Advice to Kerry - The Country Wants Change, Tell What You Would Do

The Unhappy Majority

Senator Kerry:

Ordinarily, as a challenger, your first job would be to get the voters inflamed about the way they've fared under the incumbent. According to the Mother Jones poll, you can dispense with this step. The voters are plenty angry. Sixty-two percent of Americans feel that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Among single Americans, that number is 73 percent. And among African-Americans, it's an astonishing 95 percent.

Indeed, the poll shows the country edging past anger into rage, or benumbed hopelessness. Sixty-four percent of Americans see the country as more divided than ever before, and only 18 percent expect that divide to lessen in the years ahead. Among those few optimists, the largest bloc think things have got to get better — because there's no way they could get any worse!

Senator, you don't need to convince Americans that change is necessary. They know that. They want change. What they don't know is what the change should look like, or who they can trust to deliver it.

There are two models for building a coalition in a time of need. One way is to tell people that their land is under siege, that they have to run to the castle, raise the drawbridge, and make sure the moat is filled with snapping crocodiles. This is the politics of culture wars and racial animosity. Mother Jones poll data suggests that an element of the conservative coalition — surely not all conservatives, but a significant element — are dissatisfied with their lives in some way and, rather than seek true causes, chooses to blame gays, women, and minorities. [el - and Democrats and liberals.] The "moat and crocodile" strategy provides an illusory enemy and an illusory solution.

The other way to build a coalition — progressive, instead of stagnant; inclusive, rather than restrictive; realistic, not illusory — is to show people that there's a train headed for a better life, that it's your train, and that everybody is welcome to climb aboard.

The MOJO Poll - We are currently headed in the Wrong Direction

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