Posted on 11/04/2004 10:36:52 PM PST by neverdem
GUEST OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Washington
The first thing Democrats must try to grasp as they cast their eyes over the smoking ruins of the election is the continuing power of the culture wars. Thirty-six years ago, President Richard Nixon championed a noble "silent majority" while his vice president, Spiro Agnew, accused liberals of twisting the news. In nearly every election since, liberalism has been vilified as a flag-burning, treason-coddling, upper-class affectation. This year voters claimed to rank "values" as a more important issue than the economy and even the war in Iraq.
And yet, Democrats still have no coherent framework for confronting this chronic complaint, much less understanding it. Instead, they "triangulate," they accommodate, they declare themselves converts to the Republican religion of the market, they sign off on Nafta and welfare reform, they try to be more hawkish than the Republican militarists. And they lose. And they lose again. Meanwhile, out in Red America, the right-wing populist revolt continues apace, its fury at the "liberal elite" undiminished by the Democrats' conciliatory gestures or the passage of time.
Like many such movements, this long-running conservative revolt is rife with contradictions. It is an uprising of the common people whose long-term economic effect has been to shower riches upon the already wealthy and degrade the lives of the very people who are rising up. It is a reaction against mass culture that refuses to call into question the basic institutions of corporate America that make mass culture what it is. It is a revolution that plans to overthrow the aristocrats by cutting their taxes.
Still, the power of the conservative rebellion is undeniable. It presents a way of talking about life in which we are all victims of a haughty overclass - "liberals" - that makes our movies, publishes our newspapers, teaches our children, and hands down judgments from the bench. These liberals generally tell us how to go about our lives, without any consideration for our values or traditions.
The culture wars, in other words, are a way of framing the ever-powerful subject of social class. They are a way for Republicans to speak on behalf of the forgotten man without causing any problems for their core big-business constituency.
Against this militant, aggrieved, full-throated philosophy the Democrats chose to go with ... what? Their usual soft centrism, creating space for this constituency and that, taking care to antagonize no one, declining even to criticize the president, really, at their convention. And despite huge get-out-the-vote efforts and an enormous treasury, Democrats lost the battle of voter motivation before it started.
Worse: While conservatives were sharpening their sense of class victimization, Democrats had all but abandoned the field. For some time, the centrist Democratic establishment in Washington has been enamored of the notion that, since the industrial age is ending, the party must forget about blue-collar workers and their issues and embrace the "professional" class. During the 2004 campaign these new, business-friendly Democrats received high-profile assistance from idealistic tycoons and openly embraced trendy management theory. They imagined themselves the "metro" party of cool billionaires engaged in some kind of cosmic combat with the square billionaires of the "retro" Republican Party.
Yet this would have been a perfect year to give the Republicans a Trumanesque spanking for the many corporate scandals that they have countenanced and, in some ways, enabled. Taking such a stand would also have provided Democrats with a way to address and maybe even defeat the angry populism that informs the "values" issues while simultaneously mobilizing their base.
To short-circuit the Republican appeals to blue-collar constituents, Democrats must confront the cultural populism of the wedge issues with genuine economic populism. They must dust off their own majoritarian militancy instead of suppressing it; sharpen the distinctions between the parties instead of minimizing them; emphasize the contradictions of culture-war populism instead of ignoring them; and speak forthrightly about who gains and who loses from conservative economic policy.
What is more likely, of course, is that Democratic officialdom will simply see this week's disaster as a reason to redouble their efforts to move to the right. They will give in on, say, Social Security privatization or income tax "reform" and will continue to dream their happy dreams about becoming the party of the enlightened corporate class. And they will be surprised all over again two or four years from now when the conservative populists of the Red America, poorer and angrier than ever, deal the "party of the people" yet another stunning blow.
Thomas Frank is the author, most recently, of "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America."
Like many such movements, this long-running conservative revolt is rife with contradictions.
Contradictions, huh? I guess he means like the party of "peace" and "tolerance" ripping up our signs, making three year-olds cry, shooting into campaign headquarters of the opposition, slashing tires on GOP GOTV vans...stuff like that.
I started to read it, but then blah, blah, blah, blah...same old 'they don't care about the poor type crap. Welfare Reform worked wonders. English only works here in CA and passed by a larger number...and this is a BLUE state. We care, we just don't coddle.
This guy says this? After listening to Michael Moore screeh and holler for all this time? After listening to people compare Bush to Hitler, or much worse?
Clueless doesn't begin to describe this guy. Democrats have definitely mastered the Orwellian concept of "doublethink".
Duh! Gee! I wonder why........
Could it possibly be 'coz it's true?
Well whaddya know, it's the big "genius" that everyone says is so ingenious. He used to edit a snotty pamphlet named The Baffler I think (like a very grad-studentish version of Harper's). The liberal affirmative action for this hack is really beginning to grate
And as for the tired "those damned Republican hicks VOTE AGAINST THEIR ECONOMIC SELF-INTEREST", which is being trotted out repeatedly as if it were a sterling insight--aren't Barbra Streisand and George Soros "voting against their economic interest?" Remind me what again is so perceptive about this theme
This guy is a dildope. The "wealthy" get there by providing opportunities and jobs for workers who spend their $$$ (which creates jobs and opportunities for others, etc., etc.).
You don't help the boxcars and cabooses by putting obstacles in the way of the engines....
In the eyes of the NYT, a newspaper, we are "They""!
As in - those other people; those imbicles, the unwashed, fly-over folks......They!
A perspective lost on many here sadly.
Meanwhile, out in Red America, the right-wing populist revolt continues apace, its fury at the "liberal elite" undiminished by the Democrats' conciliatory gestures or the passage of time.
Sorry Thomas, even as dumb you think we are “conciliatory gestures” just aren't going to make us vote for you.
Yet this would have been a perfect year to give the Republicans a Trumanesque spanking for the many corporate scandals that they have countenanced and, in some ways, enabled.
Ah yes Enron; the corruption and thievery started and flourished during the Democrat Clinton administration and was uncovered and prosecuted during the Republican Bush administration. When Enron ran into trouble who did they go to? Clinton’s former man at Treasury, Democrat Robert Rubin, who did make calls on Enron’s behalf to the now Bush Treasury department, trouble was Bush’s guys told Rubin NO! Thomas, explain to me again how President Bush and the Republicans are to blame here.
What is more likely, of course, is that Democratic officialdom will simply see this week's disaster as a reason to redouble their efforts to move to the right.
John Kerry is universally rated the most liberal person in the US Senate and Thomas Frank thinks that running Kerry for the Presidency is moving to the right? Just how far left is Thomas Frank?
Is anybody going to buy the "haves vs. have-nots" argument anymore as it applies to US?
This country is becoming "haves vs. have-mores". And that's a good thing.
Not a mention of Michael Moore's lies. Or other media highjinks so biased the average non-political types are seeing it, with disgust.
Clearly the BEST outcome for Republicans is for the democrats to listen to pundits like this.
He's essentially arguing for income redistribution, etc. while home ownership sets new records.
Insanity is "doing the same thing, over and over, expecting different results."
I truly hope the democrats remain insane. Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry one term Carter.
Credit has to go to Bill Clinton, who is one top notch politician (in spite of his deeply flawed character). He is much smarter than these others.
He basically got a second term, by enacting several parts of the Republican program. Welfare reform, balanced budget, etc.
The red states embrace "... a revolution that plans to overthrow the aristocrats by cutting their taxes."
The author needs to buy a clue. We don't subscribe to the Marxist agenda of redistribution of wealth. The 'aristocracy' does not need to be overthrown. Money and status are not static in this country. Most of us work for these 'aristocrats' and some of us may even be smart enough, work hard enough, be focused enough, and have enough luck to join them. It's the American way.
"A perspective lost on many here sadly."
Who do you think lost that perspective, if you please? I'm curious, and I usually enjoy your perspective.
"while his vice president, Spiro Agnew, accused liberals of twisting the news"
HAHAHAHA! Agnew gave one of the greatest speeches in the 20th Century on this issue and obviously prophetic!
Thank God for a President that sticks to his guns and withstood the relentless attack from the MSM for the past four years.
AND:
Thank God for Free Republic, Rush Limbaugh, Drudge, Hannity, Laura Ingrahm (yeah!) Ann Colter (yeah, yeah!) and the conservative bloggers that are pounding underfoot the MSM into the dirt that they are, soon to be swept into the dustbin of history!
Blessings, bobo
What a bozo. He suggests a sharp left turn for the Democratic party. WRONG!!!!
I want them to take a big left turn. And then another one. And then another one...
And into infinity they go.
The more insanely leftist, immoral, psychotic-with-rage they get, the happier I be.
Heheheh.
What a good day, what a good week.
Liberalism really is a serious mental illness.
Except that all the big name corporate scandals like Enron and Global Crossing took place on Clinton's watch, and had to be cleaned up by Bush's prosecutors.
-ccm
This writer is an idiot. Bush, not Kerry is the modern-day Truman this year!
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