Check out Joe Klein in Slate. A key quote:
The Democrats have to stop being so goddamned negative and pessimistic. No piece about the party should omit Dick Gephardt’s famous retort to Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” ads: “It’s getting closer and closer to midnight.” (For that reason alone, Gephardt should be barred from further national political activity.) Reich, this is your specialty: Why are Democrats always so downbeat and mopey about the most dynamic economy in the history of the world? Why are your friends at the American Prospect so perpetually dour, dark, and humorless? Why can’t they be as funny as you are?
The most important qualities that Newer Democrats need to enlist are optimism and an inspirational, idealistic American patriotism. This is particularly true if they want to appeal to young people. I would guess that those who watch Saturday Night Live and MTV adhere to only three bedrock political principles: tolerance, environmentalism, and entertainment value. (I would guess, for example, that they intuit the difference between Eminem’sand, yeah, mea culpa, Sister Souljah’sscathing social realism and true intolerance.)
Read the whole thing.
I’m busy, serious bloggage later tonight.
I don’t find “The American Prospect” dour, dark and humorless.
But, anyway, in general I agree. The Democrats need to come up with an optimistic, bright shiny vision for the future. I think that John Kennedy had one, but lowered expectations since then have made it seem less and less plausible.
In contrast, the optimistic future for Republicans is the promise to each of us that if we work hard we might just become one of those lucky ones who can benefit from the elimination of the estate tax. The Republicans are selling optimism in the same way that ads for state lotteries do. It isn’t optimism for the entire country that is being sold, but optimism for lucky individuals.
I agree about the “vision thing”. I think Joe’s off in terms of the union thing. I think the mistake there was that Dems allowed the issue to be defined as “protecting union jobs” instead of preventing the largest dept. in the govt from becoming a patronage sink. (In fact, in my paranoid moments I wonder if part of it could be turned into a secret police.)
And that comes back to what IMO is the biggest issue. Controlling the terms of the debate. The Reps do and the Dems don’t. That’s got to change or nothing else is going to matter.
The Republicans are selling personal responsibility, ie it is your money and you should handle it. The biggest mistake democrats made (and republicans are not any better) was the continued scare tactic on Soc Sec. The lock box is a big joke, but so is this Soc Sec trustfund. There is no trustfund, the money was spent by Repubs and Democrats when they (wisely) cut taxes but (unwisely) refused to make hard choices to ammend entitlement programs, of which Soc Sec is the biggest. When the boomers start retiring and the system runs a deficit – the trust fund IOUs would be redeemed with money from the general budget. The question is now what to do. Repubs want to start weaning people of the public tit and give them back some of their own money (and yes tax money is my money – not the gov’ts). Do they misstate the costs, like all politicians they are weasals, so yes they do – but the Democrats have offered no alternative except the mindless, protect the trustfund.
I find the extension of gov’t intrusion on public like unsettling (the homeland security bill and patriot act are bad legislation but so was the Campaign Finance reform bill) The best gov’t is the gfov’t that does least, hence ensuring liberty.
I have just recently found the blog world, and I am amazed at how few decent liberal blogs are on the net. I agree, dark, dour, angry. We are being run over and out manuevered by the right. Where is the positive, articulate, visionary voice of the Democrats. Or is there none?
The Democrats have taken FDR’s famous quote of only having to fear fear and do. They now fear everything.