The Master Plan for Taking Back the House
(Please Recommend: this is long but could have big payoffs if we work hard on it)
The House Democrats need a unified message. We need our own version of the Contract With America. Of course, we wouldn't call it that, but the idea is our only option if we want to take back the House.
We will never take back the House in a tit-for-tat manner where we focus on just individual seats. Our deficit in the House is simply too big and there are not enough swing districts (especially if there is re-redistricting in Georgia). The only way we will ever take back the House before 2012 (redistricting) is if a national tide sweeps the electorate in favor of the Democrats and we win seats that wouldn't ever be considered competitive in a tit-for-tat environment. It would have to be a wave on the scale of the Republican Revolution of 1994. And that will only happen if House Democrats can nationalize their races with a single unified message.
In order to do this, we ought to take a page from Newt Gingrich's playbook (his strategy playbook, not his policy one). Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and the DCCC need to come up with a simple "Contract With America" like document. This wasn't possible this past election because the overall Democratic message was sculpted by the Kerry campaign, as it ought to be in a Presidential race. This time, the responsibility falls to the House Democrats (Senate races tend to be more difficult to nationalize and getting all Democratic Senators to repeat the same message would be like herding cats). Once this message is created we should insist incumbents and challengers sign it. Any incumbent/challenger who does not sign should not expect any help from the DCCC and should know that this transgression will be remembered next time they are up for a higher committee post. If an incumbent won't sign (as a few Southern Dems most likely won't), that's okay. As long as the vast majority do (this was the case with Gingrich's Contract With America as well), the press will present this document as the Democratic message. Pelosi's job is to essentially convince House Democrats that it will cost them some independence in running their campaigns; however, the pay off in independence once we take back the House will be far greater ("imagine you might actually be able to pass a bill that doesn't involve just renaming a Post Office!").
This "Contract With America"-like document would essentially be a mini-platform of positions/programs that each Democratic incumbent/challenger who signs pledges to vote when Democrats take back the majority. Five or Six Items Would Be emphasized and the rest would be present in the document but not presented as major campaign issues. Suggestions for these four or five planks are the Passage of a Universal Health Care plan similar to John Kerry's (paid for in the same manner), Increasing the Minimum Wage, Reducing the Deficit, Making Sure Our Troops Have Adequate Supplies, and Increasing Homeland Security Funding (and better distributing it according to the threats we face).
Right now, you're probably saying that I've created a laundry-list and not a unified message. So far, you're right. However, we're going to connect these issues with one overarching theme: the Republicans in Congress are corrupt and we need to throw them out. For instance, on the minimum wage: corrupt Republicans have been bought off by the business interests and are greedily ignoring the struggling working class. On the prescription drug benefits: corrupt Republicans raided the public treasury for their HMO friends and left seniors behind. On supporting the troops: The corrupt Republicans have given huge giveaways to their friends at Halliburton while ignoring our troops' need for body armor. On homeland security and the deficit: the Republicans have raided the public treasury in order give money to their wealthy contributors and fund wasteful pork-barrel projects. Also on the deficit: Corrupt Republicans are stealing from our children (use an ad where an elephant steals a lollipop from a little kid). And so on... In terms of more concrete corruption we should point to Tom DeLay's indictments and tie those who vote for him for Majority Leader to his transgressions.
This "throw the bums out" message has a long history in American politics. Furthermore, by making the message that the Republicans are corrupt, we can also make progress on the "values" issues. If the Republicans are greedy and corrupt, Democrats are working "for the common good." Besides being a useful phrase, "for the common good" has special meaning for Catholics (possibly as powerful as the phrase "culture" of life) and will help us regain ground among Catholics while not aggravating secular voters in our base.
One issue that could be tricky is our claim that we are going to reduce the deficit without raising taxes beyond the tax increases on very high income earners and the reinstatement of the estate tax for estates over $2.5 million. These will mostly go to healthcare (an instance of us valuing human life) and fixing Homeland Security so I don't imagine much will be left over for deficit reduction. Our solution is that we are going to cut out corrupt Pork-barrel projects. And we're going to do it in a brilliant way that doesn't hurt our chances (remember, one man's pork is another man's essential project). The solution is that we are going to eliminate pork-barrel projects in districts where the incumbent Republican got over 65-70% of the vote. Even in a national tide, very few of these seats would be winnable this way. A much smaller reduction of pork in very safe Democratic districts (especially if the Dem is retiring) should also be done. By doing this we won't be offending any voters who might help us carry a district that we can win, and we can also say we have a plan to reduce the deficit that adds up.
In the end, this unified message will win us the election. The House Republicans won't have a unified message; since the party in power is usually more concerned with dividing up the spoils of government (they haven't had a unified message since '94). Additionally, if the national climate is in our favor as it was this year, we will win in a landslide. The reason we didn't win this year (even though most people felt the country was on the wrong track) is because John Kerry failed to create a strong message. Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats need to see to it that this is fixed in 2006.
As for a name, I was thinking something along the lines of the "The Democratic Promise to Americans." It's not great, so if you can think of something better please post it in the comments.
Please Recommend, so that we can get this finely polished and maybe get it noticed by some DCCC staffer who might skim the diaries. If that doesn't happen, I'll try to send our final product up the communication lines through the few connections I have (I know a congressman, a few staffers, a DNC member, ect.).