At 06:20 PM 12/10/2004 -0600 Gary Denton wrote: >Winning Democrats and their messages - It's no Da Vinci Code. Economic >populism presented in American values form seems the common thread for >winning campaigns in red states.
Well, Al Gore ran on the most explicitly populist message in a long time, and he either lost, or only just narrowly won, - as I'll put it to avoid reopening the Florida discussion. >All the Democratic Party has to do is look at the election map: The >proof is right there in red and blue. > >http://tinyurl.com/6sj9g Well, I have to say, that I find these sorts of arguments a little bit ridiculous. Most importantly, it ignores the fact that all politics is local. There is almost no correlation between Governor's Races and Senate Races and the Races for Electors. Part of that is the simple fact that voters know that it can be dangerous to let the State Government become a one-party State, and so periodically will switch parties in the State House to "throw the bums out." There is no such incentive in votes for Electors, because the ultimate occupency of the White House is usually determined by exogenous factors. After all, if one wants to draw lessons from Governor's Races then the Republicans should be nominating George Pataki look-alikes, and will probably start thumping the Democrats for all time. >This is the counter to the other argument taking place - Democrats >should seek 'A Fighting Faith' by aggressively promoting an aggressive >foreign policy. That was also accompanied by a strong suggestion to >purge anti-war voters from the party from the formerly leftist neo-con >organization. > >http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041213&s=beinart121304 A fascinating article, which I wholeheartedly recommend. I won't say that I agree with all of it, but I found it very enlightening, educational, and thought-provoking. >A reasonable response to Beinart is at Talking Point's Memo. >http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_12_05.php#004186 JMM has some good things in here, and while he does quibble with Beinart's details, I think that he ultimately says that he agrees with Beinart's conclusion - that the Democratic Party needs to formulate a coherent policy/strategy for the US response to Islamic fascism/terrorism. Marshall makes a very good point that the nature of the Islamic fascist/terrrorist threat is much different from the communist threat, but I don't think that changes the fact that this represents the fundamental challenge of our time. So far, the Democrats haven't done that, and I definitely don't think that focusing on economic populism at the expense of the most important issue of the day will lead to electoral success. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
