John Edwards released a list of LGBT supporters late Wednesday along with a letter from them explaining their support.
One of the listserves I'm on got into a discussion of whether his supporters should have used electability arguments for about 60% of what was basically a press release. Here's my contribution:
If Hillary or Obama or anyone else actually does get the nomination, and any of them, to me, is preferable to any of the Republicans, then the media narrative that "X can't win because s/he doesn't have appeal in red states" will have been strengthened. When they say that that Edwards is the most electable in red states, the letter's definitely implying that Hillary, etc, aren't. And once the media then gets into that narrative, you try and break them out of it.
I'm just saying that's what I think will happen with that message. I'm not going to argue that anyone here has any responsibility to carry the water for the Democratic Party when it comes to message.
I generally don't like such arguments anyway, for a few reasons. They tend to focus on the meta of democracy at the expense of substance, e.g. Edwards is doing better in certain polls, so he's the better candidate. I know that those who signed the letter also like him on substance, but using it as an argument makes American democracy seem like a sham, where good ideas are subservient to framework issues, where policy takes a backseat to a vague idea of "electability", which can be code for all sorts of things, but rarely "S/he will improve the country most."
Second, we don't know who's the most electable now. The letter cites a pollster who says that match-ups in certain key states right now work out better with Edwards. Hopefully, the Democratic candidate will engage people between now and Nov. 2008 and try to win them over. I'm also hoping to see someone try to transform politics from a poll, poll, poll horse race into something more participatory and meaningful, which would necessarily mean avoiding the pageantry of being presentably electable to a sound-bite obsessed media. That would mean challenging people instead of just pandering to whatever the media define as their least common denominator. But maybe that's me being too hopeful.
Third, all of the top five Democrats are electable over any of the Republicans. Arguing that one is more so is just laziness - after the primary it's up to us to help that person if we want to see her/him in the White House.
Last, I'm concerned with what "electable" means in this specific case. Is it just me, or does it sound like the argument just picked the richest (in terms of campaign cash), white, male candidate? Personally, I think that Hillary would probably run the smartest campaign. Edwards lost to Kerry (effin' Kerry!) in the 2004 primary, co-lost to Bush/Cheney, and is losing in general numbers now. He can't even stop and think that buying a $400 haircut on campaign cash might create a feeding frenzy for the Right. I'm definitely not a Hillary supporter, but I think that she's the most intelligent, least gaffe-able, most ruthless, and most media-experienced of the bunch. But the "red state" language of the letter seems to imply something else, that those rubes out in flyover country aren't going to vote for a woman (or, in Obama's case, a black man), and, man, we'd hate to lost again, so why take a risk with someone we think dem Red Staters aren't enlightened enough (like us) to vote for?
I know that the response is "The numbers speak for themselves", but the truth is that they change, people's minds are changing, and a good candidate will actively attempt to change people's minds, as well as, I hope, the way the game is played.
Just to disclose fully, I'm not leaning towards any of the top Democrats right now, and I know that I'll end up voting for whichever stooge the Democrats put up for the general election.
~Alex
That was the first thing I thought after reading that letter: John Edwards is now the most electable? Seriously? One of the best arguments for voting for him is that other people might a year from now?
Especially considering the recent history of the "electability" argument. Any Dean supporter from 2004 can tell you how a seemingly bad soundbite mixed with an Iowa paper's editorial board's view of who was electable can scrap the current favorite quickly in favor of a candidate with a record not ideologically pure enough on the biggest issue he was campaigning on with about as much personality as a knock-off cheese loaf. And we can see how correct the "Kerry is the most electable" argument turned out to be.
I wonder how much this has to do with the absolute desperation of LGBT people to get a Democrat in the White House. Things have changed so much over the past fifteen years. It used to be a lot harder to work with Republicans than Democrats. Now it's absolutely impossible for the LGBT folk to work with a nationally elected Republican. Bush has already hinted at vetoing job discrimination protections based on sexual orientation if passed by this Congress, even though 79% of Americans support such protections. He would veto gender identity and sexual orientation inclusive hate crimes legislation that another around 68% of Americans support it. We can't just win hearts and minds and put pressure on Bush - he's a brick wall.
There's the threat of a Republican becoming president. We've won the hearts and minds, but another brick wall in office would mean another four years to wait for basic job protections other countries have had since the 70's.
But even considering that, I still can't agree that electability should be the main calculus. We don't need someone in office who people are generally amicable towards, we need a leader who will most likely scare some people but also bring people around. While someone may have good numbers before the primaries, that doesn't mean that s/he's going to run the best campaign.
Oh well, the argument's not going to die without me.
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