion of human rights abroad", which is just plain nuts. Helloo? Afghanistan? Elections? Iraq? Complete lack of fresh mass graves?

Sometimes the need to move rightward is portrayed as more a matter of style than of policy. But John Kerry didn't get anywhere with his hunting-trip photo op, or with frequent affirmations of his Catholic faith. Democrats, I fear, are doomed to be thought phonies whenever they play this game, even when they aren't. (Kerry is a phony in some ways, but I believe him to be sincere in his faith and in his enthusiasm for hunting.)

Phony in some ways? Every time Kerry tried to appeal to "the people", he came across as a stuffed shirt, phony in every possible way, a Commander McBragg for the 21st century. He wouldn't even carry his own damned goose.

Robert Wright suggests that Democrats should point out that if they were elected, the world might like America better. Oh, and he suggests that they indulge in a bit of fake moralizing to sucker the evangelical types. Seriously:

If Democrats felt a little freer to moralize, they wouldn't, of course, take over Bush's evangelical base. Still, without giving an inch on gay rights, abortion rights, school prayer, etc., they can make some inroads into the "moral" component of Republican support.

Robert Reich also talks about moralizing, but in the context of "social justice":

What should Democrats say now and in the future about public morality? That it's morally wrong to give huge tax cuts to the rich while cutting social programs for the poor and working class—especially when the gap between the rich and everyone else is wider than it's been in more than a century. That we have a moral obligation to give every American child a good education and decent health care. That it's morally wrong that millions of Americans who work full time don't earn enough to keep their families out of poverty. That corporate executives who steal money from their investors and employees are morally reprehensible. And that it's morally wrong to kill over a hundred thousand Iraqis and send over a thousand young Americans to their deaths for a cause that is still undefined, in a war that was unnecessary.

Apart from Reich's little problem with facts, this is just taking standard Democrat talking points and sticking the word "moral" in front of each one. Ain't gonna fly.

Jason Furman thinks plans are the key. But even he recognises that if you're going to use plans to win an election, you might need to tell people what they are:

Take health care. Kerry had a great plan that would have provided health insurance to virtually every single child in America and cut the cost of medical treatment. He talked about this proposal in values terms each and every day, how health care should be a right, not a privilege. He talked about how it was wrong for 45 million people to lack health insurance in the richest country in the world. But that isn't enough. I still feel the sting from a Sebastian Mallaby column in the Washington Post that praised Kerry for his health plan but complained that he only talked about it in general, values terms. Kerry's really bold and innovative ideas, Mallaby said, "languish in his advisers' files."

Tom Tomorrow is... Well, I can't even be bothered to cut and paste a quote. All he offers is excuses and projection, attributing Democrat faults to the Republicans. Yawn, baby.

Saving the best (so far, this is a continuing series, it seems), Jane Smiley, in a charming number entitled The unteachable ignorance of the red states, advises the Democrats to self-destruct:

Progressives have only one course of action now: React quickly to every outrage—red state types love to cheat and intimidate, so we have to assume the worst and call them on it every time. We have to give them more to think about than they can handle—to always appeal to reason and common sense, and the law, even when they can't understand it and don't respond. They cannot be allowed to keep any secrets. Tens of millions of people didn't vote—they are watching, too, and have to be shown that we are ready and willing to fight, and that the battle is worth fighting. And in addition, we have to remember that threats to democracy from the right always collapse. Whatever their short-term appeal, they are borne of hubris and hatred, and will destroy their purveyors in the end.

This, of course, is how the far left have been behaving for the past four years, screeching and gibbering at every imagined slight. It hasn't done them a whole lot of good.

You know what this is? Well, if you're Nathan you've already recognised it. This is Cargo Cult Politics: Copy the appearance of what the Republicans are doing, rather than looking deeper to see what actually made it successful. Mind you, unlike the original Cargo Cults, in politics this can actually work. You can win office if you can fake sincerity well enough. John Kerry, of course, was terribly bad at this. Democrats think that George Bush is the Grand Master of Fake Sincerity; the problem with that thinking is that Bush is actually sincere, which is why he appears to be, uh, so sincere about his sincerity. If you try to fake his sincerity without understanding that, you'll fall flat on your face. If you try fake moralizing in the Bible Belt, likewise.

Or to put it rather more simply - though it is clear that the Democrats don't, can't see that this is what they are suggesting: Lie. Lie to the public. They're just the people, nothing more than proles, they'll never know the difference. Tell them what's good for them, loudly and clearly, using the same words they use, and you'll sucker them good.

Not this prole, guys. Not this prole.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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