(Update [2005-4-29 5:22:20 by HadIt]:See this comment for the short version of what I meant to say.)
My First Post (at Booman)!
Kos (and others) have proposed a simple message to describe Democrats:
And I was thinking, that’s about it, really – we just haven’t gotten around to REPEATING IT that simply, PROVING IT with action, and SHOVING IT in the arch-conservative’s faces.
It really is what we believe, the GOP isn’t using that motto much at all, and more and more, people can see that the Republican ACTIONS are against that Democratic motto.
But… we are once again told that there’s no way to have a simple Democratic message. Kos’ statement has been analyzed and run through multiple computer simulations and a multiple PhD panel has concluded that the statement is not worth trying.
You see, we want too many good things that the GOP will say THEY want, too. There is NO simple statement that we, as Democrats, can put out there that will not be laughed at by conservatives.
So why bother?
Except for the last bit, so say some academic, liberal, bloggers.
(BTW, I like and respect those bloggers a lot! I just disagree.).
It’s a very David Brooks approach. Brooks works to seduce Dems into overanalyzing something that has some promise until they find undeniable fault with it. Then, of course, there’s no point in even trying it – “sigh – it’s doomed to failure”.
(“Oooh! We’re Doomed!”)
The problem I see is that everyone sliding down that this spiral of death ends up admitting they have no solution for this perplexing puzzle. Who, they seem to say, were those geniuses – GENIUSES! – that came up with
as the conservative motto? Wow, we really DO need an Apollo Project to come up with OUR simple phrase. My goodness, no real liberal would agree with any of those three points of Conservatism. And that is an ABSOLUTE REQUIREMENT for a useful motto – the other side must utterly disagree with it.
Well maybe I’m not a real Liberal, but:
- I would LOVE LOVE LOVE Low Taxes.
- I think happy traditional families ARE great!
- I REALLY want a strong military!
Now the problem pointed out by the others is, when you think too much about it, there are conditions to my support.
- I’m for low taxes BUT I know we need money to make our country work.
- Traditional families are great AND so are other families if they’re happy.
- I’m for a strong military AS LONG AS it protects and is not used abusively.
So, we are told, we overanalyzing liberals can not support the conservative motto. And that’s the GENIUS of conservatives! I mean, my God, before Frank Luntz, no one ever would have said “low taxes!” or “strong military!” Sheer brilliance!
What? We need some extreme phrases like this?
Dems want to make all families have some major oddity (like they don’t!)
Dems want to have a military armed with spitballs!
That’s a load of bullshit!
But how about this? A “moderate,” be it an independent or a rational, decent Republican, probably has the SAME DAMN reservations about the conservative motto.
And for an arch-conservative. Well, I’d propose that every word in that motto is also a mild lie. The extreme conservative philosophy – the REAL philosophy is not represented by those words. The conservative thinks:
- Low taxes: “I’m not for LOW taxes, I’m for NO taxes.”
- Traditional family values: “I’m not for ANY tradition, I’m for MY tradition.”
- Strong Military: “I’m not for a STRONG military, I’m for a DOMINATING military.”
The conservative motto is just a mildly agreeable set of phrases that almost no one can disagree with – in their precise meaning – but which everyone modifies in their own heads.
Damn it, they’ve just been saying it longer and refined it and DID THINGS while in power to make people BELIEVE IT!
So, screw all this hyper-analysis and get out there and say
“Democrats are the party for people who work for a living,”
“Democrats are the ONLY ones in the government that give a crap about YOU!”
“These bozos are trying to rip you guys to pieces and WE’RE trying to STOP THEM!”
And then ACT on those words!