So, Tennessee Democrats are coming off a historic loss in 2010 - both houses of the legislature, 3 Congressional seats flipped to Republicans, loss of a Democratic governorship to Republicans - and we're doing some soul-searching.
One prominent Nashville Democrat has called for a new chairman of the state party. He's certainly not alone. Improved communications is seen as a top priority. A stronger brand is frequently mentioned as well. One chairman candidate - Wade Munday - has just posted a letter which he distributed to Executive Committee members. The incumbent party chair - Chip Forrester - argues that he has the experience to lead, taking a page from Hillary Clinton's playbook.
But this latest message takes the cake. Jump with me, won't you?
As a businessman and entrepreneur, I sincerely believe that we must appeal again to the business community, like the democratic party used too. To make money in this country or throughout the world, the equation is "capital, labor, entrepreneurial ideas, and most importantly the willingness to take a risk". Also, we democrats must continue to pursue progressive political thinking for all citizens in our great State of Tennessee and our freedom loving democratic republic called "the United States of America". We must never relent in our efforts to move people forward in progressive ways- that's a democrat.
I won't disclose the name of the person who wrote this, but only focus on the message it sends to Tennesseans about the future direction of the Tennessee Democratic Party. The idea that Tennessee Democrats need to do more than they've done to appeal to the business community belies the fact that unemployment in the state is around 10% and earlier this year, nonfinancial corporations in the United States were sitting on over a trillion dollars of capital. There is no shortage of labor or capital.
"Progressive" political thinking says nothing specific about what progress looks like or what it means. I certainly prefer a Democrat who uses the word "progressive" instead of "conservative", which seemed to be the word used most frequently by candidates like Lincoln Davis and Mike McWherter, both of whom lost badly in their respective races for Congress and the governor's office.
The idea that the Democratic Party "used to" appeal to business, but no longer does, is simply ludicrous. It ignores the dozens of small business tax cuts made by the Democratic Congress. It ignores the fact that Tennessee offered tax incentives to companies like Nissan, Volkswagen, and others during the 8 years of the Bredesen administration. It ignores the fast-growing income gap between corporate CEOs and their employees and staff.
I don't know if this makes our anonymous email writer ignorant, foolish, or just plain dishonest. In any case, such a message is completely tone deaf.
This is not Bill Clinton's economy and it's not 1994 anymore either. Doubling down on the same Clinton-Bush policies that continue a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthiest 1% is not going to restore Tennessee's economy in 2011.
Contrast the message above with this blog post from the aptly titled View from my kitchen table:
Democrats have a muddled message right now that is essentially Republican Lite with their main slogan being "We don't suck as bad as those other guys". Frankly, I think the conservative Democrat's time has passed. We saw Lincoln Davis, as conservative a Dem as ever existed, get slammed by an incapable incompetent nobody. There was no message there other than that guy is a creep. Where did that get Lincoln? Why should anyone vote for a conservative Democrat when they can have a real foam at the mouth ideological maggot?
Democrats let republicans run a dog whistle catch phrase campaign. We should have been working to destroy "pro-life" and "pro-gun" as campaign rhetoric. The message has to be something like, "How can you claim to be pro life when you don't support good quality health care for our people?"
While people were standing around letting Republicans scare them into believing Democrats were going to take their guns, Republicans took their jobs.
The "letter to a Tennessee Democratic politician" goes on to talk about the realities in Tennessee - how corporations have used tax breaks to ship jobs overseas, how "pro-business" is really a code word for ever-increasing corporate profits at the expense of working American families, and how Tennessee Democrats need to stop poll-testing their views and start leading on issues like education, green energy, and health reform.
I do believe there is common ground to be found between the "progressive" approach of our anonymous business leader and the kitchen-table issues addressed by Steve the blogger. But in order to find a message that encompasses both views, we need to hear more specifics from Tennessee business leaders about how they will create more jobs right here in Tennessee, and how they will put Tennessee workers ahead of their own economic self-interest.
The missing ingredient here is the idea of public service - that government doesn't exist to serve private corporations but rather to serve the public interest. Where the private sector cannot or will not take the necessary steps to promote the general welfare, it is up to government to stand up to businesses that outsource jobs and profit from fleecing the American working families who are the backbone of our economy. When business interests are willing to "go public" about their ideas and goals, American voters will be ready to support the bold risk-takers who create jobs and opportunity. But this will only work if businesses truly put the public interest first - and I have yet to see that sort of genuine desire to serve the public publicly.
One thing is for certain - as long as Democrats continue the kind of political cannibalism that we saw in 2009 and 2010, the Tennessee Democratic Party will be an irrelevant minority party with no governing authority.