They have beaten us in the past because they were simply better at focusing scorn. What the fuck was that purple heart bandaid stunt about? This coming from a guy who sat out of the war the other was injured in. What was that Palin convention speech? Wait, let me get this straight...you are attacking us about the terrible situation that your team created? What--? It boggles the mind. Pure insanity. But it works.
The republican leadership knows that as long as they run on "culture" they don't have to have substance. They know they can count on 47% of the vote from people who just don't like liberals. I was one of them--a low information voter. Of course, I was 12. I voted for Reagan in the 8th grade mock election. And for the next 8 years, regardless of policy, regardless of inconsistency, every thing that was wrong with America was a liberal's fault. And it felt good to openly deride liberals...you know, they were gay and pompous and lazy and eggheaded. As long as I could justify disliking the other side (or it could be justified FOR ME) I could safely vote Republican without having to ever think that republicanism's fetishistic worship of the free market by its very definition contradicts the sermon on the mount, that holding simultaneous faith in ruthless social darwinism and Jesus is plain old schizophrenic. I didn't have to worry about what my country was doing because it would be so much worse if the other side was in control. They had me nailed.
I was not a bad person, just an uninformed and intellectually incurious one. I understand how a lot of people can be in that boat. They have two jobs, spouses, kids, worries, financial stress, in-laws, whatever. Who has time to stay informed...especially when it is so damn hard to get actual news these days. (This is why they lie, because no one will call them on it, there is no penalty for it, and it will stick with your uninformed masses.) It is easier to go on autopilot except for every 4 years when you need to stand up, say something derisive and clever, and pretend like you've been paying attention. Is that why Palin got rave reviews? She read a string of one-lines off a teleprompter, and suddenly she is the second coming of Reagan. Anyone in the audience could have debunked everything she and McCain said in one sentence: Repeating the same actions again and again while expecting different results each time is the very definition of insanity. But no one did. I suspect because it feels too damn good to feel smug. I caught reflections of my own 14-year-old self in that convention speech: Ooh, she's giving that pansy liberal hell! That is what they were responding to.
Remember your focus: Wait, you want to get us out of the mess you got us in by doing more of what got us into the mess in the first place? How does that work exactly?
But the republicans seem to have found some magic pavlovian whistle that brings their side out every 4 years with minimal effort. The problem is that we don't have one of those on our side. We have this big tent thing which makes us easy to divide and conquer. It makes it hard for us to unify everyone. There is no roadmap for that strategy, and so if Obama sometimes seems like he is too long-winded, it is because you cannot sum us all up in one liners. But he is trying. He is trying to bring us all together, and there is no shortcut for that. He can't just say, "They want to lower your taxes! They want to bring every fetus to term! They're too decisive for America!"
He COULD say, They want to gut the infrastructure that makes America great. They want to force life or death decisions instead of offering sex education. They want to shoot first and ask questions later, consequences be damned.
Even if he said these things it would not bring us out in droves and make us all hot and bothered because our minds just don't work like that. I like hearing about hope, change, and responsible use of our discretionary budget...but I don't stand up, scream, and wet myself like a pro-lifer hearing that life begins when you climb in the backseat together.
What is my point?
Glad you asked.
I think at this point I have reached the conclusion that either WE need to change and become more excitable, or our party leaders need to do some focus group testing and find what combination of words, emotions, and slogans, will automatically turn out 47% of the voting population.
That sounds more cynical than I wanted it to. But they have a playbook. We see it every election. We have had a decade to study it. We know what they will say, when they will say it, and how they will say it. Why haven't we just come up with single-sentence rebuttals for each talking point we know they will throw at us? My guess is that we have not because we keep hoping we won't have to be reduced to that level. I keep remembering the long long long process by which I extricated myself from my small town, how my certainty in my beliefs was tested and tested and tested again until I could no longer lay claim to who I thought I had been, until I was a different, better person. Maybe this is why I like Obama. He does not sugar coat it, simplify it, or boil it down. He knows how hard it is and how long it takes.