Chris Bowers, over at the blog MyDD, has a great post on why Democrats keep losing elections: because they keep talking about what they need to do to win elections.
If you are going to stand on your principles, then stand on your principles. There is no need to preface that stance by saying that more Democrats need to stand on principles in order to win elections. In fact, such a preface just makes it look like you are standing on your principles in order to win elections, and trying to distance yourself from those other, evil Democrats who don't stand on principles.
If you are going to talk about faith, then talk about faith. There is no need to preface your discussion of faith with a statement that Democrats need to talk more about faith. All that will do is make it look like you are talking about faith in order to win elections, and to distance yourself from those other, evil democrats who don't talk about faith.
If you are going to talk about national security, then talk about national security. There is no need to preface your discussion of national security with a statement that Democrats need to change their stances on national security. All that does is make it look like Democrats don't stand for anything on national security, and are just talking about it now in order to win elections. Oh yeah, and it distances you from those other, evil Democrats who don't hold the same national security position you do.
If you are going to move to the center, then move to the center. Don't preface it with a statement about how Democrats need to move to the center in order to win elections. All that does is make you look like a pile of mush who freely moves from left to center to right and back again in order to win elections.
Damn skippy. One of the things that's always driven me crazy about Dems like Hilary Clinton and Holy Joe Lieberman is that not only do they insist on following the path I refer to as Republican Lite, they insist they need to be that way to win. It's like they're taking a moderate position not because they really believe it, but because the Republicans will make fun of them if they're "too liberal."
Here's a news flash, kiddies: the Republicans are going to mock you whatever you do. Al Gore, they said, was too stiff and boring. Howard Dean, in contrast, was passionate, so they called him "crazy." Then Gore started making speeches where he was fired up and he was called crazy.
Be moderate. Or be liberal. But just do it, for Chrissakes, and spare us all the explanations about how you're doing it for the good of the party. Swing voters could give a shit about the good of the party, you're not going to make the base happy by pandering, and the drooling right-wing yay-hoos are going to throw rocks at you either way.
6 comments:
I think that this is the core of the problem for the Democrats. They're trying to define themselves in opposition to the Republicans, rather than defining themselves for themselves. Until they can find someone with the balls to stand up and say, "This is who we are, deal with it," they're going to continue to have this problem.
They also need to find someone with the balls to stand up to the slings and arrows of the media thugs with a few slings and arrows of their own.
"So Rush Limbaugh called me unhinged? Jeez, he must be hittin' the old Oxycontin pretty hard..." etc.
This is the result of fucking focus groups and people who don't have the cojones to mutter and un-researched word.
Jesus deliver us from marketing.
Bill Hicks was right. Someone pass me the gun.
The Democrats keep losing national elections because most Americans view the party as one without a moral base. It's the classic Catch-22. The Dems want to be all inclusive, but in doing so, they risk having no central moral foundation.
I think we want politicians we can trust, and rightly or wrongly, voters felt Bush was more trustworthy in the last election.
This will obviously shift in the next major national election.
Stacey
Where's McGrath?
Where's McGrath?
Last I saw him he was mixing up a pitcher of Vodka and Juicy Juice. (Shaken, not stirred).
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