I noticed while perusing
Nancy Pelosi's most recent diary a theme, well, beyond the pervasive sense of frustration and disillusionment that exists in most Democrats these days. And that was these almost rabid cry to change the tone. Stop using `Culture of Corruption'. It's weak. We should go with `Culture of Death'. Or, on the other hand, Stop using `Culture of Corruption.' It's too negative. We should be more positive. This just goes to show that there's no such thing as winning among our crew.
But I have a question: Why? It's an immensely useful slogan that has had remarkable amounts of success, will continue to resonate, is incredibly difficult to defend against, and is adaptable to almost any new development or swing and to every level of government and candidate.
Have you heard `Culture of Corruption' verbatim so many times that you're just darn sick of it? Yeah. So have I. I've also seen that damn Geico lizard about a million more times, and you know what? I remember that little guy and that his company sells me cheap car insurance. I make fun of eharmony's dorky psychologist commercials, but the other day, when suggesting a friend of mine try online dating, I said, try eharmony, you get to take a personality profile and it's legitimate. You know why, because I've been told a ridiculous number of times to try eharmony's personality profile. And the last time I was in Sweden, I was asked by a friend of mine tersely why Americans think Swedish girls are sluts who wear bikinis in the middle of the winter? At which point I explained the "Swedish Bikini Team" commercials. It takes on average a person to hear something 11-12 times before it is remembered at all. Most people don't read every press release. I hate to tell y'all, but we're sort of freaks like that. Furthermore, we have to let it sink it and pervade thoughts, which takes longer than just letting the message hit. Say it takes someone hearing culture of corruption from five different sources approximately a dozen times to know that Democrats believe there is a culture of corruption. Give it another dozen times and another five sources. There is a culture of corruption. Give this person a laptop, call them a reporter, and watch them report on the culture of corruption. Watch them ask a GOP representative if there is a culture of corruption. Watch him deny it, therefore solidifying the pervasive sense of a culture of corruption.
That's part of the beauty of the term. We're not accusing individuals (okay, not MOST individuals) of being corrupt. So there's nothing for an individual to become overly defensive over, except if you're Tom DeLay in which case you have way more problems than I'm prepared to take on here. You're just stating that the Republican leadership has created an environment where corruption runs rampant and is unchecked. Thus, guys who might otherwise be decent fellows, are running around like the Lord of the Flies. And we need the responsible folk, (Democrats) to come in and be the adult in the situation.
It ties together Abramoff, unchecked executive privilege, pre-war intelligence, Plame, filibustering, swiftboating, and any other little bit of legislation you want to throw in there. In addition to incompetence, and lack of oversight, it perfectly highlights everything that is going wrong without ever having to develop new, more nuanced points for each individual issues. One of the habitual problems of Democrats is that rather than trace it back to a large overarching theme we respond to each singular problem, thus causing a bunch of mini-debates without an overall thesis. Problem freakin' solved.
The problem with going with culture of death, etc. is that it is:
- inflammatory: messaging isn't necessarily effective by being outlandish. I know Rove might have given you other ideas, but you need to appreciate that if you push to hard, people become defensive and block out all future messaging attempts, and your campaign is essentially over before it steps out of the gate.
- non-adaptable: how do you get from Iraq to Abramoff. That's what you need to ask, not how you best describe your outrage over Iraq.
- shrill: Isn't that a stereotype Democrats are trying to overcome? Or did I miss something?
As far as complaints over the `America Can Do Better' slogan, and that we've done our corruption schtick and should get to those ideas, well, that's a more complicated thing. I'm under-whelmed by America Can Do Better. Frankly, I'm a fan of `Enough is Enough.' But regardless of that discussion, the addition of new talking points should by no means deteriorate the importance of the old. If you do not consistently reinforce your message, it will be forgotten. Furthermore, as long as we hammer at the culture of corruption, Republicans are on the defensive and will remain so. Slip in the ideas while they're so busy stammering about their own corrupt selves that they have no ability to criticize your plan. And if you think they're busy now, wait till indictments come down in the Abramoff probe. And for goodness sake, don't give them time to develop a counter-punch prior to kicking their butts in November.
I recognize that essentially what I am asking for is the impossible: patience. But recognize how far the culture of corruption has come since its very humble beginnings, and appreciate what it continues to give to you today. It is a gift horse. Stop looking in its mouth.