2008 Woodie Awards
Building upon others’ reflections on TNR in the Foer era, I’m compelled to rethink in that spirit, slightly, that painful subject of why John Kerry lost. Here’s my crack theory. One meme that you saw endlessly repeated during the campaign by the right-wing was that he was a “Massachusetts liberal,” which made him utterly out of touch with the realities in the rest of the country. But shouldn’t the Democratic Party have realized that Kerry would be charged as such beforehand? Part of the Kerry campaign’s strategy was to associate the candidate’s Massachusetts origins with the American Revolution, specifically the patriots at Lexington and Concord. This was an interesting strategy, but it backfired because the Kerry campaign overestimated the endurance of the mythological dimensions of the American Revolution in the modern American psyche. Had the Democratic Party read the historical psychology of the voting public accurately vis-à-vis the impact of a candidate’s geographical origin on his viability (an underlying determining factor in the race), I claim, they wouldn’t have run Kerry at all, or at least not talked up his geographical connection to the Revolution.
Why? Because while the campaign was right to assume that the ‘myth of the Revolution’ is indeed an enduring myth in American cultural psychology, they forgot that the ‘myth of the War of 1812 and its aftermath’ is a much more enduring one even if nobody ever talks about it. A much greater one is the ‘myth of the War of 1812 and its aftermath.’ This is my unlikely theory, so don’t put too much stock in it.
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Just as big is the Maine voters’ rejecting a discriminatory ballot initiative that would have hurt sexual minorities. Huge victories for progressive forces.
I am so regretting re-registering to vote in New Jersey. I should’ve known P-votes was really just an Evan Baer-boosting scam. :p
These propositions to be put on the November 8 ballot are pretty contested.
I do think Proposition 75, which “requires public employee unions to obtain each member’s permission annually to use dues for political campaigns, including donations to candidates and initiative efforts” is ridiculous, and I am against it - both on principle and because my father is in the public employees union.
Great Ryan Lizza column at TNR today. I’ve secretly believed all of what he writes about, and expect more discussion about why Al Gore is the best candidate for 2008, and in my view, the only one progressives can support without compromising all that they’ve been fighting for over the past couple of years.
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Nonetheless, this guy is the type of candidate the Democratic establishment should seriously support if it wants to regain power. Maryland-6th is currently represented by Roscoe Bartlett, who doesn’t exactly take the right positions on key issues. Plus, Duck served in Iraq, and that plays well in redder areas, as we saw with Paul Hackett just a few weeks ago.
Interestingly, the district is somewhat similar to Hackett’s Ohio-2nd. Both are solidly red, and in November, the incumbents won by solid majorities. But only a few months later, in the Ohio-2nd special election, Iraq veteran Hackett narrowed the gap to 4%. Could Duck do the same in a district where the reigning GOP’er last won by 34%?
Stuart Rothenberg, more so than progressive blogosphere, learns some wrong lessons from Paul Hackett’s near victory in today’s subscription-only Roll Call.
Rothenberg underestimates the number of Republicans electorally vulnerable on the grounds of questionable ethics (as you’ll recall, the DSCC spent a lot of time trying to tie Schmidt to the scandal-plagued governor Bob Taft). When the media has covered GOP corruption, they’ve focused on the big guys, but there’s really a lot more to be found at the state level. There’s the New Hampshire-RNC phone-jamming scam, the Walmart-Ehrlich payola deal, and the Montana-Conrad Burns Abramoff dealings, for example.
Perhaps Stu should chat with Robby on what we actually should be learning from the Hackett race.
(Second in a series.)
Swept up in the excitement generated by Paul Hacket’s amazing campaign for the Ohio-2nd District Congressional seat, I could hardly peal my eyes away from my computer screen. I discovered that blogs were an amazing source for the latest news on strategies, fundraising, news, and results. But when it was all over, I was left with a sour taste in my mouth by many of the progressives posting comments on sites like MyDD, Swingstate Project, and Daily Kos. It quickly became apparent that many of these posters dozed off during some very important pre-school lessons.
LESSON 2: DON’T BE A SORE LOSER!
The minute the vote count started going downhill for Hacket, it seemed as though every progressive in the blogosphere began to blame the results on election fraud. While they stopped short of accusing the Republicans of fraud, many of the top progressive bloggers fanned the flames by iterating possible conspiracy theories.
THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO WIN FUTURE ELECTIONS. PERIOD. Blaming every election loss on foul play is a great way to look like whining losers to the American public. There is a good chance that you will lose credibility, in the process harming future election chances.
Now, if there is credible evidence that fraud has taken place, then by all means use every weapon in the arsenal to call the other side out. Otherwise, spend your energy figuring out how to do better next time. While history has shown that election rigging is an all too common occurrence, if little evidence is available, time would be better spent convincing people of why you’re right and the other guys are wrong. As much as you (and I) may think that progressives are on the right side of the issues, it is quite possible that the majority of Americans currently do not.
In the end, Democrats will start winning elections when they stop complaining and start challenging.
(First in a series.)
Swept up in the excitement generated by Paul Hacket’s amazing campaign for the Ohio-2nd District Congressional seat, I could hardly peal my eyes away from my computer screen. I discovered that blogs were an amazing source for the latest news on strategies, fundraising, news, and results. But when it was all over, I was left with a sour taste in my mouth by many of the progressives posting comments on sites like MyDD, Swingstate Project, and Daily Kos. It quickly became apparent that many of these posters dozed off during some very important pre-school lessons.
LESSON 1: DON’T BE A SORE WINNER!
Immediately after Hacket’s narrow loss, many of the comment-posters in the blogosphere (and bloggers as well) decided to use their success in fundraising and rallying support to continue their relentless war on the Democratic leadership. Organizations like the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) and DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) were lambasted as irrelevant, and criticised for not getting involved in the race earlier. Many posters even peppered them with a spray of four letter words that will not be repeated here.
The pettiness of this debate (if it can even be called that) is counterproductive for liberals and progressives alike. One of the reasons why the Republican Party has been so strong in recent years is that its leaders and members have been willing to put aside their ideological differences and fight for a common cause. Libertarians, neo-conservatives, and the religious-right banded together, and Republican causes were strengthened by their efforts.
As much as they might not like to admit it, liberals and progressives in the Democratic Party can learn something from this Republican strategy. By agreeing to disagree and spending their energy fighting Republicans rather than each other, they will be able to create a more united front against the Republican Party. This does not mean that it would be beneficial for all criticism of party organisations to cease. What it does mean, however, is that such criticism should be constructive rather profane. It should take into account that, despite differences between groups within the Democratic Party, all Democrats and democrats share some important common goals.
Some of the recent cracks in the Republican coalition have been particularly instructive of these points. In the Schmidt/Hackett race, for example, Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) urged conservatives not to vote in the election. In addition, Schmidt’s primary opponents reportedly gave her lukewarm support at best. There is no doubt that these factors (in addition, of course, to Hackett’s strength as a candidate and the powerful grassroots support he received) had a significant impact on the outcome of the election. What happened in OH-2 is not a peculiarity, but a reflection of a general strategy by certain interests within the GOP to consolidate power at the expense of their coalition partners.
Think about it.
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