Democrats remain stuck in the mode of reacting to the message of the day, instead of planning ahead to create a larger, compelling national narrative - and developing the means to get that storyline consistently to the voters.
'Perfect' Candidates
Lacking the national media apparatus of the Republicans and fearful of the attack politics mastered by GOP operatives over three decades, Democrats have sought again and again to find "electable" candidates who are supposed to be immune from negative assaults.
And, according to the New York Times, Democrats are slipping again into this pattern in 2006 with Democratic candidates across the country "reading from a stack of different scripts." These candidates, according to the Times, observe that "the party is far from settling on an overarching theme that will work" nationwide. [NYT, March 6, 2006]
While many political strategists defend this approach with the old cliche' that all politics is local, this strategy carries a heavy burden. Forced to fend for themselves often in hostile terrain, many Democratic candidates end up on the defensive.
In the end, after all the triangulating and finessing, Democrats come across as a party that doesn't know what it stands for or doesn't dare talk straight with the American people.
For instance, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that while 65 percent of Americans think Bush lacks a clear plan for handling the Iraq War, 70 percent made that judgment about Democrats. [Washington Post, March 7, 2006]
With Democrats showing confusion and indecision, Republicans have been free to craft an unflattering national narrative about the Democrats - that they are elitist Volvo-driving liberal snobs who look down on ordinary working families; they are weak on defense and disinterested in the security of the American people; they are obstructionists with no answers, only negativity.
Until Democrats figure out a national message that will counter this ugly caricature - and develop a viable media apparatus to deliver it - they can't expect to win another national election, short of a complete Republican meltdown.
Left's Blogosphere
Sensing the opportunity and feeling the frustration, online Democratic activists in the liberal blogosphere are challenging Party leaders from coast to coast.
Many online Democratic activists, for instance, slammed efforts of Democratic leaders to pressure Ohio's Paul Hackett, an Iraq War veteran who strongly opposes the war, out of the Ohio Democratic Senate primary. Hackett's departure clears the field for Rep. Sherrod Brown, a seven-term congressman and the preferred candidate of inside-the-Beltway Democrats.
It's not that Rep. Brown is unappealing to the Democratic base. In fact, Brown has a solid progressive record fighting for workers' rights and social justice. He even wears a lapel pin with a yellow canary in a cage instead of the standard Congressional pin to remind him of the struggles workers have endured to win better safety standards.
But Hackett had won the hearts of many activists by running a no-nonsense, tough-talking campaign for the open seat in Ohio's 2nd District - solid Republican territory where Hackett nearly won last year in a special election.
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