Gay marriage. Abortion. Terri Schiavo. Guns. Affirmative action. Flag burning. Top issues of the Rebpublican Party, Alex? Sorry, no. The correct answer is bait the Democratic Party keeps falling for. Time and again, the 101st Screeching Harpies of the Right Wing trot out these canards, and time and again the left reflexively locks and loads to "fight back." But is it fighting back if all you are doing is shooting down decoys?
More of the flip.
I've written
previously about the need for the Democratic Party to develop a core platform of procedural reforms and public policy issues for us to run on, akin to the Republicans Contract With America from the '94 election. In addition, this core platform can be circumscribed by an overarching theme I've called
In America, No One Stands Alone. (I'm sure someone else in the kososphere could do better, but I needed
some sort of catchphrase!) Building on that, I think its time we need to stop firing at decoys. Its a waste of ammo and it distracts us (and the public) from the GOP's real agenda - returning America to a McKinley-era, robber baron society.
These decoys of the Right all have one thing in common. At their core, these decoys are social or cultural issues, not issues involving economic, educational, environmental, public health or other substantive public policy. Its why they play so well in the field - they touch on cultural, hot button issues for which people's reactions are almost hard-wired. You can't have a reasoned discussion with an anti-abortion activist who thinks abortion is murder. Its almost a fool's errand.
Moreover, these cultural issues, by their nature, are incredibly hard to deal with legislatively. And legislation (and the administration and ajudication of legislation) is what government is about. You can't change people's hearts through a statute. The GOP knows this, which is why they use these cultural wedge issues.
I accept that there are legitimate concerns at play with respect to these issues. Gay men and women deserve to be able to live their lives just like everyone else. Women shouldn't be forced to bear a child they do not want just because the condom broke. Racial minorities deserve the same opportunities that whites do.
However, there are limits to what we can accomplish on these front using the instruments of government and, by and large, liberalism has used those instruments to create about as much space to accomplish these goals as we can. Abortion is, by and large, legal. Racial minorities, by and large, cannot be discriminated against. Gay Americans, while not all the way to full equality, are making pretty rapid headway. It may sound trite, but everybody's basic cable package is now going to have an all-gay, all the time channel with the new Logo network. While this doesn't sound like much, Stonewall was only 35 years ago. We've gone from New York City cops beating up as many drag queens as they could find (and the drag queens heroically fighting back) to a bunch of queens giving facials to the Boston Red Sox on national TV.
The GOP can't win these fights. They can make a lot of noise, but the reason the cultural conservatives are so riled up is because they are LOSING. And their leaders know it. Young people today think it ridiculous, by substantial majorities, that same sex couples can't get married. Reproductive choice isn't something they are going to surrender. And discrimination won't tolerated because your average 18 year old white girl is as likely to have gone to the prom with a black dude as a white dude. And, gasp gotten it on afterwards at the Motel 6. Our culture IS changing. But it's changing in our favor, not theirs.
This is why these issues are decoys. They bait us into fighting on behalf of issues that we've already won in the hearts and minds of most people, in particular those young persons who are going to inherit this country in the future.
Yet, they successfully distract our focus and energies from issues that are NOT so certain. It is not certain that Social Security will survive. Its is NOT certain that our environment will get cleaner in the future. It is NOT certain that income inequality will be better. It is NOT certain that educational opportunity will be afforded to all regardless of family income. It is NOT certain that the middle class will grow, not shrink. These are the issues that are really up for grabs. We need to fight for them.
This is more than just fighting for what is important. Its about engaging the GOP in a truly strategic manner. That means taking away their strengths, and making them play to their weaknesses. Attacking them head on with abortion or gay marriage doesn't work. It just lets them paint us as baby-killers and makes those who would ordinarily agree with us get a little queasy. Its not about Bob and Steve getting married in Boston - its about a mental image of Bob and Steve in full leather gear with a vat of K-Y getting ready to party on Ozzie and Harriet's front lawn.
We can successfully take these strengths away. Not by attacking them directly, but by changing the conversation. I'm a big New England Patriots fan - in part because of the way Coach Bellichick, week after week, takes away his opponents strenghts by not letting them play the game they want to play. Other guy has a front O-Line that is filled with 300 pound bruisers and a running game that won't quit? Fine - give up a few running touchdowns, but completly shut down their passing game. Other team has the secondary from Satan's own army? Fine - run it up the middle with your power back.
We need to do the same. They want to go foam at the mouth about Bob and Steve. Fine, let them. Instead we ask "The GOP wants to spend all our time worrying about what Boston thinks about Bob and Steve. OK, but we think the real shame is that our kids can't get the decent educations they deserve and mothers can't go take their kids to see the doctor, because their employer doesn't have health insurance. What's more important? Bob and Steve in Boston or your kid's education and health? The GOP thinks its Bob and Steve. We disagree." You can substitute Bob and Steve for whatever cultural issue of the day you wish. They toss, abortion at you, we respond with universal health care. They toss guns, we respond with universal health care. They toss flag burning, we respond with uinversal health care. Boring and repetitive, yes. But it was boring and repetitive Bush that people felt like they "knew what he stood for" than carefully nuanced, every question is unique Kerry. And I actually like Kerry.
Beyond allowing us to shift the focus to our strengths (and their weaknesses), it also allows us to look like sane, rational grown-ups. Why? Because sane, rational grown-ups ARE more worried about their kids health and education than Bob and Steve in Boston. Just because the GOP wants to start a food fight in the cafeteria is no reason for us to go along.