The list of things that I would change about the Democratic Party - and those of us who have registered officially as such - is a long one. How long? Well, if it was written down on a sheet of paper, the resulting stack would be able to reach the fucking moon, that's how long.
But, if I were granted one change and one alone, I would immediately zero in on our side's insistence on playing the "Voters are Stupid!" card every time an electoral defeat is suffered.
Here's the thing - on the whole, people are not stupid.
There are certainly individuals out there that you can hurl into the dumbass bin, no question about it. But, it is a fallacy to blame a lack of intelligence on the voting patterns of the electorate. People vote for specific reasons, and one of the major failings of the Democratic Party (among the legions) is a lack of understanding of the cause-and-effect going on here, and a spectacular failure at selling policy to the voters in clear, simple language that tells a coherent story.
You have to hand the Republicans one thing - they absolutely do not have that problem. Sure, the narrative that their leadership is spinning nowadays is not exactly a shining beacon of good governance. One example can be found in Kansas, where Sam Brownback was given the car keys to create a Tea Party Utopia, with distressingly predictable results (Starve your state of revenues and then you have nothing left to address your state's needs? Who could have known?). Meanwhile, he just got voted in for another term. Why is that? Well, if you dig into the blue-team Id, it's because the people of the Sunflower State are slack-jawed yokels who can't be trusted with their own governance. I love the Blogfather's writing more than I love cake, but he went down this road, too. It's not helping.
Look, for one thing, no one likes to be called a moron. Recently, I followed a link to some conservative-leaning article (forget which, sorry), and I did something I usually wouldn't do for million dollars - I read the comments. Over and over, I saw a very real anger at left-leaning people who look down on them, call them stupid, dismiss their opinions outright. It only took half a second to see where they were coming from. It's a hell of a silly tactic to try and convince someone to see things your way, that's for sure.
Beyond that, though. the truth is that you become a salesperson written large the millisecond you choose to run for elected office. I do understand the kvetching about uninformed voters that you sometimes hear, but at the end of the day it is incumbent on the person doing the pitching to convince their audience to buy whatever it is they're selling. Oddly enough, I was in a meeting today at my job that reminded me of precisely this scenario. My boss and I, as the owners of one of our products, were being pitched by another firm who wanted to take on some of our volume. Imagine a high school freshman who waited until the last day to work on a major project, didn't read the material, and then turned up to class spewing a bunch of word salad in an attempt to drown the teacher in so much bullshit that they'd get a pity C- just to shut them up, and you get the idea of what we had to deal with.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Democratic Party is that high school freshman far too often for my liking.
Whatever else you want to say about the other side, their message is clear and coherent, and everyone sings from the same hymnal - tax cuts good, regulation bad, vote for us or Ebola-infused ISIS monsters will descend on your local shopping mall. It's mostly nonsense as policy, but they are brilliant at selling it. It's not hard to see why voters, especially in fraught times such as these, are more willing to opt for the party that at least can all agree on something.
Normally, I would write this off as Democrats Being Democrats, but there is too goddamn much at stake these days to be cavalier about it. I don't like the idea of wage distribution hanging out in the Gilded Age part of town. I'm not thrilled that my nieces' kids might need scuba gear to see the Statue of Liberty. I am a bit off-put at the idea of running a pipeline of the worst fuel known to man right through the Ogallala Aquifier.
But, when you pitch someone, you have to lead off with what you can offer to the audience. Anything that doesn't advance that idea is wasted breath, and in politics you don't get that much breath to waste. We may want voters at large to be as informed as the Founders themselves, but it's time to start dealing in realities. People do not have a ton of time to spend in making this decision, and it is going to be made at a basic "what can you do for me" level far more often than it being the result of careful study. Assuming otherwise will get you, well, exactly what happened this past Election Day.
There are other factors at play too, gerrymandering being the worst of them. But, I don't think it's insane to surmise that even gerrymandered districts can be won if you bother to contest them properly. I can see Brownback losing to a Democrat 4 years from now. Honestly, I can. Just shy of 5 million more people voted Democrat than Republican in the 2012 Presidential election. These people are out there and waiting to be convinced.
How, you may wonder? Glad you asked!
My Plan to Get People to Take You Lot Seriously:
1. For fuck's sake, find a message. What does this party stand for? It shouldn't be that difficult to come up with a big tent that makes sense (it's probably time to write off West Virginia, guys...really) and a message that resonates with people of that mindset. Simple concepts, clear and concise language, immediately getting to the point of what's in it for them.
2. Positive language. Sure, Republicans are great at scare-mongering, but everything they do has an underpinning of "We'll protect you". Democrats especially fail here with global warming. Sure, it's especially likely that bad things will happen if we continue on the road that we're on. But, if you tell people that we better stop or else you may as well start scouting out beachfront property in Kansas City, they're simply going to shut down. They don't want to hear it, that's just human nature.
There's so many other ways to steer people in the right direction. For example, anyone notice that China is going all-in on solar power? Hey, folks. Let's invest in solar, let's create good jobs in that industry AND ensure that the Chinese don't steal a march on us. It's good for the country and it'll be less expensive to turn that light switch on. (Sidebar: Yes, I understand that BP and Shell and whatever will flood campaign money in the other direction. My argument is that, a) don't take their fucking money and b) the money disparity is already heavily in their favor anyway...at some point it has to be diminishing returns, doesn't it? Who doesn't get turned off by seeing the same political ad 300 times when they're just trying to watch Monday Night Football?).
3. Find better candidates. Find candidates that are actual Democrats. This one's simple - if you have to run Joe Manchin to win a state, you probably shouldn't bother with that state. It's a lot more effective in my mind to get in and fight for seats in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, etc etc etc.
4. Don't be that high school freshman when it comes to getting people to register to vote. Why is our GOTV effort only done 4 seconds before Election Day? Especially with voter-suppression efforts in full effect around the country, why not work on this NOW? That way, they can delay and delay and stall all they want, but eventually these registrations have to go through.
5. Make them own their failures. Look, a fertilizer plant in Texas blows up because the EPA hadn't been there since the Cleveland Administration, it is absolute lunacy not to hang that around the neck of the anti-regulatory party like it was the albatross in Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Yes, of course they're going to play the "you're politicizing a tragedy" card. Guess what, that doesn't stick in the end...Benghazi ring a bell, perhaps?
6. For the love of all that is holy, STOP refusing to run candidates! John Oliver beat this drum on Last Week Tonight a while back, noting just how many walkovers (not entirely on their side, to be fair) happen across the country. Sure, many of these are going to be losing efforts no matter what happens. But, my sense is that every uncontested election is a plot of ground where the seeds of your ideas can't ever germinate. Maybe you lose 85-15 this time. Well, at least get your side out there! Brick by brick, election by election. Maybe it's 75-25 the time after. 65-35 the time after that.
This ties into the next one, too.
7. Let demographics do its job. Don't let them scare you off with their howling about just how unfair it is to reach out to minorities and women. This is the spine of the next unassailable majority, if you let it happen.
That'll do, for now. I've taken the scenic route to get here, but this is my point: Calling people stupid may make you feel better, but it won't move the needle one fucking millimeter. Whining about gerrymandering may be understandable based on the facts, but it doesn't get your next-door neighbor out on Election Day. The fact of the matter is that there is a laundry list of tangible steps that can be taken that would have an actual affect, and none of it is happening right now.
Perhaps, instead of sharing that meme about idiot voters on Facebook, you could write to your representative or to the DNC and enquire as to whether they could perhaps locate their vertebrae again. Wouldn't that be swell?
But, if I were granted one change and one alone, I would immediately zero in on our side's insistence on playing the "Voters are Stupid!" card every time an electoral defeat is suffered.
Here's the thing - on the whole, people are not stupid.
There are certainly individuals out there that you can hurl into the dumbass bin, no question about it. But, it is a fallacy to blame a lack of intelligence on the voting patterns of the electorate. People vote for specific reasons, and one of the major failings of the Democratic Party (among the legions) is a lack of understanding of the cause-and-effect going on here, and a spectacular failure at selling policy to the voters in clear, simple language that tells a coherent story.
You have to hand the Republicans one thing - they absolutely do not have that problem. Sure, the narrative that their leadership is spinning nowadays is not exactly a shining beacon of good governance. One example can be found in Kansas, where Sam Brownback was given the car keys to create a Tea Party Utopia, with distressingly predictable results (Starve your state of revenues and then you have nothing left to address your state's needs? Who could have known?). Meanwhile, he just got voted in for another term. Why is that? Well, if you dig into the blue-team Id, it's because the people of the Sunflower State are slack-jawed yokels who can't be trusted with their own governance. I love the Blogfather's writing more than I love cake, but he went down this road, too. It's not helping.
Look, for one thing, no one likes to be called a moron. Recently, I followed a link to some conservative-leaning article (forget which, sorry), and I did something I usually wouldn't do for million dollars - I read the comments. Over and over, I saw a very real anger at left-leaning people who look down on them, call them stupid, dismiss their opinions outright. It only took half a second to see where they were coming from. It's a hell of a silly tactic to try and convince someone to see things your way, that's for sure.
Beyond that, though. the truth is that you become a salesperson written large the millisecond you choose to run for elected office. I do understand the kvetching about uninformed voters that you sometimes hear, but at the end of the day it is incumbent on the person doing the pitching to convince their audience to buy whatever it is they're selling. Oddly enough, I was in a meeting today at my job that reminded me of precisely this scenario. My boss and I, as the owners of one of our products, were being pitched by another firm who wanted to take on some of our volume. Imagine a high school freshman who waited until the last day to work on a major project, didn't read the material, and then turned up to class spewing a bunch of word salad in an attempt to drown the teacher in so much bullshit that they'd get a pity C- just to shut them up, and you get the idea of what we had to deal with.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Democratic Party is that high school freshman far too often for my liking.
Whatever else you want to say about the other side, their message is clear and coherent, and everyone sings from the same hymnal - tax cuts good, regulation bad, vote for us or Ebola-infused ISIS monsters will descend on your local shopping mall. It's mostly nonsense as policy, but they are brilliant at selling it. It's not hard to see why voters, especially in fraught times such as these, are more willing to opt for the party that at least can all agree on something.
Normally, I would write this off as Democrats Being Democrats, but there is too goddamn much at stake these days to be cavalier about it. I don't like the idea of wage distribution hanging out in the Gilded Age part of town. I'm not thrilled that my nieces' kids might need scuba gear to see the Statue of Liberty. I am a bit off-put at the idea of running a pipeline of the worst fuel known to man right through the Ogallala Aquifier.
But, when you pitch someone, you have to lead off with what you can offer to the audience. Anything that doesn't advance that idea is wasted breath, and in politics you don't get that much breath to waste. We may want voters at large to be as informed as the Founders themselves, but it's time to start dealing in realities. People do not have a ton of time to spend in making this decision, and it is going to be made at a basic "what can you do for me" level far more often than it being the result of careful study. Assuming otherwise will get you, well, exactly what happened this past Election Day.
There are other factors at play too, gerrymandering being the worst of them. But, I don't think it's insane to surmise that even gerrymandered districts can be won if you bother to contest them properly. I can see Brownback losing to a Democrat 4 years from now. Honestly, I can. Just shy of 5 million more people voted Democrat than Republican in the 2012 Presidential election. These people are out there and waiting to be convinced.
How, you may wonder? Glad you asked!
My Plan to Get People to Take You Lot Seriously:
1. For fuck's sake, find a message. What does this party stand for? It shouldn't be that difficult to come up with a big tent that makes sense (it's probably time to write off West Virginia, guys...really) and a message that resonates with people of that mindset. Simple concepts, clear and concise language, immediately getting to the point of what's in it for them.
- Tax rates that make sense - Warren Buffett should not pay less taxes than his secretary. General Electric should not pay $0 in taxes. Ever. The 1% are stealing from you. We want you to succeed, we want you to do well, but then we expect you to pay your fair share.
- Job creation - Say you're running for a House seat in Minnesota. Remember that bridge that collapsed a while back? Vote for us, and X number of you will have a job tomorrow rebuilding that sucker. Hey, wouldn't it be nice to take a comfortable, affordable train ride to your Mom's house in Topeka? Vote for us, X number of you will have a job tomorrow building that light-rail track.
- War-mongering has to stop - Hey, wouldn't it be nice if your sons and daughters, your parents and uncles and cousins were able to finally come home from the Middle East? Look, combating terrorism doesn't happen by blowing stuff up - it comes from vigilance and effective police work. Why don't the Republicans trust the NYPD to do their job?
2. Positive language. Sure, Republicans are great at scare-mongering, but everything they do has an underpinning of "We'll protect you". Democrats especially fail here with global warming. Sure, it's especially likely that bad things will happen if we continue on the road that we're on. But, if you tell people that we better stop or else you may as well start scouting out beachfront property in Kansas City, they're simply going to shut down. They don't want to hear it, that's just human nature.
There's so many other ways to steer people in the right direction. For example, anyone notice that China is going all-in on solar power? Hey, folks. Let's invest in solar, let's create good jobs in that industry AND ensure that the Chinese don't steal a march on us. It's good for the country and it'll be less expensive to turn that light switch on. (Sidebar: Yes, I understand that BP and Shell and whatever will flood campaign money in the other direction. My argument is that, a) don't take their fucking money and b) the money disparity is already heavily in their favor anyway...at some point it has to be diminishing returns, doesn't it? Who doesn't get turned off by seeing the same political ad 300 times when they're just trying to watch Monday Night Football?).
3. Find better candidates. Find candidates that are actual Democrats. This one's simple - if you have to run Joe Manchin to win a state, you probably shouldn't bother with that state. It's a lot more effective in my mind to get in and fight for seats in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, North Carolina, etc etc etc.
4. Don't be that high school freshman when it comes to getting people to register to vote. Why is our GOTV effort only done 4 seconds before Election Day? Especially with voter-suppression efforts in full effect around the country, why not work on this NOW? That way, they can delay and delay and stall all they want, but eventually these registrations have to go through.
5. Make them own their failures. Look, a fertilizer plant in Texas blows up because the EPA hadn't been there since the Cleveland Administration, it is absolute lunacy not to hang that around the neck of the anti-regulatory party like it was the albatross in Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Yes, of course they're going to play the "you're politicizing a tragedy" card. Guess what, that doesn't stick in the end...Benghazi ring a bell, perhaps?
6. For the love of all that is holy, STOP refusing to run candidates! John Oliver beat this drum on Last Week Tonight a while back, noting just how many walkovers (not entirely on their side, to be fair) happen across the country. Sure, many of these are going to be losing efforts no matter what happens. But, my sense is that every uncontested election is a plot of ground where the seeds of your ideas can't ever germinate. Maybe you lose 85-15 this time. Well, at least get your side out there! Brick by brick, election by election. Maybe it's 75-25 the time after. 65-35 the time after that.
This ties into the next one, too.
7. Let demographics do its job. Don't let them scare you off with their howling about just how unfair it is to reach out to minorities and women. This is the spine of the next unassailable majority, if you let it happen.
That'll do, for now. I've taken the scenic route to get here, but this is my point: Calling people stupid may make you feel better, but it won't move the needle one fucking millimeter. Whining about gerrymandering may be understandable based on the facts, but it doesn't get your next-door neighbor out on Election Day. The fact of the matter is that there is a laundry list of tangible steps that can be taken that would have an actual affect, and none of it is happening right now.
Perhaps, instead of sharing that meme about idiot voters on Facebook, you could write to your representative or to the DNC and enquire as to whether they could perhaps locate their vertebrae again. Wouldn't that be swell?
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