I've been reading the posts on WVA and find them all interesting. I'd like to consider the messaging implications for communicating with a coalition's leading edge and its trailing edge.
For the past eight (OK, 40)years, the Republicans have messaged in the language of the trailing edge (evangelicals, some from WVA), all the while pursuing the policies of the leading edge (rich corporatists). We Dems can't do that because we can't adopt that language and because we don't want to practice those kind of deceptive politics.
On the trailing edge, we are dealing with many relatively uneducated but religious people. In the '06 campaign, I worked for Jim Webb and separated the "love and service" Christians from the "fire and brimstone" Christians. An article in the Seattle Times here
points to younger generations' disillusionment with the Republican Party. And a Reuters story points to even the elder evangelicals' growing belief that they should step back from injecting religion into partisan politics. here
So what should Dems trailing edge strategy be? After the jump...
There are both short-term and long-term considerations.
In the short term, the issues center on messaging.
In the short-term, we can begin by recognizing that we share some concerns about the economy, the environment, and veteran care and support. Many agree with us about the war in Iraq; we can probably get greater agreement if we emphasize our commitment to the battles for Afghanistan and Pakistan and the short and longterm challenges of terrorism.
I think the Obama campaign will have an excellent grasp of how to navigate the campaign in the general election. In the primaries, they left it to Hillary and put together the youth/educated/African-American coalition. But in the general, they will move to the middle. And we have seen ample evidence of Obama's middle-of-the-road messaging...remember the "I won't guarantee that I will pull all the troops out of Iraq..." debate statement?
For the long-term, the issues center on education and opportunity:
We can make education more available to everyone through scholarships and low-interest loans.
We can fund at least one think tank/research organization that develops appropriate messaging strategies and promotes the diffusion of such Christian values as caring for one's neighbors, tolerance, and kindness.
We are not likely to reach people who are proud racists. But a great deal of racism is linked to classism, as well, so that there is a kind of understandable class envy by people in the trailing edge. They believe, often rightly, that we (Kossacks, liberal Dems) condescend to them, label them, and dismiss them.
Educational efforts require the development of a cadre to develop and carry a long-term messaging effort. A great deal of communication research indicates that we like communicating with people who communicate the way we do ourselves. We might consider setting up community organizers, drawn from similar ethnic/class backgrounds, to carry our message, since they have the greatest likelihood of convincing similar others.
The gap between traditionalists and futurists will never subside. But I hope that those of us who have received an education and are able to function well in this confusing contemporary world will be as patient and tolerant as we want others to be, even when we find their specific ideas somewhat repugnant. Obama has had to deal with these issues (his grandmother) and I think he sets a good example for all of us.