stumblin’ in from Liberal Street Fighter
I really wanted to get a good hate on about the new piece in The American Prospect, regaling us with the latest scheme that the Democrats are considering to win back the trust and votes of Americans:
In the great debate about how Democrats can stage a comeback (beyond simply waiting for the coming Republican implosion that never seems to arrive), American Environics rejected some of the more popular recommendations out there. Rather than focusing on reframing the Democratic message, as Berkeley linguistics and cognitive science professor George Lakoff has recommended, or on redoubling Democratic efforts to persuade Americans to become economic populists, as another school of thought suggests, the American Environics team argued that the way to move voters on progressive issues is to sometimes set aside policies in favor of values. By focusing on “bridge values,” they say, progressives can reach out to constituents of opportunity who share certain fundamental beliefs, even if the targeted parties don’t necessarily share progressives’ every last goal. In that assessment, Shellenberger and Nordhaus are representative of an increasingly influential school of thought within the Democratic Party.
Warmed over “values” advice, only from a marketing point of view, targeted demographics using the most updated post-modern tools of the advertising trade, slicing and dicing Americans not into groups of citizens to be polled, but as consumers to be sold, and the product is … the “world’s oldest political party”. Same old shit in bright shiny new boxes. Bring back the Dixiecrats to woo voters:
Today’s average American “worker” is, in short, very much on his or her own — too prosperous to be eligible for most government assistance programs and, because of job laws that date back three quarters of a century, unable to unionize. Such isolation and atomization have not led to a new wave of social solidarity and economic populism, however. Instead, these changes have bred resentment toward those who do have outside aid, whether from government or from unions, and an escalating ethos of every man for himself. Against that ethos, voters have increasingly flocked to politicians who recognize that the combination of relative affluence and relative isolation has created an opening for cultural appeals.
I could rant, but why bother? It’s like talking to an old friend or family member at the end of a long struggle with alcoholism. Like that movie, Leaving Las Vegas, we lefties are expected to be the hookers with a hearts of gold. Out of love, or loyalty or who-knows-what, we’re supposed to stand by and help as the drunk destroys himself as he tries old wines in fancy new bottles.
It’s just pointless, self-destructive. It might make for a gripping modern love story, but it’s just stupid and self-destructive in real life. In real life, as this drinker knows, drunks rescue themselves when they decide to actually engage with the hard choices of living, of reaching out and making real connections. Or they don’t. Judging by the pathetic performance by the Judiciary Committee, and the warmed over lobbying reform package, the party has decided that it’s time to crack open another bottle of more-of-the-same.
Slack-jawed, sallow, the Dems just blunder along, one pie-in-the-sky scheme after another put forth as the “fix’, the winning lottery ticket. This Republican scandal is a tip on the right horse, that Republican misdeed is a crumpled Benjamin found in the gutter. If they prop themselves up in the chapel on Sundays and sing along with a hymn or two everything will be alright. Magical thinking. A loser’s thinking, and thus they continue to lose, continue to shuffle from pathetic statement to feckless hearing.
So it’s pointless to waste too much time on this latest gem. It’s just another excuse to avoid actually practicing politics, building real coalitions with all of the people left bereft and unrepresented in this country. Nope, better to hang out with those elusive angry white Christians in the suburbs and exurbs: they’ve got shiny credit cards with huge limits and can afford another round for everybody. It’s just about keeping the seat at the Corporate Bar, belly up to the shiny brass with a handfull of peanuts and a fresh coaster under the glass. “Buy us another round,” they say. “After all, is there somewhere else for you to be?”
Shake your head and walk away. Dead party walking, no matter how nice a suit it puts on. It’s still a mean and clueless drunk set on self-destruction. There’s nothing romantic about hanging in, convinced they’ll change if you’re loving enough, or if you buy enough pancake breakfasts or rub their feet. Walk away and find someone new to support, or the drunk will drag you under too. It’s no wonder that the leader of this bunch is an old fraud from a city that trades in fake hopes, fake marriages, fake skylines, fake jackpots, fake Elvises and fake new beginnings. Reid is a fake leader for a fake political party. He’s just paying enough attention to get you to hang around and buy him another drink.
It’s time to leave Las Vegas and the Democratic Party behind.
The strategy outlined in the American Prospect piece, if followed to the letter, will be suicidal for the Democratic Party. You won’t have to worry about leaving the party, it will be leaving you.
As you say, the real problem with the approach is that it takes too much for granted. Economic and social conditions, the nature of American culture, people’s political preferences and perceptions of their own self-interest, are all taken as set in stone, not things that can be reshaped through political action.
Like this:
Ignoring for the moment that the view that labor unions or minorities are “special interest groups” whose interests are diametrically opposed to those of the average American is dead wrong, we might do well to ask how “voters,” at least some of them anyway, came to such a conclusion.
Does it have anything to do with 4 decades of propaganda spewed forth by the right-wing noise machine? Propaganda that Democrats have failed to counter when they were not actively abetting its diffusion?
And, if that’s the case, then it ought to be possible to bring these voters back to our way of thinking – by formulating and disseminating an economic and social vision that explains why labor unions and social programs promote prosperity and social justice too? And it shouldn’t be hard to find a moral language for this kind of program, either.
Not that this will be easy. And it will run smack into a lot of elite Democratic Party interests.
you took the words right out of my mouth.
Madman’s obsession with getting people to leave the party over its current state of patheticness is just the recipe for more Republican rule.
enjoy the losses in ’06. How many times do they have to fail and keep repeating the same mistakes before people say “enough”?
Slapping a “D” after the name of a brigade of former Republican vets isn’t going to convince people to vote for the party-that-stands-for-nothing.
If Casey ends up forced down your state’s throat, and I sincerely hope Pennachio pulls off an upset, you might as well vote for Santorum if you vote for Casey. Just another tarnished side of the same old coin. Take comfort in that vote when that fucker repeatedly crosses the aisle to vote with the Republicans.
Oh, wait, that won’t happen, because Santorum and the Republicans will kick his worthless ass.
In my opinion, it is the Republicans that should leaving for a third party, a la 1992.
If they Dems hold firm, we’ll win. If they drop out we lose.
Of course, the politicians in DC should realize they have to do something to make people support them, but even if they don’t we still need to replace them or overwhelm them with new members and change their culture.
The GOP keeping all branches is not an option. And voting green party is therefore, also not an option.
hold firm to what, exactly? Oh, yes, their seats, their perks … their lobbyist-paid junkets and fat campaign checks.
They aren’t holding firm to any values or beliefs, that’s for damned sure. The only way to make them fight for progressive values, and not just Rethug lite, is to withhold the two things they actually give a fuck about: votes and money.
Electing a bunch of righties like Massa, Kaine, Testor and Casey leaves us just as fucked as we are under the Republicans. Electing Dems like them is the same thing as leaving everything in the Republicans hands.
Thanks for telling me what my options are. I’m afraid I’ll have to ignore that very poor advice.
if you would stop considering the Democratic Party to be ‘them’ in ‘Washington’ and start thinking of it as the catch-all organization for opposition to Bush/DeLay/Cheney/Ashcroft/Robertson/LeHaye/Forbes/Perle/…
Then maybe you could see the lunacy of encouraging people to opt out of the only coalition with a prayer of reaching majority status within 50 years.
You are (or should be) the Democratic Party, not some asshole consultant. Do you remember 1975? 80 new freshman democrats in an already democratic house? What did they do? They kicked out a bunch of the chairman, enacted election reform, passed FISA, aired all the dirty laundry of our intelligence services, and put a Democrat in the White House.
THAT party was different from the 72-74 party that needed the Washington Post to help them drum Nixon out of office, that was powerless to stop Cambodia, or Laos, or internal spying, and whose candidate got THUMPED.
the study described in the piece I linked to makes it painfully clear that I, you, everyone here IS NOT the party. IS NOT on the party’s radar. Just look at last week to see how little they listen to US. NO, they listen to consultants, and the only way to make them listen is to leave. History bears this out.
’75 happened b/c people threatened to leave. They built coalitions, voting blocs, and one way a voting bloc builds power is to threaten to withhold.
fuck that.
i really don’t care what the Dems do in Congress right now. They have no power. The only concern I have is that they don’t act so goddam cowardly that they lose millions of voters like you who would rather the GOP win than that they get thrown in jail.
This is an excellent piece, Madman. I think most of our learning comes from pop culture, especially movies and tv. But in this case I have to disagree with you. I’ve spent thirty years hanging in with an alcoholic, and can testify that redemption is definitely possible, and worth the effort.
I can’t say that I have withdrawn from the party, but a certain amount of support is not given. I give money to the Green party because I like what they’re trying to do, but communicate with the Democratic because it’s in the position to take action. The party is just people – successful or suffering people, who deserve the respect due any living creature, no matter what. It’s like a family, you can stay or leave – help or not. I still believe all you need is love.
sure, redemption is possible IF THE DRUNK CHOOSES to change. This drunk, this staggering donkey, is resolutely refusing to change.
I’ll support individual Democrats who fight for change, but the national party is dead to me.
Even a focus on economic populism wouldn’t work, until and unless democratic party leaders are willing to give up their millions for an equitable redistribution of wealth.
exactly