Our nation seems to be gearing up for the 2004 elections… more than a year in advance. At first glance you’d think that the Republicans couldn’t win. Here’s a party that represents rich people, corporate executives who loot from average Americans’ mutual funds, and Enron. A party that can take credit for focussing on the welfare of people in Iraq while Americans are losing their jobs. You’d expect George W. to get votes from Jack Welch, Kenneth Lay, William T. Esrey, and a few other rich guys. But why would another 49 million Americans vote for the Republicans?
Basically the Democrats are the party of mediocrity. Schools are in bad shape, sure, but maybe if we pay the existing bureaucrats and teachers more money we could achieve a 2 or 3 percent improvement. Not this year but maybe in five years we’ll see results. Government services are shoddy and sluggish but perhaps if we raise taxes by 20 percent they can be improved slightly. We have to come to terms with the fact that we’ve sucked most of the North American continent dry of oil. Troublesome foreign dictators and rioting mobs can be appeased for a few years if we look the other way while they build more advanced rockets and nuclear bombs.
This could explain why Democrats are popular with very well educated people, such as college teachers. When you’ve got a PhD and think that the average person is frighteningly stupid you don’t dare hope for anything better than mediocrity from a government that is inevitably operated by citizens of average intelligence and education.
The Republicans by contrast are the party of grand aspirations. Inner city children will be able to choose from a range of high quality schools, all competing with each other. Taxes will be low and economic growth will be strong. We’ll get back to a pre-WWII state of oil independence if only we start drilling in obscure wilderness corners of Alaska. Restive Muslims worldwide will be awed by American military power into abandoning their dreams.
The Republican goals may be unrealistic but they are inspiring, just like the goal of winning the Lottery. And apparently equally popular…
Communism had pretty inspiring goals too, in it’s day.
I think even many Republicans are aware of the transparency of the tactic Phil points out: wow ’em with vision, inspire ’em with big simple ideas, and get the votes. I do think most people are frighteningly stupid; I think Democrats believe that obviously, while Republicans have mastered believing it secretly, while putting on a good ol’ boy mask.
Brilliant summation. It says it all.
Um, sort of on the mark – agree that the Republican goals are “unrealistic…but inspiring, like the goal of winning the lottery” – but I reject the assertion of Democratic “mediocrity” – it may be the result of successful conservative PR blitzes. Democrat campaign promises can be just as dreamy and devoid of reality. But I offer these reasons on how Republicans are still winning legislative seats & presidency office:
* Democrats are indeed the more “truth telling” party. That hurts because Americans want to be lied to. I give the 1984 campaign as a prime example. Mondale was crucified for suggesting that taxes might need to be raised. Reagan, running on a staunch “cut taxes” platform, actually oversaw one of the largest tax increases in history for the average American. The phase out of the personal interest deduction and the significant increase in FICA tax (it went up nearly 3 points from 81-89) meant that the tax burden (measured on percentage basis) went up for the typical worker, while those resting on top of the economic pyramid profited immensely.
* Republican PR blitzes have wildly successful in painting conservatives as (a) law and order party, (b) party better suited for national security and (c) better stewards of the economy. The consequences of (a) have been devastating – as most Democrats become timid to oppose constitutional assaults as a result of the “war on drugs”. Whether or not Republicans are better for national security is debatable, but the historical evidence that Democrat control is much better for the economy (stock market, GDP, inflation, unemployment) is quite convincing.
* Recent redistricting has given Republicans a decided advantage in elections. Here in Arizona is a prime example – the congressional districts are drawn in a peculiar fashion, and even at the preference of short sighted Democrats, who consolidated their base into a small number of guaranteed minority population clusters. This underreported phenomenon has had drastic consequences – it’s forced a big wedge into their appeal to many working Americans who traditionally support Democrat candidates but now see the Democrats as catering to special interest groups like pro-immigration organizations or heeding minorities but not caring for the plight of the average American worker.
The Democratic party WAS always the party of grand aspirations: by drinking from the public font we can make all the kids smart and all the people compassionate. LBJ had the temerity to call his plan the “Great Society”, for chrissakes; how much more “grand aspiration” do you have to get???
And yes, it turns out that the kids are to be educated by glorifed, unionized civil servants and that “compassion” is a non-descript treasury check. Those aspirations simply got less and less grand and more and more expensive until it was obvious that it was just what Philip describes.
And at that point, the Republicans bought into it: thus this year’s work, to do to prescription drugs what Medicare has done to medicine. Gee this should work pretty well eh?
Thus we need a political reformation to re-define “left” and “right”, labels that no longer work. I would really enjoy it if the Ds reformed along civil rights/constitutional rights lines, and converted people like Bob Barr, but it will be a painful process of change.
I had been struggling with this issue since the last election. Masterful.
I agree. You’ve basically summed it up. I would add that the Democrats are basically telling the truth and the Republicans are basically lying, and that’s why one can sound great and the other sounds mediocre.
“Most people with nothing would rather protect the possibility of being rich than face the stark reality of
being poor. And that’s why they will follow us … to the right, ever to the right, never to the left, forever to the
right.”
1776 DVD, restored Cool, Considerate Men scene. Brilliant.
I would add that the Democrats are basically telling the truth and the Republicans are basically lying
I can buy into this except for the part where the Democrats are basically telling the truth.
Actually, the Republicans longer bother with getting their officials voted into office – they simply steal the elections now. Witness brother Jeb and the Supreme court rigging the 2000 election for Dubya, and Ahhnold walking into the California Governor’s mansion with just 10% of the vote. I’m sure the Republican party will be big supporters of “secure” touch-screen electronic voting…
I tell you, if the stupid Democrats would only lay off the gun thing they would get some of their true blue southern good ole boys back voting Democrat (as the vast majority of them used to). They only need to swing 1% of the vote and that would do it.
I think Naum speaks the truth here. Before declaring what each party states, we must first consider the impact of the media and the messages getting out. In the past twenty years, media has consolidated around right wing interests and liberals have been villified.
hack’s comment reminds me of an observation that a friend from the former Eastern bloc said when he came for a visit here last year: that our contemporary media resembles that of the Soviet Union before glasnost: the powers that be only let us hear the views and perspectives that they want us to hear.
“You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.” Abraham Lincoln
You’re such a romantic, Philip! My take: most Americans understand only too well what is going on and their powerlessness to effect any change, hence low voter turnout. Last time around we had a choice (?) between Al Gore and G W. Think about that for a minute. Most people are not so stupid. Look to what mass culture is producing lately, it’s pretty jaded. They know the score.
The Republican goals may be unrealistic but they are inspiring, just like the goal of winning the Lottery. And apparently equally popular…
— Phil G.
Not to mention equally likely…
Though it’s not realistic to think so, very many people think that one day they will be rich. This is perhaps why the “aspirational” politics of Republicans is so popular.
A David Brooks article in the NYTimes, “The Triumph of Hope over Self-Interest,” describes a Time Magazine survey that found 19 percent of the population thought they were in the richest 1 percent, and another 20 percent thought they would be someday. He adds: “So right away you have 39 percent of Americans who thought that when Mr. Gore savaged a plan that favored the top 1 percent, he was taking a direct shot at them.”
“None of us is really poor; we’re just pre-rich.”
Not sure how to link to the story; does this work?
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/opinion/12BROO.html?ex=1063655937&ei=1&en=ca96e258b282596e
Criminy, if the Green Party laid off the gun issue, they’d become a lot more attractive to voters, especially with their anti-corporate agenda.
Just a thought.
I don’t understand why anyone would think that Americans are stupid. This is the big problem with politicians. They get to Washington or a state legislature and instantly feel they have to manage the lives of citizens who are obviously too stupid to care for themselves.
This country existed, thrived, and grew long before there were social programs eating up trillions of dollars a year. Long before the Code of Federal Regulations became so large that no one could even wrap their mind around it.
America has done some decent things. Developed aviation, put a man on the moon, developed computer technology, the internet, medical advances, raised the crops that feed not only the U.S. but millions of other people around the world. And so on.
Were these things done by politicians? I would have to say no. None of them were. They were done, and are continuing to be done, by ordinary Americans. The same “idiots” who are too stupid to vote and cannot possibly be able to care for themselves without the government’s help.
The only conclusion I can draw is that the average American is not stupid. Yes, there will always be those who are prime eating for Jay Leno’s “Jay Walking” segments. But that does not represent the average citizen.
–Ron
Ron Rapp: Who funds NASA? Who funded the original Internet (hint: The military), crop technologies (as well as subsidizing further research), funded directly and indirectly most important medical research, etc.? Give up? It was the FUCKING GOVERNMENT, run by Politicans. Have you ever thought of researching the “information” you cite? At the very least, you could have used some different examples. When can we expect to see you on “Jay Walking”?
Bush and the Greedy Old Party seem to have embraced and perfected Josef Goebbels’ Nazi-era technique of the “Big Lie.” They endlessly repeat lies about policies specifically designed to benefit and repay corporate donors being good for 300 million ordinary Americans. Evidently, enough of those people believe the lies and vote Republican.
The obvious Big Lies are the ones spouted by Bush and the high-ranking members of his administration. The teevee is full of neat little sound bites showing the Commander-in-Chief pontificating. In between commercials on the nightly network news are 30-second bits about tax cuts that will create millions of jobs, the “clear skies” program to let industrial donors spew out more air pollution, “healthy forests” plan to let timber industry donors loot the national forests, and so on. And let’s not forget the War in Iraq, which was necessary to rescue all Americans from the imminent threat of Saddam’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (and, coincidentally, to ensure the guaranteed transfer of billions of taxpayer dollars to the coffers of Halliburton and Bechtel).
The more insidious Big Lies are those repeated by a loyal coterie of conservative “talk radio” propagandists. Not only do they dutifully parrot the administration’s Big Lies, but they incessantly rally the patriotic masses against “evil liberals” who are the enemy of not only the Bush administration but of all Americans. “Excessive regulation” by “Big Government” threatens Growth, Success, and Jobs (not to mention the ability of corporations to realize their greed). “Tax and spend liberals” steal money from the pockets of hard-working taxpayers and give it to welfare moochers. Even worse, “Big Government Health Care” will raise taxes and demolish the excellent care that altruistic for-profit insurance companies and HMOs now provide. There is also the implied message that giving the Wealthy a free hand (and handouts) will somehow help ordinary people realize their dreams of becoming Wealthy. And, of course, they insist that it is inappropriate and “unpatriotic” to utter any criticism of Bush, the administration, or the Republican Party in this perilous Time of War.
With all those resources devoted to spreading the Big Lie and to vilifying those who question it as “unpatriotic” or “un-American,” it’s no surprise that the Republicans set the agenda, control the debate, and successfully marginalize Democrats. It is thus not surprising that millions of Americans believe the all-pervasive Big Lie and vote Republican. The Democrats have an almost impossible task of getting a word in edgewise (to the extent that they have any words left) between all the repetitions of Big Lies.
Ron Rapp,
Keep in mind, too, that this blissful utopia where Americans got along without stupid gubament to protect them NEVER EXISTED. The government gave pioneers the land they used to get started. The government fought wars of defense on conquest to acquire the lands we have today. And, until the government protected workers from unrestricted free traders, workers were treated no better than slaves.
As Tom Solomon alludes, you might want to actually *study* history before commenting on it.
Democrats have better public policy for the common good, while Republicans have better public policy for people are Republican i.e. Rich White Guys.
The problem is everyone in our country is so caught up in capitalism they think that one day they too will be the Rich White Guy overlooking the fact that they used at least a dozen government programs to become the Rich White Guy.
I met an independent contract truck driver once who complained about big government stepping on him. The irony of course is that big government built the millions of miles of interstate highway that allows this guy to earn a living. Go figure.