According to a new book and its companion web site, the Democratic Party is in a "zombie stupor, mimicking death" and the solution is to pitch harder to the hard-Left base in America's proud coastal Blue cities.....The book is titled, "The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America," and the lead author is University of Phoenix founder and noted cat cloner John Sperling.
I'm not cheered at the idiocy of the idea because a more sustainable Democratic Party is in everyone's best interests, ultimately. I am also aghast to learn that while I am living in "Metro" America (Seattle), I must apparently shove into the closet my "Retro" values. It is the love that dare not speak it's name.
Via the book's web site you'll find the The Divided Times Newsletter (specifically, Issue #11, which is at this "current issue" link right now). There's a breathless account titled "voter suppression reports rampant," but it then cites some European observers (lucky us, I know) who said things went fairly well here. Whew! Glad they almost signed off on our elections. More to the point, perhaps, there's this Democratic roadmap for the future:
The Democrats must find their own base rather than trying to wrest support from the Republicans by mirroring their policy and moving towards the center. This will only take place when the Democrats are able to articulate a platform that does not compromise the blue states. As clearly stated in the introduction of the Great Divide, "Only by articulating programs and policies that speak to the needs of Metro America will (the Democrats) clearly distinguish their party from the Republicans, whose programs and policies favor Retro America."
So let's do some "visioning" of the Metropolitan Left's future national Democratic platform. Hailing from Seattle, and having lived previously in Chicago (where I was raised), plus Boston and Washington, D.C., I must say that I am eminently qualified to undertake this task. Here goes, then.
Revive the Works Projects Administration; ban outsourcing; hang "Benedict Arnold CEOs;"
permit federally-funded abortion on demand, up until birth; give more money for failing public schools;
push a Congressional mandate that all U.S. municipalities form police oversight commissions to set "anti-profiling" quotas for arrests based on race, sexual orientation and corresponding local demogrpahics.
Then, work for:
federal recognition of city-by-city powers to legalize gay marriage;
unlimited immigration, plus carte blanche for illegals to use all social services and public schools;
federal funding of local workshops on "institutional racism;"
and finally, mandated federal holidays on each solstice day and an additional three days per year to be determined by the local witches.
Oh, and a comprehensive Education Department framework, and funding for public school courses encouraging fifth-graders to "question" their sexual orientation; plus diversion of NCLB dollars for junior high workshops on genital piercing.
I mean, why not go for broke?
To stoke the troops, and ah, help win an electoral majority in the next presidential contest, "The Great Divide" site offers these strategically savvy messages on bumper stickers sold at its online store:
"Uniter My Ass;"
"Bush/Cheney - Draft Dodging Vet Bashers;"
"Dude - Where's My Job" (captures the Dem ethos quite well, n'est ce pas?);
"Smarter Kids Or Smarter Bombs?"
"the new GOP - Democracy Not Included."
Just to make sure you get the message, there's also a "News Watch" link to the "Working For Change" site, replete with ads for works by Michael Moore, Maureen Dowd and Molly Ivins (the all-knowing seers of a victorious Democratic future); plus the latest from anti-Bush and anti-Red America columnists afeard we're all gonna be swallowed up and spat out by barbeque-munchin' country music-listening bible-totin' redneck geeks.
OK, I've had enuf fun (dammit, my spelling has rilly slipped since the Mindless Rite roze to power last week...prolly something in the Seattle water supply).
Here's the big problem with the "Blue America" strategy. There, ah, aren't enough of you, see. And your excesses repulse swing voters and inspire the other side to try even harder (see Florida, Ohio). It was actually moderates - not the evil "Religious Right" - who secured Bush's victory on Election Day, says E.J. Dionne. Dems need to reach out to them, in the outer suburbs and yes, even rural counties, Dionne adds.
David Broder has another good suggestion, which dovetails with what Dionne's saying:
Several Democrats I interviewed in the first couple of days after John Kerry's defeat said it's time to give their party another serious intellectual transfusion. These are not people who think that Hillary Rodham Clinton can revive the Democrats just by sprinkling some Chappaqua fairy dust on their remains....Nor are these people who think that finding a church-going Southerner to run next time would solve all their problems. Fewer and fewer Democratic officeholders fit that description, and trends in the region make it harder for new ones to emerge.
But many of those I interviewed agreed with Gerald McEntee, a leader of organized labor's political operations, that outside Washington, a wealth of talent is available to the Democratic Party. "We have to bring in governors, mayors, state legislative leaders," the AFSCME president said, "and have a real dialogue."
If the Democratic governors stepped forward to lead this policy effort, they would bring an element of practical wisdom the enterprise badly needs. People such as Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Tom Vilsack of Iowa and Bill Richardson of New Mexico have demonstrated they know how to win in very competitive environments - even in states that went for Bush.
Of course, they don't have any book to flog just yet, nor a web site and bumper stickers for sale.
In addition to what Broder recommends, what would really help save the Democrats is an influx of metrosexual, crunchy conservatives to Blue American cities, to spread family values and common sense among the loony Lefties.
I'm certainly doing my part here in Seattle, as a pro-Iraq War, pro-Bush, pro-monorail, pro-choice-but-not-pro-abortion R-leaning independent. The biggest barrier to building the ranks of like-minded folk in Blue cities is the crappy public schools...and while NCLB is a step in the right direction...real education reform begins at home with parental influences.
This is just the sort of simple truth that infuriates Democrats who expect the government to engineer a utopian society.
....you know just who I mean.....those folks who say to Bush: "Dude, Where's My Job?"
Rant off.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 10, 2004 09:29 AM
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Not to be a link whore, but I think your reflections here are further evidence of the three-way split in the Democratic party, between the Dean Progressives, the Lieberman Moderates and the Edwards Opportunists.
Posted by: Timothy at November 10, 2004 11:36 AMBe a commenting link whore anytime Tim, I was checking out your site again yesterday and was really impressed with the writing, thought, links and research you put into it....Keep it up....I would be firmly in the camp of the Lieberman moderates, and would likely have voted for Joe if - due to an act of God (damn, there's that word again) - he had won the Democratic presidential nomination.
Tell me more about how you would characterize the Edwards Opportunist branch of the party, though....
Posted by: Matt R. at November 10, 2004 11:51 AMThe original post is at: http://www.timothygoddard.com/blog/index.php?p=682
The Opportunists are the ones for whom power for their party is less important than power in their party. Whatever their actual beliefs are, they work hard to appeal to both of the ideologically driven wings of their party, the Progressives and the Moderates. This almost always results in an incoherent message, ala Kerry-Edwards. Daschle is another perfect example of this. He started out as a Moderate, but in order to gain power in his party, had to appeal to the Progressives, and so he did, sacrificing any consistency he may have had. Bill Clinton was the ultimate Opportunist, though, because he parlayed it almost perfectly onto the national scene.
These days, I think opportunists will be most easily identifiable by their desire not to move the party either to the right or left. That would change the dynamics they used to get in power in the first place.
Opportunists are a result of the fact that the Democrats were *the* party for 70 years. Power within the party was the same as power in the nation. That's becoming less true these days, so it will be interesting to see what happens to them.
At some point here, I'm going to have a companion post on the divisions within the Republican camp, which are necessarily different because of the fact that the Republicans *haven't* been in power for the past 70 years.
Posted by: Timothy at November 10, 2004 02:20 PMThe Democrats need to have a Sister Souljah moment with............ ah ........... the Democrat Party.
Posted by: Gary B at November 10, 2004 05:17 PMMatt,
Good job. Yes, they have far to go. And how will they get any better if they continue going in the opposite direction?
As for us... not just Seattle. We have plenty of work to do here in the 'burbs.
Posted by: Ron Hebron at November 10, 2004 08:47 PMIt's just like you, Matt, to totally "go off" on a side-splitting rant - and yet here we are parsing all the nuance of it. And parse I will too, just as soon as I can get off the floor!
Posted by: P Scott at November 11, 2004 09:38 AMProfessional politicians, and those who depend upon them for their livelihoods, obviously have a serious interest in winning elections and may pay some heed to the advice of moderates like Matt.
But committed leftists are not interested in simply winning more elections that continue the status quo; they are intent upon changing it. For them the admonition to move to the center probably seems more like the advice of Brer Rabbit on the proper method of hare control.
For the moment the left's gravest problem seems to be the proclivity of its rank and file to engage in political theater rather than serious coalition building. But I can see no let up in the forces producing the supply of these political fantasists, and it is only a matter of time until they find their Mussolini or Trotsky. God help us all then.
Posted by: Tom Rekdal at November 11, 2004 03:28 PM