"Jokes"

I made the mistake of reading the readers' responses to Josh Marshall's takedown of the latest "Too Old to Even Be CW" article on what Dems "should do" in the New Yorker. Basically the same old "bi-coastal Dems don't respect us enough and that's why we elect the Delays, Coburns, Roberts, Inhofes, and Klines." It's because the Dems nominate "jokes" like Dukakis and Kerry who lose by 4% and 2% nationally and kill the state tickets, which would otherwise be perfect. Nothing else in those states could possibly be at fault.

Please.

It's the same old crap Brad Carson whined about when he couldn't beat a cork-headed moron like Coburn. I spent about 45 years in either Oklahoma or Missouri (where one particularly ridiculous responder wrote in from). Does having a Dukakis or Kerry at the head of the ticket make any more difference in those states than a Clinton or Gore (neither of whom did much better nationally than Dukakis or Kerry)? It's big talk but it really doesn't explain much of why those states elect lunatics. It's just better than accepting the old saying, "If you think those elected officials are bad, you should see their constituents."

Carson lost in 2004 because he didn't foresee a last-week blitz of lies and misleading ads run by his Republican opponent that took a race he was going to lose anyway (HELLO??? IT'S OKLAHOMA!!!) and turned it into a runaway. Don't give me, "well, Dems like Brad Henry get elected." Henry got elected because the Repub, Steve Largent, had already become imperial before his coronation and A LOONITARIAN THIRD-PARTY GUY PULLED OFF HIS VOTES. (Polls afterward claimed the third party guys would have voted for Henry, supposedly, like 73% of Americans claimed to have voted for JFK after his assassination.) People, Oklahomans are going to elect Tom Coburns and Jim Inhofes because that's who they are and, if you want to win their votes, either become them or split their vote in two. If Henry wins reelection (and it's still an IF even with high popularity ratings), it will be because Oklahoma's economy is rolling in energy money again right now and because his opponent will be a Mormon.

One of Marshall's responders blasted Dems for killing the state candidates in LA and MO with their "joke" presidential candidates. I can't speak for LA, but I hear their elections are world famous for rationality and wholesomeness that Dukakis and Kerry were "jokes" to. I can speak to MO, though. The Dems have had a series of corrupt and/or incompetent governors there for decades, so you can imagine the legislature in those years, especially when the Dems dominated. The last Dem governor was practically run out of the state. But, no, Dem failure there is because of those liberal, bicoastal values, not because MO has become a state whose SW quandrant is a fundamentalist Utah and who elected John Ashcroft over and over and over until a ghost who couldn't be attacked in the "values"-laden Republican way ran against him.

Give it up. Dems lose in those states mainly because the voters there are people whose right-wing, undemocratic values, as exemplified by Texas, are ruining this country and its Legacy as we speak. The Dems need to frame their appeals to shared American values of the American Dream for Every American, of the American Legacy of opportunity, freedom, and democratic principles. Tone down the abortion or guns or gays or whatever? No, but incorporate them into the overarching theme. It's not that hard. You could come up with the bumper stickers yourself. "It's not the abortion, it's the sex, and there's DNA testing now, frat boys." "City dwellers need to understand the hunting culture, but rural dwellers need to understand why city dwellers don't like having their money taken by guys waving handguns in their faces." "This country has never prospered when it's discriminated." Win over the right-wing diehards? No, but YOU DON'T WANT TO BE BEHOLDEN TO THEIR VOTES.

Just stop backpedaling and downplaying, the way Brad Carson did. Stand up straight, chest out, and call these fools fools. Every Dem in a red state should start their campaign ad blitz with a commercial of recognizable Repubs answering questions about every important issue facing the city, state, nation "liberal, liberal, liberal." "What should we do about the economy?" "Liberal, liberal, liberal." "What can we do about global warming?" "Liberal, liberal, liberal." Or "cut taxes." "What can save our roads?" "Cut taxes." "What can we do about our children's educations?" "Cut taxes." Ridicule them into the damn ground for their predictable chanting. These guys have been running the same game plan for decades now, fear and greed, bogeymen of liberals and taxes, and the Dems like Carson and Kerry still get caught off guard. It's like defenses had never adjusted to the Wishbone, or the Single Wing.

Plan for the attacks you know are coming. You even know what they will be, and take the offensive when they do. I mentioned Harkin and Schweitzer in an earlier post on this, but the news lately has shown Gore doing it at its best, calling Bushnev and his Busheviks out for being "a renegade band of rightwing extremists." When told that critics of his movie have said global warming is a hoax, he compared them to people who believed the moon landing took place in Arizona. (It took place in the north Texas panhandle where no earthly thing lives.) That's exactly right. Call them out and give no ground. Get Hamsher or Digby or Billmon to write your speeches. (I'd add Roger Ailes, the good one, or Bill from Portland Maine, but people would be laughing too hard to hear everything.)

Just stop playing the entire game on the defensive and being stupid about what they're going to do. And, above all, DO NOT USE THEIR PLAYBOOK. It's THEIR PLAYBOOK. They know the plays and run them better. You can never outRepublican a Republican, and democracy suffers when all voters have is a choice between A and a. Gore has a clue, and Feingold apparently is getting there. Maybe Clark. Not definitely not Warner or Clinton II or the Sunday morning talkshowDems.

Oh, wait. One of Marshall's brilliant responders said Kansas governor Sebelius, another one who only wins when the Repubs split (and some become right-wing Dems), will be on the ticket before Feingold would make it. We've seen Kansas and Pat Roberts. God help us all.