To paraphrase Shakespeare "First, let's kill all the consultants...then let's kill all the poll-takers..."
The Democratic Party hates me, apparently. I should point out I am not a Republican either, like millions and milions of Americans I am caught in a political no-man's land.
A recent article in the New Yorker by Jeffrey Goldberg entitled "Central Casting" divluges some of the brilliant strategy the Democrats hope to employ in order to win back seats in '06.
Namely a foreign policy to the right of Bush, yes that's right--the RNC's strategy "Flight Forward" (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen...) becomes in the DLC's talking point let's "Flight Forward Faster". Who can talk "tougher" about Iran, McCain or McHillary?
When debating whether to attack the Bush administration's immorality (Gitmo) or illegality (NSA wiretapping) even Obama is quoted as saying"...Americans want to feel good about themselves and their government. They can be called upon to sacrifice, and they can be ashamed when we fall short of our ideals, but they don't believe the that the main lessons of the past five years is that America is an evil hegemon."
The takeaway is don't dwell on Bush's boo-boos because it makes Uncle Fred in Fresno feel bad. I would like to remind these brain trusts that Americans also want to lose weight on a milkshake diet, but it ain't gonna happen.With Democratic "centrists" leading the way I am not sure it much matters who wins. We have pro-war, anti-abortion, anti-gay "Democrats" proliferating like fake crab dip under our "big tent." Like many, many, others I have no idea what this party stands for other than a vague notion that they are "less evil than the other guys" which is undoutedly true, yet perhaps irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Since Chuck, Dean, Hillary, Bill, John & John and Nancy and all of their donkey-festooned acronyms regularly and insistently hit me up for money and I have actually given them money unlike the holy-rollers they currently wish to woo I am offering the following unsolicited advice:
The media hates you. Mainstream media hates and despises the Democratic party not because they are part of a vast right wing conspiracy but because a) they can b) it makes good copy c) you let them. Every time a Democrat gets press they should begin by attacking the media, their objectivity and past performance. Every Democrat, every time. Brookings and University Journalism schools should come out with several conveniently timed studies showing the bias that we all see.
Unlike your consultants I live in the so-called heartland and I will tell you why the Dems lost the last two elections: Gore was cartooned as a liar (Internet) and a smarty-pants; Kerry was cartooned as a gold-digger who got his money from his rich foreign wife--voila!--lies concocted by a bitchy, king-maker press and RNC doggeral becomes fact (John Kerry used French mustard on his Philly steak, perish the republic!)
They never get tired of this. Right now you think that if you listen to the media and do everything they say you can appease them. You cannot, no more than they can appease the the right-wing lunatics that want to charge the New York Times with treason. They are luring you in and when the time comes they will quash you with some trivial bit of slander that will stick in the public's craw.
I worked on the Kerry campaign, although in this neck of the woods it was a pathetic effort to behold. Disorganized and seemingly unemployable, the local DNC workers stategy seemed to consist of repeatedly calling the same unlucky voters--who after their seventh or eighth call would veer from weary to pissed-off, that is if the number was in working order at all. You see, an imported stategist explained we would only reach out to confirmed Dems, we were not going to waste our time on undecideds. No sir, just because there are 100 million of them...all I can say is that you're best thinking got you where you are today. I wondered after the election whether the Dems would swing left or right and now I seem to have my answer--way, way right.
Finally, I offer this. Repeatedly and persistently polls show that TWO-THIRDS of Americans believe that the country is headed in the WRONG direction and over SIXTY PERCENT believe that we should get out of Iraq and that the economy sucks. Instead of running on that, the Dem strategy is to run away from it, why? Because our media friends and our consultant friends disagree with the American public. They insist they do not understand why Americans think the economy is not doing well, and they are for damn sure not going to ask them.
"Proof" for the consultant set came after the '04 elections when only 25 percent of folks self-identified as liberals, ergo, ipso, facto no one is a liberal except crazy hate-filled lefties. I am actually surprised it was that high, given that the label "liberal" has only slightly less baggage than "Nazi" or "child-molester."
I believe we need new political parties and lots of them. I can't vote for someone who doesn't represent my beliefs because he is in the other party.