Losing the Election

[dlgood]

Having lost a presidential election, and looking backwards, having seen a large number of electoral losses over the past fifteen years, one wonders what the problem is with the Democratic party. Based on the economy and the war, they shouldn't be losing seats.

But that doesn't speak to the larger issue I think the party has. And frankly, has been having since the latter years of the Johnson administration.

For various reasons, the old New Deal coalition just isn't holding together. And as far as I can tell, the primary effort among the party has been to try to hold together whatever they could, in no small part, by trying to cherry-pick voters with targeted efforts here or there.

What's been missing, IMHO, and what cost the last two elections, is the "Heart". When asked, almost anyone can give you a short comment on what W is about. Or what they believe the Republican party is about. And that's powerful. But can people tell you waht John Kerry's vision was? What the party's mission was? What the democratic party is missing, IMHO, is that narrative.

What's your vision of what America's supposed to be. What's the moral argument for progressivism. In the US, we have a separation of church and state, but that doesn't mean discussion of morality is absent from public life. Or should be. And in the absence of a strong vision for a civic religion foundeded in progressive ethics, morality, and community -- the Right has been free to define Morality in terms of Sex, Abortion and Otherness. The Right has a mission. A mission that I disagree with, but they have one, and it gives them power to sway.

So, I think that's the real challenge for the Democrats. What is your mission? Why do you come to serve in public life? What is your vision for America? And then, only then, do you talk about the programmatic effort to enact that vision.

I think back to my financial situation. I've got money. I've got people who are supposed to be taking care of my money. The details matter, but I don't care nearly as much about the details as I care about the overall goals that we've set. Having established that I know what the vision is, and that we're mostly on the same page, I can generally trust my guys to take care of the details I don't have the time to handle myself.

But I can look at the voting map, and say with some degree of confidence, that I don't think a lot of America is particularly comfortable with whatever passes for vision coming from the Democratic party. And consequently, they're not voting for it.

The answer isn't for the Democrats to move left, or move right, or find a fundamentalist, or what have you. The answer is to go back to the beginning, to go back to that Mission Statement. And to articulate a compelling, relatively coherent, progressive vision for public life that competes with the vision offered by the Right. Because I very much believe there's an audience. Do that, and they'll start picking up seats, counties, and votes instead of seeing old majorities continue to erode.

Comments

[vandalisimo.livejournal.com]

Dave, you already know that I agree with you. Any work that I did on Kerry's behalf was not so much for the man or the vision, but more out of the desire to vote the other guy out of office. Compared with what motivated the work that I did for Clinton when he first ran? Kind of sad. That said, you're a smart guy, Dave and you have the ability to convey your thoughts in a clear manner while also having the knowledge to back them all up. You're a guy who is genuinely interested in government and history. I really don't think we can afford for you to keep up this lazy thing.

[dlgood.livejournal.com]

I really don't think we can afford for you to keep up this lazy thing.

I'm probably going to be going through another one of those phases where I beat myself up internally for squandering the capabilities I have -- because I feel I have a responsibility to use them. I owe it to myself to make more of my life. (Unless my slacking is just a defense mechanism to avoid getting exposed as a hack. Which, to some extent I am, but I think the laziness is why I'm more of a hack now than when I was younger.)

But, gahh... how the hell do you re-ignite lost ambition and motivation? Because I haven't felt really, really motivated for a very long time. And I'm so content and complacent in my daily life.

[margotlefaye.livejournal.com]

Maybe you have to get in touch with the things that are happening that are a real and present danger to your content and complacent life. For me, one strong motivator is the draft. Because I'm the parent of a 20 year old child, and that means that I watched a lot of kids who are now 20 grow up with her and they are, in ways only a parent can explain to you, my children by extension. I have nieces and nephews who would be prime targets for a draft. And, almost all of my life-long friends, people I've known for thirty and forty years and longer, are in the same boat I am. Most of us are only going to permit our children to be sent off to a war we disapprove of over our own dead bodies. So, that's a battle that I am ready to engage in, now. Another issue that is very real and present to me is the environment. In the past few weeks, a report was released about the die-off of thousands of species of amphibians. A few days ago, a scientist from NASA claimed the Bush administration is suppressing reports on how bad the environmental damage is getting, because they want to keep the public ignorant. Everyone knows, intellectually, that if we do too much damage to the earth, we'll end up as the authors of our own extinction, but I don't think many people grasp that we aren't talking about things that would take thousands, or at least hundreds, of years to happen, but things that might become irreversible in our own lifetimes. That's another wakeup call that needs to happen.

A lot of people found the outcome of the election enough of a motivation for change, but I'm expecting there will be a snowball effect, over the next year or two. The people who got motivated this week are going to get out there and start making plans. They are going to draw other people in. So, some people who aren't motivated today will be motivated next week or next month or next year. And if we begin to effect small changes, those, too, will snowball.

Hopefully, into an avalanche that will bury Bush's attempts to change this nation into a theocracy.

Diane
MleF