Shorter Chris Bowers:
We tried that…it didn’t work.
That’s one retort that can be used equally well to two audiences. The first audience is the so-called swing voter. When the Republicans talk about whatever the fuck their agenda is (it ain’t a small, less intrusive federal government, or a humbler foreign policy), we just respond by saying, “we tried that…it didn’t work.”.
It’s also the same thing we need to say to the DLC/TNR crowd. Moving to the center and trying to act tough on foreign policy by going along with torture and ill-advised invasions HAS NOT WORKED. It has not gotten Democrats elected and it has not moderated the Bush administration. It has led directly to disaster.
So, here’s the thing. If you want to win the midterm elections, come up with some new ideas. Don’t continue cowering before xenophobic, homophobic, flag worshipping bullcrap. Call it bullcrap and say “we tried listening to you and your ideas, and they didn’t work. We are offering something new.” Not something closer to what the Republicans have been offering, but something totally different.
It’s simple. And people will respond to it. They will not respond to wussypants comments like this:
Another possible Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., gave a speech that focused primarily on national security. He said Democrats must prove they are strong on this subject if they want to win future elections. “If [Americans] don’t trust us with their lives, they are unlikely to trust us with anything else.”
We don’t need to prove jackshit. We need jackasses like Evan Bayh to stop prefacing his comments on national security with remarks that remind people that we can’t be trusted on national security. I think, at this late stage of the game, that the American people would want such assurances from Cheney and Rumsfeld, and not some milquetoast non-entity from Indiana. We tried neo-conservatism. It didn’t work.
