Via NBC First Read, “[t]wo political subjects that haven’t received the attention they probably deserve surfaced late last week, and surface again today: the economy and class:
The issue of class popped on Thursday when Howard Dean said that many Republicans “have never made an honest living in their lives.” While most of the attention on that “honest living” comment focused on whether Dean was correct (or wise) to make it, Dean’s remark brings up a bigger point: How do Democrats talk about class to win elections? In the last two presidential elections, Democrats talked plenty that Bush’s policies benefit the rich at expense of the poor and middle class — but they lost. Has class become obsolete as political issue? Or do the Democrats need better messengers than Al Gore, John Kerry, and Howard Dean?
The Democratic Party needs to work on their message. I am miserable when it comes to talking points. I have tried to convert my republican relatives but have not made any progress. My family has been republican for many generations. Actually, they have been republican since the party first formed in the 1850’s. They are not super religious – they believe in God but that is about the extent of it. They get annoyed when Jehovah’s witnesses come to their door and they find other religious extremists tacky and uncouth. They are pro-choice, believe in free and top notch education for all children and pro-environment. Why are they republican? I am not sure. All I can tell you is that they don’t watch very much television and they read the local conservative newspaper.
All this and I still can’t convert them. My mother did vote for Ralph Nader but she just couldn’t bring herself to vote for John Kerry. She doesn’t like George Bush but that is because she hates his personality. Her dislike has very little to do with his politics. My mother votes republican first but if the person’s personality is bad, she will go independent. My brothers are under the illusion that if they vote republican, they will get rich. They LOVE that lower taxes line that the republicans shell out. The truth is, only people worth millions benefit from the republicans tax cut. Why can’t we get that message out?
We need to find a way to reach this group. Remember the Terry Schiavo case when 80 percent of the people thought the congresspeople overreached? That means at least 30 percent of republicans are reachable.
Do you subscribe to the Center for American Progress’s daily talking points? They’re very helpful.
Of course, unlike me, you’d have to actually read them. .. sigh … I try to get to them, but …
I have read the website several times before but it’s rather boring. Sorry. I should go back and look at it again. Sorry if I sound so negative but I am really tired and exhausted. Perhaps I should get some rest and hit the website tomorrow morning.
Has class become obsolete as political issue? Or do the Democrats need better messengers than Al Gore, John Kerry, and Howard Dean?
Ya gotta love the attempt to reduce complex issues to an either/or proposition. The answer is “neither”. Issues don’t come with an expiration date, and high-profile people generally are quoted out of context. And the “three amigos” aren’t the only democratic messengers.
I’ve been reading up on the French Revolution lately and it’s makiing me think that what Bush is truly up to is trying to turn the U.S. into a monarchy. People seem to have forgotten what we’ve gone through to have democracy; they seem tired and would prefer to have a king. They’d prefer to be subjects rather than citizens.
If I were a Democratic politician, I would ask people point blank: Do you want to go back to living under a king? This is what our revolution was about in 1776. It was worth dying for then and it’s worth dying for now.
France’s revolution was much more of an upheaval than our revolution – because they had 800 years of an aristorcracy that was an absolute parasite on the rest of France. These fuckers paid no taxes and got all the perks, generation after generation after generation…til the thing exploded.
Why in the world would we allow that to happen to America?
Is it because people only value something when they lose it?
I relly don’t think it is so much the messengers but more of the tone that is used. I for one have also stopped trying to convert Republicans. I mean would you want someone trying to convert to the other side? I think one of the biggest issue we are missing folks is the GOTV. ONLYT 1/2 OF ALL ELIGIBLE VOTERS VOTED IN NOVEMBER. sorry to shout but that just blows me away. I also feel the turnout will only get worse until the government puts into place tracable voting. After the last two presidential elections do YOU trust that your vote is being counting AND counted accurately. I do not trust the process anymore. I have heard so many disenfranchised voters ask what’s the point if one has to stand in line nine hours to vote if at all? That is what we should be working on IMHO folks. Make sure every voter votes and every vote counts. GOTV!!
Never give up. I was a hard core Republican when I went to college. It took me until late the following spring to finally come around. Fellow students just kept chipping away at my views, which were mostly a product of having grown up with no Democrats around.
The question of class is key but it’s complex—more complex in America now than anywhere else ever before. Just about everybody in America identifies with the rich—tv and gossip rags make that easier–and also focus their envy and rage. They want to be rich and know in their hearts they never will be. But they can fantasize, and as long as they are told and feel they are electing symbols, class alone won’t determine their vote.
I am currently fascinated with this strange GOP coalition of the very rich, including the generationally rich and powerful like Bush, with elements of the lower middle class. It’s pretty clear to me that economic self-interest is much more complex in the hearts and minds of Americans than any Democrat has understood.
I saw this coming in the 1980s, when Republicans constantly warned Democrats not to engage in “class warfare”. Unwisely, the Democrats took their enemy’s advice and stopped talking the language of class conflict.
Thanks for bloody nothing, DLC.
Well, if one cannot say the “C” word, then what about the “O” word–opportunity?
As in: “Anyone who believes that a child born in Beverly Hills and a child born in Harlem have the exact same opportunity in life is a fool if he believes it and a liar if he doesn’t.”
Democrats do need to speak the language of class warfare, but in a way that Americans can understand and accept. I think that promising an “Opportunity Society”, in which working class folk will be given government help to provide OPPORTUNITY (“a fair start for everybody”) is the way to go. Americans don’t like the sound of “class warfare” because they all think they’re going to get rich (of course they’re not going to). However, “Opportunity Society” has a nice ring to it and plays off the unfortunate delusion that so many working class Americans have about “making it big”.
We can’t reproduce the working class politics of England and Europe in America; I lived in America long enough to realise that (10 years). But I still think that most Americans respond to positive rather than negative words–that’s why Bush is using the slogan “Ownership Society”, because it has positive connotations. Unfortunately, it’s an Orwellian term out of his mouth–what it actually means is that we will all be owned, like draught horses pulling his waggon.
(And no, the bloody spellcheck cannot be adjusted for British English–work on that, will you, Booman?)