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WAKE UP DEMOCRATS!
01/20/2010
Barack Obama has now been president for one year, and the voters are already starting to toss Democrats out of office. Though I am a Democrat because I agree with most of their ideas and ideals, I understand why the people are fed up, and unless the Democrats begin to understand as well, Obama will be a one term president, with the possibility of someone truly disastrous (think Sarah Palin) becoming president in three years.
So here’s my little contribution to what the Democrats are doing wrong and what they need to do now.
1. They overestimated the electorate’s patience.
When Obama was elected, the economy was in bad shape, jobs were hemorrhaging, and too much money was going to a useless war in Iraq. Obama promised change, including a health care bill that would increase the number of insured, and end the practice of refusing coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Even though the economy was the number one issue for most, those who elected Obama were willing to go along with health care reform, provided it could be done quickly and not mean new taxes.
Instead, the Democratic Congress made a mess of the legislation, hoping to get Republican support, putting too many things in the bill, compromising with their own conservative party members, and thus dragging out the process, at the same time the unemployment rate, as well as the deficit, was rising. The Dems knew they had to get to other things, like building a green economy, creating jobs, and regulating the banks, so they thought they had to get health care out of the way. That would have been fine had they done it before the August recess. Letting it drag out past August is what killed them. That’s when the town hall meetings got ugly, the public lost patience, and the process got harder. At that point, they should have broken the bill into smaller parts, and had votes on each one of them. For instance, had they presented a bill to prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, and dared the Republicans to vote against it, they would have easily passed at least one reform.
But while they were arguing with each other in Congress, more people were losing jobs, and they were doing nothing visible to help them. And the public is now sick of the whole process of legislating health care reform.
2. They did not keep things simple.
Progressives in the party had wanted health care reform for fifty years, and with a Democratic Congress, they saw this as their one chance to get it. So Obama and the Congress kept negotiating, adding more and more things to the bill to appease their more conservative members, until no one could possibly understand it. As so much of the negotiating was going on behind closed doors, with things getting increasingly complicated, even the legislators could not explain it. If you can’t get the people to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, and the people are worried about something else, you are going to get clobbered.
Obama is just as much to blame for this mess as is the Congress. Had he presented a simple bill to Congress, one that they and the people could understand, and insisted it be passed by July, he would be in much better shape today.
3. They were not tough and decisive enough.
The American people prefer toughness and decisiveness over nuance. That may frustrate those of us who know the world is complicated and nothing is black and white, but it is how one must appeal to the electorate. That isn’t to say the electorate is ignorant, but mostly that people are incredibly busy, and have too many things on their minds. They don’t have the luxury of parsing something in a hundred different ways. They need their leaders to simplify things for them and help them understand what they are doing. They want their leaders to be decisive and strong.
George W. Bush and Karl Rove knew that. Their policies may have been completely misguided, but the public tolerated them for a long time because they were tough.
Democrats really need to understand that they can be the party of compassion and still be tough, uncompromising legislators. They don’t understand that yet.
4. They underestimated the Republicans.
Obama came into office wanting to be “post-partisan” and work with Republicans. This was the height of naivety. Republicans had no intention of working with Democrats. If there’s one lesson Democrats need to learn fast it’s that Republicans never, ever give up their efforts to gain power. They will promise bipartisanship, but if it means giving Democrats a victory, they will go back on their word. (My next column will focus more on this.)
Obama needs to give up his quest for bipartisanship and do what he thinks is best for the country, and what the people are asking him to do. If he does that, and the Republicans stand in his way, then he simply goes back to the people and says, “See, the Republicans refuse to do your business. They care more about themselves and defeating Democrats than they care about you.”
Why in heaven’s name would you want to do things in a bipartisan way if the other party stands for everything you oppose? And why would you keep giving them chances to derail your agenda? I refer you back to the third point: The American people like toughness.
5. They spent too much time enjoying their victory. They were not vigilant.
This point is really an extension of the last one. After the 2008 election, Democrats reveled in victory. For the first time in years, they held power in two branches of government, and pundits were writing obituaries for the GOP. Foolishly, the Democrats believed the pundits. They should have kept one eye on the Republicans, who as I said before, never, ever give up. You can’t relax after winning one election. You have to remain vigilant, and run a political operation as well as a legislative one.
By keeping Karl Rove in the White House, George W. Bush acknowledged the importance of keeping up the political fight and the propaganda. Rove never relaxed. He was always on the offensive. On the contrary, once they were elected, Obama and the Democrats sat back and relaxed, at least in a political sense, and they are now paying a terrible price. If they don’t get their acts together, the people will pay a price as well, because putting Republicans back in power will only make things worse. Republicans will not regulate the banks, create jobs, or reform health care. While they might lower taxes, they will only increase spending. They always do, no matter what they say they are going to do.
If they forget everything else, Democrats must remember this: Republicans want power. They will promise anything and accomplish nothing for the people, because they don’t believe in government and governing. They know how to manipulate the electorate to win elections, but once in power, they don’t do anything to help the people. Democrats, on the other hand, believe elections are the prelude to governing, and once in office, they think they can relax about winning elections. When the Republican Party is your opposition, though, you can never relax.
6. They don’t understand the politics of fear.
The Bush administration knew how to manipulate people with fear. They raised terror alerts whenever they needed a political victory and they spoke the language of “terror” constantly. The Democrats think they can use intellectual arguments to talk people out of their fear. It doesn’t work that way. If you want to help people be less afraid, you have to be tough, and implement policies – even if they are only symbolic – that reassure people. Examples of such policies might be funding smarter weapons systems, trying terror suspects in military tribunals (even if George W. Bush tried them in civilian courts – the voters give Republicans more leeway in matters of defense of the country), and talking tough every chance they get.
When people are afraid, they are like children. You can’t simply talk children out of their fears. You have to make them feel safe in some way, with swift action, and promises of protection. You also have to give them something concrete that they can do to make themselves feel safer. We all made fun of the duct tape recommendation by the Bush administration, but we forget that there was a run on duct tape in all the stores after that. The people want to feel you are taking their fears seriously, and that you are giving them some way to participate in their own defense.
Even if terrorism isn’t as big a threat as Republicans say it is, the people still remember 9-11. If Democrats don’t honor that, they will lose the confidence of the people.
7. They don’t understand that the electorate wants different things from the two parties, and treats them differently.
Pundits say that America is a very conservative nation, that most Americans prefer small government, and thus conservatives will always have an advantage in elections. I think that is only partly true.
When people are disgusted with government, or think government is too intrusive, or taxes them too much, they tend to turn to Republicans, who promise less government. When people are hurting, and believe that only government can help, they tend to turn to Democrats. To put it even more simply, when people need government help, they turn to the people who believe in government: Democrats. When the people think government is stifling them, they turn to the people who criticize government: Republicans.
If the people elect the Democrats to help them, then by golly Democrats had better do it. If they spend a year arguing over how to do one thing, the public will become disgusted with government and turn back to the Republicans. And if Republicans can be tough and do some effective fearmongering, then that adds to their chances of success.
And that’s exactly where we are now. The people elected Obama and the Democrats to make government work in ways that Bush and the Republicans didn’t. If they don’t do what the people elected them to do, the people will punish them and put the Republicans back in power.
They're already starting to do it.
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