Well, I'll qualify that. When it comes to voting in an election, I care more about values than I care about "the facts" or a list of policy proposals. I realized recently, with a strange feeling in the realization, that I'm a "Values Voter." Not the kind you're thinking of. I'm a middle-class, educated, urban, non-gun-toting, pro-women's rights progressive. I attend a church but I'm not a Christian or a theocrat. I'm not a member of the phony "Moral Majority." But I have one thing in common with them, as I bet a lot of DKos readers do.
I care more about whether I trust that a candidate shares my values than I care about policies and "issues." I see Obama representing me. That's why I've been in the tank for Obama from the beginning, even though on policies Hillary Clinton and John Edwards had proposals that were more to my liking. They didn't, however, connect emotionally with me. Obama inspired me. Obama's authentic--an amazing communicator. So even though rationally I knew it was odd, even wrong, I didn't pull for the other politicians with better policies. And I believe that phenomenon is why he beat Hillary. She hammered on plans and policies. He ran on values and told his personal story. Hillary's campaign accused him of being just an empty suit, all words--they didn't get it. They thought policies would win the day.
But, but, but. I'm a little worried that the Obama campaign is leaving their winning strategy behind. Witness the two-minute ad that just came out: "I hope you'll read my economic plan" What?? The answer is no--no one is going to read your economic plan. Wouldn't it be nice if people did? Yes. Will that actually ever happen? NO.
And as easy and fun as it is to attack McCain's VP choice, many, many voters, a critical mass of them, don't care whether or not Democrats--or even conservative commentators--say she's unprepared or uneducated or too religious or whatever.
George Lakoff wrote an articleabout a week ago on this matter, which should absolutely be read in its entirety and passed around at every Obama meeting in the country:
Conservative populism is a cultural, not an economic, phenomenon. These are folks who often vote against their economic self-interest and instead vote on their identity as conservatives and on their antipathy to liberals, who they see as elitists who look down on them. Simply giving conservative populists facts and figures won't work.... The job for the Obama campaign is to reverse the present mindset that the Republicans have constructed, to reveal the conservatives as elitist Washington insiders who cynically manipulate them, to get conservative populists to identify with Obama and Biden on the basis of values and character, and to have them see realities through Obama's leadership capacities. Not an easy job. But it's the real job.
If you doubt this, simply think back to 2001 and 2004. We've spent two elections lambasting President Bush for being "stupid" for being a "bumbler" for being "unpresidential" and "incompetent." People still voted for him. We all slapped our foreheads in disbelief in 2004. How could anyone look at the facts and still vote for that guy? The answer: voters didn't care to look at "the facts" and never will. (Or to put it in a different way, they trusted Bush and believed his version of reality.) Bush connected with voters on a deeper level, Kerry didn't.
A lot of people have since turned against Bush, which Lakoff also addresses as a point of tactical misfire for Obama:
The Obama campaign just put out an ad called "No Maverick". The basic idea was right. The Maverick Frame is central to the McCain campaign, and as the ad points out, it's a lie. But negating the Maverick Frame just activates that frame and helps McCain. You have to substitute a different frame that characterizes McCain as he really is. There are various possibilities. Let's consider one of them. Ninety percent of the time, McCain has been a Yes-Man for Bush. Think in terms of questions at a debate. If the question is, is McCain a maverick?, you are thinking about him as a maverick, even when you are trying to find ways in which he isn't. McCain wins. If the question is whether McCain is a Yes-Man for Bush, you put McCain on the defensive. People think of him as a Yes-man 90 percent of the time, and try to think cases when he might not have been. This is not rocket science. It's the first principle of framing.
Thanks to Paul Begala for pointing out the real target in the same way:
Let’s be clear: John McCain’s real running mate is George W. Bush. It is Bush – with the active assistance of John McCain – who has crippled the American economy. It is Bush – with the constant cheerleading of John McCain – who has cost thousands of American heroes their lives in an invasion of a country that was no threat to America. It is Bush – with the strong support of John McCain – who tried to privatize Social Security. It is Bush – with the big-time backing of John McCain – who turned our energy policy over to Dick Cheney and the oil company lobbyists.
I'm not just criticizing from afar. I've been donating for months to Obama and I'll be volunteering for the rest of the campaign. But it's not enough.
So far, the McCain-Palin narratives are proving powerful. Palin has enormous charisma of her own. Meanwhile the Obama narrative is being given up in favor of "the issues." It is as though, after the Republicans attacked Obama's charismatic leader persona, the Obama campaign gave up on it, instead of realizing that they could capitalize on it.
So like Lakoff, who I obviously admire greatly, I think
Obama needs to be Obama again, the inspiring figure who gives us hope, not the dull policy wonk. He underestimated McCain's debating abilities, and needs to prep both externally by giving the press new questions to ask, and internally, by being precise and making his values clear. And he has to remember that voters vote on the basis of values, authenticity, communication, trust, and identity. If he is going to bring realities into the campaign, he has to do it via a strategy that includes all of those.
values, authenticity, communication, trust, and identity
That's going to be my new mantra. As a values voter, that's how I'm persuaded.