Fresh, ummmm, snark from Liberal Street Fighter

The illustrious party elders at Democracy Corps are back with yet another report warning us (.pdf!) that they found exactly what they thought they were looking for:

Dissatisfaction over the war in Iraq, the economy and rising health care costs might spell trouble for Republicans, but a study by Democratic strategists warns that their party’s failure to connect with voters on cultural issues could prevent Democratic candidates from reaping gains in upcoming national elections.

Yes, these erstwhile “centrists” have bravely gone into a forbidding land, one they call “the heartland,” in search of a mythical creature, one that reminds me of ANOTHER expedition I read about once …

THE LANDING

“Just the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried,

As he landed his crew with care;

Supporting each man on the top of the tide

By a finger entwined in his hair.

“Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:

That alone should encourage the crew.

Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:

What i tell you three times is true.”

We are, of course, used to this sort of survey coming out from the consultant class in Washington, though one wonders why anybody listens, since they have such a lousy record in recent elections.

The whole enterprise is dishonest from the get-go. Don’t believe me, well, I’ll let them tell you as such in their own words:

Based on survey data on the critical role of cultural issues and attitudes toward the personal values of candidates in the 2004 election, we designed these focus groups to gain a better understanding of the attitudes of rural and red state voters on these complex issues and to discuss the relative importance of cultural issues relative to others priorities, including security, economic, and quality of life issues. Particularly among non-college voters, cultural issues not only superceded other priorities, they served as a proxy for many voters on those other issues.

In other words, based on earlier cooked surveys, they’re going to get together a bunch of people and ask them loaded questions to reaffirm what they already know … that “moral values” are what cost Democratic candidates elections.

He had bought a large map representing the sea,

Without the least vestige of land:

And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be

A map they could all understand.

“What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators,

Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?”

So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply

“They are merely conventional signs!

“Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!

But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank:

(So the crew would protest) “that he’s bought us the best–

A perfect and absolute blank!”

Sadly, though, like the brave adventurers in that OTHER quest, the enthusiastic and too-certain folks at Democracy Corps concentrate only on chasing the mythical creature that is the subject of their hunt, while ignoring game they find right before their eyes.

College-educated voters, on the other hand, were much more circumspect about the focus on cultural issues among many Republican politicians. They decried efforts by President Bush and others to use the resources of elected office to enforce their moral beliefs on others, with the Terry Schiavo case and opposition to stem cell research serving as the most noteworthy examples. While these voters shared a deep-seated regard for the importance of family, concern over the impact of sex and violence in the media on children, and a desire for greater respect for many traditional social norms, they were averse to any efforts to legislate morality or to otherwise use government to restrict individual freedoms.

One would think that this insight would lead to a prescription to help capitalize on these beliefs, while embarking on the hard work of actually doing politics, of showing that voters’ ingrained ideas about Democrats being “immoral” are distortions created by long-term unopposed propaganda from the Right Wing Noise Machine. There is actually some heartening stuff in these focus groups, that there are many issues that voters recognize as failings on the part of the Republican party.  Instead of focusing on the signs that voters are willing to be open to change, the authors find more droppings of the beast they expected to find:

Democrats Karl Agne and Stan Greenberg, who conducted the focus group, said Democrats need a reform-oriented, anti-Washington agenda to overcome the culture gap. At this point, Democrats are in no position to capitalize if there is a clear backlash against Republicans. “No matter how disaffected they are over Republican failures in Iraq and here at home,” they said, “a large chunk of white, non-college voters, particularly in rural areas, will remain unreachable for Democrats at the national level.”

Ready to give up on so many, while insisting that we should chase those very same voter’s concerns, the geniuses at Democracy Corps give their friends in the media interviews and copies of their new study and reinforce a couple of damaging messages for the party:

  • The party cannot reach a large number of voters, they are lost to us.

  • The party is losing because it is viewed as “immoral,” repeating agitprop from the right to push their own agenda.

  • That the right’s framing of “moral values” is unassailable, so the Democratic Party must fight them ON THEIR GROUND.

Who continues to pay these people? How in any way, shape or form are they doing ANYTHING other than helping our opponents? For too many years, people have been approached by only ONE political party, the Republicans, with encouragement from the center-right of the Democratic Party acting more like a village auxilary than an actual opposition party.

I say enough. It’s time to get off their ship, to let the hunters of their snark to sail off alone to their fate …

Erect and sublime, for one moment of time.

In the next, that wild figure they saw

(As if stung by a spasm) plunge into a chasm,

While they waited and listened in awe.

“It’s a Snark!” was the sound that first came to their ears,

And seemed almost too good to be true.

Then followed a torrent of laughter and cheers:

Then the ominous words “It’s a Boo-“

Then, silence. Some fancied they heard in the air

A weary and wandering sigh

Then sounded like “-jum!” but the others declare

It was only a breeze that went by.

They hunted till darkness came on, but they found

Not a button, or feather, or mark,

By which they could tell that they stood on the ground

Where the Baker had met with the Snark.

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,

In the midst of his laughter and glee,

He had softly and suddenly vanished away—

For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.

with thanks and affection for Lewis Carroll. Links, image and words from Klassische, Gedichte und Balladen

also xposted at dailyKos — DH puts in a fine highjack! Come watch the flame wars!