Sunday, 21 November 2004
They Still Don't Get It
« Mort Kondracke on Democrats | Main | Basketball Brawl »Yesterday the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran opinion pieces on what theDemocrats need to do to recover from the losses in the 04 election.Dianne Glass's
You want to run for president? Wear baseball caps and drink beer inan aluminum can. This imparts a quaint, guy-next-door persona. Voterswill want to have a beer with you, talk to you and share a fewlaughs. You'll be the kind of president everyone can understand, not thescary intellectual who can outsmart them.
Mispronounce a few words. Don't strive for flawless oratory. This onlychallenges our collective intelligence. It makes us feel like wedidn't study enough before turning on the television. People don't liketo think while watching TV. When in doubt, look energetic.
To believe this line of reasoning, you have to make the assumption that thesilent majority in America is too stupid to vote for anyone else. Sheconfirms this demeaning view with her explanation of how the "new"candidate should talk to Middle America.
Debate emotional topics, not critical policy issues....Rule No. 1 in a presidential campaign is use soundbytes.Instead of explaining your stand, simply use buzz words like familyvalues,the war on terror,or evil hearts. These short, meaningless phrasesmeet the 130-character limit for PDAs....
Once again, the liberals blame American's for being to stupid instead ofunderstanding that their policies are not popular because people know theydon't work. We have too much evidence from the failed great societyprojects for the left to paint a rosy picture or say we just need to tweak it.
The funny thing about this article is that she is saying all the left needsto do is fool the American people into doing what is right for them.The paternal left, thinks another Bill Clinton can hoodwink the Americanpeople into voting for the Democrats. Once again the problem with this lineof reasoning is two fold. One a majority of Americans never votedClinton into office. Two, America doesn't want a used car salesman in theWhite House. One of the reasons Bush did so well is because he is theantithesis of Bill Clinton. He is a straight shooter that doesn't hidebehind the meaning of the word "is".
The most interesting part of this article is understanding whyshe truly believes in this course of action. She thinks that greatconservative leaders like Bush and Reagan only won because of packaging.It has to be because these men were bigoted, trigger happy, only for therich morons.
What they still fail to comprehend, is that Reagan and Bush won becausethey have been successful at explaining to America the positive conservativeagenda that resonates with so many in Red America. This is a policy offreedom, self reliance, and the celebration of entrepreneurial spirit thathas made this country the greatest on Earth.
The good news for conservatives is the overwhelming arrogance of the leftwill only cause them to blame stupid Americans rather than address the realproblem of continual support of failed policies. That will only lead tomore years of Republican dominance.
