If I Were a High-Paid Democratic Consultant

Posted by Freddie on January 17, 2006 under Uncategorized |

The President and Republicans are at their weakest point ever, and Democrats are still tripping over themselves to see how quickly they can bungle each opportunity to perform as an opposition party. If the Republicans were not in the grip of the religious right and lobbyists representing the most pernicious elements of the business lobby (e.g., pharmaceuticals, oil, military) and were instead peopled by savvy fiscal conservatives focused on providing effective, efficient government free of corruption and full of civil liberties, I might be less focused on removing so many of them from office. But I would love for my focus to fall on a Democrat that I could be excited about supporting. In light of that, I’ve cobbled together some excerpts from potential speeches and a few strategic highlights.

Speeches

It is time for some boldness in the arena of Democratic speechmaking. It is possible to craft a speech more carefully than Howard Dean often does without sacrificing the inspirational tenor. But why do only a post-presidential Al Gore and Barack Obama seem capable of delivering such a speech? I’m including some excerpts from a national, mainstream Democrat I’ll be advising for the presidential election of 2008.

Culture of Strength, Courage, and Patriotism

“For years now,” my candidate would say, “your President has instilled in you a culture of fear. He converted our shared sense of shock and outrage and, yes, legitimate fear, after 9/11 into a misguided war with Iraq. A war that has cost more than 30,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers their lives. Has it made us safer here at home? No. Has it made our troops overseas safer? No.

“Your President, who claims that his favorite philosopher is Christ because he ‘changed [his] heart,’ has explicitly led you away from a spirit of loving thy neighbor. He wants you to fear your neighbor. Whether it’s because their definition of family is different from yours or because English is not their first language, he wants you to shun them. He wants you to go to the polls because you are afraid of them. He wants you to fear gay Americans, new Americans, and Americans who have been Americans for generations but whose skin is not the same hue as Thomas Jefferson’s or George Washington’s.

“I want to abandon this President’s Culture of Fear and help us rediscover our shared Culture of Strength, Courage, and Patriotism. We should always be proud of displaying the American flag. We should fly it in times of shared vision and strength. And those times should not come when we have been hit hard by enemies or natural disasters. Those times should come when we use common sense to find common ground for good public policy. Those times should come when we put our heads together to solve problems in the three areas of public policy that should concern us most: education, health care, and retirement. We should cultivate a culture of compromise and civil dialogue with our neighbors and in our Congress. We should encourage the culture of our nation’s capital to be one that makes us all proud to display our nation’s flag.”

Voters Are Smart

“We have suffered for the better part of a decade now under a presidential administration that banks on the fact that voters are stupid. But I know otherwise. I know that voters are smart. Your President thought you would be too stupid to notice him pushing an agenda he was not elected to push using his ‘political capital’ from 9/11. I know better because we have all seen his approval descend from towering heights to embarrassing depths. Your President thought you would be too stupid to notice that neither were there weapons of mass destruction in Iraq nor were there ties between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. I know that you are smart enough to realize you were misled about both things and to wonder how we will win the peace in Iraq now that we have started the war. Your President thinks that our senior citizens will be too stupid to realize that the new drug benefit prevents the government from negotiating better rates with the pharmaceutical companies and adds a layer of bureaucracy that did not exist before.

“The bottom line is that I know that our senior citizens and all Americans are smart enough to see through sound bites and to listen to reasoned arguments and make tough, smart decisions. This process is not always easy. And your elected officials often try to make it more difficult. And they collaborate with talk radio hosts and others in the media to make it even more difficult. We need to work together to change that.

“President Bush and his administration think that you are stupid. Help prove to one another and to the rest of the world that America is a smart country. This is an era in which the world is more complicated than black and white, good and evil. Competence is key. Help put an end to the Era of Incompetence.

“Your President was counting on your desire to have a beer with him. I am counting on your desire to have competent leadership in the White House. Leadership that does not use social wedge issues to separate us. Leadership that knows how to deal effectively with crises, whether domestic or foreign. Leadership that knows that the best way to make our nation safe is to ensure that expertise and experience govern important appointments rather than college roommates or large contributors.”

[This section is admittedly difficult. The implication is that voters have been treated as if they were stupid, but Americans are clearly smart enough to decipher complex political issues when they put their minds to it and when they decide to show up to the polls. I would love it if so many politicians didn't specifically employ a strategy specifically designed to cause voters to tune out.]

God is Not a Republican

“President Bush and Karl Rove have convinced thousands of congregations across this country that God is a Republican. I am here today to tell you that he is not. I, like many other Democrats across the country, am a practicing Christian. And just because some Democratic elected officials do not consider abortion to be murder does not mean that they are not deep practitioners of Christianity or other faiths or even a secular humanism that helps them clearly and easily perceive right from wrong. God and religion are not partisan issues, and capital punishment, abortion rights, assisted suicide, and anything that crosses the life/death divide are complex moral issues for which no one has an accurate compass. It is our job as politicians to guarantee that we discuss these issues in the public forum. And it is our pastors’ and preachers’ and ministers’ and rabbis’ and mullahs’ jobs to ensure that they get fair treatment in the pews, as well. But when we leave our congregations and come to the public square, we must remember that America is not a Christian nation. And, further, among Christians, there are many denominations, each of which interprets the Bible and Scripture differently. And any preacher who confuses the word of God with the Constitution or laws of Congress does a disservice to his or her flock.

“God is everywhere. This means that He is in budget discussions. He is in the war room. He is in the room with politicians who take bribes or otherwise accept favors in return for other favors. If He is not, then He is nowhere. And we should not do Him a disservice to relegate Him to a short laundry list of convenient political issues when it comes to seeking His approval. Public policy of all sorts involves moral politics, and we need always to be mindful of that.”

Strategy

Iraq War Veterans

The DNC should find, recruit, and fund as many Iraq War veterans who are Democrats as it can. This should be a national campaign, and these people should get elected at the local, state, and federal level. And the Democrats should be very public about it. Veterans should repeat, sincerely, the refrain of Andrew Horne of Kentucky: “It became a realization that we are less safe than we were, not more safe.”

Clearly, the theme will be Strong on Defense. It is time to go after Bush and the intelligence apparatus he has used so poorly so often. For a particularly caustic attack, something like, “Do any of you remember 9/11? Do any of you remember being told about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and a costly war that ensued? Do any of you remember a time when you, as Americans, actually felt safe? Do you remember that the presidency and the Congress were controlled by Democrats during that time? Let’s return to that time as Americans.”

Divide and Conquer

I would hit the Republicans on issues where they are currently divided. The issue that is going to cause the most consternation amongst GOP candidates and elected officials (primarily because of the variety of ways that it plays with the party base) in and beyond 2006 is immigration. The Democrats should use this to their advantage and couple it with reinvigorating America’s Culture (see above) of Strength, Courage, and Patriotism. Find alliances across the aisle, and talk continuously about it.

When railroaded with opposition to civil rights framed with gay politics, bring the issue back to immigration and the GOP desire to create a divided America. E.g., “Look, the Republicans did this back in 2004 with a series of discriminating legislation in the states, and they’re doing it again now. They want to create a divided America. Democrats want a united America that can discuss issues and disagree in a civil fashion. We don’t want hate radio; we want talk radio. We don’t want sensationalism or controversy. We want to reach across the aisle and find a hand to shake.” And Democrats should not shy from framing this issue with competition. E.g., “This country thrives with a market economy that relies on the best of competition and cooperation. We want to ensure that our employers abide by laws, and we want to ensure that every American who wants to work can work and can find work at a living wage.”

Affirmative Activism

Democrats should relocate (or at least annex) their campaign headquarters in urban locations to inner city or low-income demographic regions and pay staff to participate in community improvement and involvement. Democrats should make a very public show of not taking disadvantaged populations for granted by constantly involving them in the political process instead of rolling in every 2-4 years with cash for voter turnout on street corners. This should be a prolonged, proactive push backed by Democratic dollars. And Democrats should engage their donor base in engaging these communities with volunteer programs. A return to victory at the national level anyone? This is the way to do it.