Stan Greenberg and James Carville discover the obvious. People are not responding to the message that we want to “move forward” while the Republicans want to “go back to the failed policies of the past.” They are responding to candidates who blast Wall Street and outsourcing, and who promise to stand up for the middle class. So, where does that leave the Blue Dogs who are most vulnerable in this election?
One problem is that the election isn’t a focus group where you get to control the message. Without corporate cash, the Blue Dogs can’t get any message out at all. And, if they adopt Carville and Greenberg’s rhetoric, that corporate cash will dry up in a hurry.
It’s a bit of a Catch-22. Yet, I think in the longer term, the Democratic Party should investigate whether or not they can create a more sustainable model, and one that is more consistent with the Party’s core values, by funding campaigns in conservative districts through small donations. This requires aggressively populist candidates and a willingness to draw sharp contrasts. But it’s gotta be better than what we have now, which is a bunch of petrified corporate shills who are only modestly better than the alternatives.