Returning to Our Priorities

Happy Friday.

The other night I bumped into former Mayor Ed Koch while I was out to dinner with some friends. As he left the restaurant, so did I--in pursuit. I called out after him and he graciously turned to greet me. I explained that I always respected and admired him but that he broke my heart last year (when he supported Bush). He immediately asked if I knew his rationale. I answered that it was my understanding that he supported Bush's foreign policy even though he didn't agree with anything on the domestic agenda. He agreed. I retorted that the current administration's foreign policy was a failure. He agreed. I further commented that they were killing us on the domestic front. He agreed.

His departing words were "Ok, but Hillary in 2008."

There is hope in this. In response to last week's missive, a Happy Friday victim kindly forwarded the provocative article "Just Say No". The article analogizes the upcoming mid-term elections to those of 1994 when the obstructionist republicans gained a majority in both houses of Congress. The premise of the article is that "Democrats are [succeeding by] finally rejecting craven compromises and redefining the party in opposition to right wing Republicans."

Looking deeper, however, the article also points out that in doing so, the Dems are focusing on core domestic issues: healthcare, the economy, education, poverty, and jobs.

Getting back to Ed, while he once was willing to support Bush placing foreign policy concerns (read: the amorphous "war on terrorism") above all else, he is now returning his focus toward domestic issues. Similarly, the focus of the 2004 electorate was on foreign policy; 41 percent thought war/foreign policy/terrorism was the most important problem facing the nation, with just 26 percent choosing the economy.

In 2006, and hopefully again in 2008, the electorate will join Ed in ranking domestic issues as the priority. These issues are where the votes are, and where the Dems can lead.

Party of the People

Happy Friday.

I called an audible this morning upon reading about new polling data finding that Bush's approval rating had dropped to 42%. By comparison, Clinton's approval rating in June of the first year of his second term stood at 60%; Reagan's was 59%.

Good news? Not yet. Beyond the empirical data, a few concepts serve as a calling card to the dems--to date unanswered. First, is this telling anecdote:

Christine Weisman, a 54-year-old Republican homemaker in Reading, Pa., said in a follow-up interview, "They're not getting anything done. They don't seem to be able to come together on anything." She added, "It's all a political thing and they're forgetting the basic needs of the people."

Second, a majority of respondents cited the economy and jobs, and war and terrorism, as top concerns "[w]hen asked an open-ended question about the most important problems facing the nation." "Social Security, which has consumed an enormous amount of political energy this spring, did not make the top six, suggesting voters have a different view of political priorities than the Republican-controlled Congress and the White House."

Finally, as is too often the case these days:

Americans also recognized that Mr. Bush has a Social Security plan and the Democrats in Congress do not. A majority said they would like to see the Democrats offer a plan and not simply oppose Mr. Bush's.

I appreciate the desire to the let the current administration fall on its own sword when it comes to social security. But, in anticipation of the mid-term elections, it's time for the dems to come out of the wilderness and focus on the long standing core issue of the party: people.

With the economy and jobs back on the radar (having been surprisingly absent from the 2004 election as an issue for either the candidates or the electorate), the dems have a terrific opportunity to redirect the nation's focus toward their ideology: the economy, jobs, education, and gulp, other social issues. Ms. Weisman's comment (see above) is telling. People are not interested in the current administration's attempt to remake the globe or escape the Iraqi quagmire. Rather, they are looking for a little love back home.

The dems should give it to them, rather than just being the "party of opposition." It's time to lead again.

Lessons from the Right

Happy Friday.

We are back. Maui doesn't suck.

Many of us have wondered how "we lost" last November. Some of us have wondered how "they won". There has been some scholarship on these questions and much frustration. Sadly, I have seen few suggestions and fewer solutions.

Attached is a terrific paper entitled "Lessons from the Right" that attempts to offer both, within the environmental context. Generally, the authors' thesis is as follows:

The[ right's] success has largely resulted from their utilization of a set of ingenious institutional techniques - primarily, a strategic framing of their message coupled with the construction of a holistic metastructure for delivering it - rather than their engagement in democratic discourse over the true content of their policies. Our movement can learn something by studying the methods that have allowed the Right to become so powerful, and if we are smart, we will figure out how to apply these lessons to our own national aspirations.

The authors dissect the right's political approach into ten strategic lessons (thereafter rejecting some as inapposite to democracy and ethics.) They then offer a proposal for the utilization of these lessons by the left.

Perhaps, all hope is not lost...yet.