has been over 30 years since the cynical Republican "Southern Strategy" turned a national tide of hope and the expansion of rights to apathy and bigotry. In those 30 plus years the Democratic Party has not been able to match the right wing hate machine. We have had our success, but they have been against astoundingly weak challengers (Ford, Dole) or featured a certain "comeback kid" (I <3 Clinton). So how do we put the Republicans on the next outrunning tide?
It will happen. And it will happen whether the Democratic Party makes it happen or not. If we can't do it with the current structure, I'm going to get a pair of bull-moose ears and send them to a particular doctor in Vermont, hoping he gets the message. But I don't want to have to do that. Bull Moose take poorly to ear harvesting.
We have little hope of reclaiming the south. The action of entrenched bigotry and evangelical political prostelyzing is something that cannot be matched- yet at least. It is silly and self-defeating to try and retake Alabama or Mississippi anytime soon. It is time to heed some long known words, and go west my friend.
The west is IN PLAY. Right now, this year and next year and in 2008. We can take Colorado. New Mexico. Nevada. Arizona. Arkansas. I think there are longer shot chances even for the Dakotas, Wyoming, and even Oklahoma. Here's how I think we do it.
The neocon movement is a radical reaction and off-branch of liberalism. It is twisted, distorted, and vulgar- but there it is. That's one of the reasons I so love the word "progressive." The Republicans took it and moved it so far to the left, it came out the right-hand side. We must go so far to the right that we come back out the left. It's a political wormhole that we can jump in and win.
What do I as a Democrat want? Freedom from Tyranny. The ability to dissent. Economic, personal, and emotional security. A government that helps me when I need help, and allows me personal freedom to choose whom I marry, when I have children, where I get my drugs (prescription and otherwise). A government that sees the international community as a way to improve the world, makes America safer, and make my dollar go further.
We can do that and win in the west by being so conservative that we have become liberal again. It gives us a fresh start on framing the issue. Think about Pro-Choice. It's our best frame ever on an issue that's so visceral it's hard to frame. Why does it work? Because it makes us responsible. I submit that the Democratic Party needs to become one of Rugged Individualists. You're not for abortion; you're against the government interference. We aren't outsourcing our healthcare to Canada; we're providing our citizens the ability to manage their own healthcare. We don't want to submit to a global test, we are securing power for our struggle. We don't want to destroy the institution of marriage, we are protecting love from the government. This plays in the west. Whether your family busted sod or just bought gas for the station wagon, people in the west feel their independence like you cannot in the liberal bastions of the east coast. Awfully hard to feel like a rugged individual in DC. Really easy to do under the broad skies of New Mexico. People sympathize with rancher Bush, even if it is a false construction, because it portrays him as a rugged individualist. That's crap. He's all hat and no horse. We've got a heard of mustangs waiting to be used.
It sounds crazy. It is. We may need to be a little crazy. Do you think that Ford, Nixon, or any of the old line Republicans recognize today's party. No. It's changed. We must change too. We have already become the party of fiscal responsibility in a way we couldn't be before. Some of this is by default, with Bush spending like a drunken sailor on shore leave. We can claim this issue out from under them, and then push it down the throat of Wyoming. We are providing people choices that make healthcare cheaper. That's an easy pill for New Mexico to take. We want to keep the government from defining our sacred institutions and leave them in the churches. That's a gamble that might pay out in Nevada.
We have a start in Bill Richardson. He reflects the changing demographics in the west. If there is anyone group that can most directly understand this need for self-determinism it is the Latino communities. They have built large thriving communities and cultural centers virtually on their own. They understand how the ultimate responsibility lies with oneself. We do to. So why hasn't our party said that? When do we become the party of choice? When do we become the party of responsibility? The party of hard work? The party of accountability? We ARE these things. We just haven't packaged them right yet. When we do, we take the west and turn it royal blue. When we do, even Oklahoma fades to a pale pink. When we do, Alabama finds encouraging bits of blue floating in its sea of red. When we do- we win and win big.