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November 04, 2004
It's the message, stupid.
Twenty-four hours after the Democratic Party moves into the minority party column for years to come and listening to the recriminations, watching the fingerpointing, from all quarters of the Leftist/liberal universe, this demonstrates they still don't get it.
Jeff Harrell points out that while John Kerry was gracious in his concession, he also sent mixed messages. I would also point out the speech given by Edwards just prior to Kerry was even more strident in the charge that Democrats must stay "on message". Yet another example that true introspection on the "why" of the Democratic Party loss has yet to sink in.
What are the excuses being offered?
Personality - people didn't get to see the "real" John Kerry
Tactics - Democrats weren't clear enough in getting people to understand their "real" message
Money - as a corollary to the tactics excuse; the DNC was "outspent" by the RNC and more "effectively"
These points were clearly illustrated in the exchange I heard last night between libertarian Larry Elder and leftist lawyer diva Gloria Allred on his radio show. Larry challenged her when she said the RNC outspent the DNC. Larry pointed at the leftist 527's and George Soros. Gloria was having none of that. For her, because these were "independent" organizations they "didn't really count" in her comparison. Larry than attempted to get her to look, not at the tactics of presenting the Democratic message, but at the message itself. He told her to look at the number of states that voted to legally define marriage as one man/one woman and at the margins it which these measures passed. Gloria was almost beside herself in both downplaying the measures and in also saying they "didn't matter" because they would be overturned in the court. She railed against the "discrimination" of such voters. In trying to get a word in edgewise Larry said one could not characterize everyone that voted for this measures as "homophobes." "I wouldn't be so sure," Gloria answered. She then went on very confident that all these "very clearly discriminatory" measures would be overturned in court.
There it is. The attitude one finds from the Leftists today in their attempts to analyze why Kerry lost. The problem is external, the problem is the homophobes and the Religious Rightwingnuts, it's the people for being so stupid they couldn't see what a wonderful message of "tolerance" and a chicken in every pot that the Democrats offered.
They refuse to consider it was not the "HOW" of the message being delivered that was the cause of the defeat, it was the MESSAGE itself that voters rejected.
This reminds me of the old joke about the haughty tourist in a foreign land who believes the non-English speaking native will understand the tourist if only he speaks LOUD ENOUGH and SLOWLY ENOUGH.
You don't brush off all people who have reservations about same-sex marriage as "homophobes" not worthy of listening to without engendering resentment from those people. You don't belittle people of faith as mindless boobs and then not expect they may take exception to the characterization. You don't pander to the flyover states with photo-ops of hunting and tossing a football and not expect that many will see right through it to the basic contempt such pandering holds. You don't trot out the stable of Hollywood celebs to dazzle the unwashed masses then try and scare them with such intellectual arguments as "If Bush is reelected, rape will be legal again."
At the conclusion of GW's acceptance speech yesterday they played a Brooks and Dunn (country/western) song. A commentator on FoxNews immediately characterized the music as "divisive."
It's the elites at their most tone-deaf.
They stand in the midst of an insular urban, coastal culture and believe such culture is the both the ideal and the universal. They are shocked at country/western music, but not at rap, because they rarely, if every, venture beyond the confines of their friends and acquaintences where rap, rock and hip-hop are the idealized music "art" forms. What a wakeup call Nov 3rd must have been for Springsteen and P. Diddy that most of the voters out there looked at them ...
.... and shrugged.
The elites have forgotten that "reaching out" and "respect" works in both directions. Unfortunately, the Left never has believed they needed to accord such to their political opponents and it appears like they are in no mood to start. Again, I point to Jeff Harrell who posts on some lefties who are in no mood for any kind of reconciliation. [ed. note: a break certainly agreed with Jeff. He has some excellent posts. Please go read 'em!]
Posted by Darleen at November 4, 2004 12:30 PM