I came back to check some of the hand wringing, and apparently the consensus once again is still that we need to swing to the left in order to win. To differentiate, blah blah.
Yet it was pretty clear that we had differentiated, and as a result we lost just as many voters as we gained.
I think this misses the broader point, that it's all about language and framing the issues.
Kevin Drum's latest
post does a pretty good job, I think, of summarizing the differences in the language.
The problem with liberals is not their issues, it is the way they frame these issues. It's as moralizing as the fundies, but it is a much more public looking down your noses moralizing. And it's largely inconsistent from one point to the next.
That was ever my point in supporting the Wesley Clark campaign, as he understood how to relate to people more in the middle of the country. He talked about the dream and vision of American values, relating stories from out in the field in Haiti, Kosovo, etc. of how people dreamed of America. That's what Americans want to hear. I know it sounds inane, but it's true. Americans don't want to hear how hated we are.
Clark's understanding was simplified, not complex.
Clark supporters didn't do a good job of explaining this, and in many ways either did our candidate. Discussions kept going back to his military record, which admittedly was one of his strengths especially in a campaign that dealt largely with national security.
But it was that optimistic speaking that is what made him the real appeal.
It's unfortunate that we could not convince our fellow Democrats of these points. While we found it easy to connect with the American people, we had an extremely hard time connecting to our fellow party members.
I note that Bush campaigned on terrorism and moral values. His agenda for the next 4 years has now come out, and it is all about social security and tax cuts.
It's a very important lesson that needs to be learned, and it has a lot to do with the fact that our campaigns now run on Television. Richard Nixon realized this... Why can we not?