The right is winning on fear and cultural issues that don't affect peoples lives.
The deepest red states are where there are few neighbors and the people there are afraid of strangers with different religions or skin colors or sexual preferences. You fight fear with honesty and truth and optimism and some good programs.
The way to win is not, as many have suggested, for progressive thinkers to try and convince conservatives that we are like them. John Kerry tried that with his goose hunting adventure and talk of his faith and nuanced positions that tried to split the difference between progressive and conservative. Telling voters you “have a plan” for every issue and for them to go to your Web site won’t convince anyone to jump the wall.
The answer is not to bend ourselves into pretzels of accommodation, but to be, openly, who we are. Remember when every politician in America had to answer the “Did you smoke pot” question? It’s no longer an issue, because there’s no political advantage to raising the question anymore. Everybody, conservative or liberal, has either smoked pot or is related to someone who has — or does. You can’t condemn a candidate for doing something that’s “normal.”
Likewise, when both candidates were asked during the final presidential debate to say whether or not they thought homosexuality was a “choice,” Bush, pled ignorance (quite believably, I might add). Kerry chose to finesse the question and divert attention to Dick Cheney’s gay daughter. It was awkward and unappealing. But what would have been wrong with forthrightly saying, “Of course, it’s not a choice. Science has shown very clearly that it’s a genetic predisposition. I have gay friends and family and coworkers, as do most Americans. We need to bring this issue out of the closet. Civil unions are fine with me and I think the question of gay marriages should be left up to the states.”
More on Getting Back in the Ring
The country hasn’t moved to the right. It has been moved to the right. And now it’s time to move it back! I have faith that we can do this. We’ve moved mountains of public opinion before—on segregation, voting rights, the New Deal. Our values are good and righteous. We’re bound to win—if we can just figure out how.
But at the moment, in the struggle for the hearts and minds of America, the right wing is winning. Most Americans buy into conservative explanation for their problems—and are primed to accept conservative solutions. And moral laxity is elevated as the primary problem—threatening everything from the family to the economy. The right carefully nurtured these paradigms, and then triggered them to win the election. This year, it was the Federal Marriage Amendment, which the right used to fire up conservative values among voters as the Democrats and liberal groups turned their heads. We ignored the Amendment, knowing it wouldn’t pass, just as we ignored the eleven state-level amendments, figuring they would. Unopposed, the right framed the values debate for the election.
Campaigning in Ohio, I talked to working-class white folks who hated Bush but said Kerry wouldn’t make things any better. In Ohio—which lost 230,000 jobs under Bush—that’s probably true. Kerry supported NAFTA as much as Bush did. Voters were looking for a difference, for leadership—and they found it on moral issues. We haven’t given them anywhere else to look.
Moving forward, our primary mission is clear: stand for something, and move the country toward our vision. Here’s how:
1. Identify what we stand for.
2. Organize ourselves to move that vision.
3. Connect our vision to people and their lives.
This election isn’t a wake-up call. It’s the final round in a fight we’ve pretty much been losing for the last 40 years. It’s time we get up, fight smarter and win.
My Sister Reminds Me of this - Kristof - Living Poor and Voting Rich. "The Republicans are smarter," mused Oregon's governor, Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat. "They've created ... these social issues to get the public to stop looking at what's happening to them economically."
"What we once thought - that people would vote in their economic self-interest - is not true, and we Democrats haven't figured out how to deal with that."
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