Thursday, August 04, 2005
Building a populist Democratic majority
Michael Lind, a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, has an excellent column at http://www.tpmcafe.com/ which explains how to build a Democratic majority in America. Lind points out that America is predominately center right on social issues and center left on economic issues. While the Democratic Party has pursued upscale voters that are socially liberal and economically conservative, a large number of working and middle class populist voters have been lost to the Republican Party.Lind writes: "The United States has a right-of-center majority with respect to social issues and a a left-of-center majority with respect to economic issues. The stability of this popular consensus recently has been illustrated by the nearly simultaneous popular rejection of gay marriage and Social Security privatization. Social liberals are too far to the left of most Americans on social issues; economic conservatives are too far to the right of most Americans on economic issues."To paint a clear picture of the working and middle class voters that could be reclaimed by the Democratic Party, Lind goes on to define what he means by socially conservative and economic populists. "By liberal and conservative I mean center-left and center-right, not far-left and far-right. An economic liberal supports welfare-state capitalism, not far-left democratic socialism. A social conservative is a moderate traditionalist with qualms about abortion and gay marriage, not a far-right Christian fundamentalist who thinks that Satan controls the UN and that every unimplanted embryo is a child."The full article is available at http://tinyurl.com/cs4wm
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3 comments:
Your comments on Daily Kos are EXTREMELY refreshing! Alas, a Democrat who agrees with me about our politcal strategy. I live in Oklahoma, the heart of red America, and I your conclusion in the "UK: Centrists vs "The Base" Tory Style" entry in Daily Kos today are dead on.
Although I am progressive on just about every social issue, I understand that these stances do not resonate with ordinary Americans. Furthermore, I feel that socio-economic issues such as trade policy, public education, healthcare (an issue thats not getting enough attention from either side), and last but not least, the war on poverty.
Here in Oklahoma, one of Bush's most reliable states in the past wo presidential elections, we elected a Democratic governor only two years ago. Not only did Brad Henry get elected governor, he beat Steve Largent, a hall of fame wide receviver whose regarded as a deity in this state. As a common-sensical person like you would probably expect, Henry ran on a populist platform with an emphasis on improving public education. (At the time, teacher pay in Okahoma was abbysmal, something like 49th in the country).
Henry's performance as governor has been stellar. Since innaguration, he has gotten through just about every initiative he promised during his campaign. These results have translated into popularity. A recent poll suggests that Henry has a 72% approval rating, putting him in great shape for his re-election bid.
Henry is not the only populist oreiented Democrat winning in the midwest. Ken Salazar, awho put little emphasis on emotional social issues such as abortion and gay rights beat an oppenent who drasitcally outspent him.
The list of these types of Democrats goes on and on. If Democrats want to win at the national level, we need to see change in our politcal strategy. Nominating Howard Dean chariman is not a good first step. Right now, I am feeling awfully pessimistic about the direction of my party. I long for the days of Sam Raburn, Ralph Yarbourough, Estes Kefauver, and even LBJ to a certain extent. RIght now, however, I can only look back at the past.
Anyways, I'm sorry my comment had no relevance to your post. I just registered for a Daily Kos account and I look forward to seeing you on there sometime. Good day!
Thanks for your comments. I'm glad to know that Brad Henry is going well in Oklahoma. It is good to hear from an "old school" Democrat. Unfortunately, a lot of my favorite political leaders are retired or dead. I do like Senator Roberty Byrd and our Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid. We have some promising new Democratic leaders like your Governor Henry, but I think that there is a deficit in strong statesmen like leadership in both parties today.
I miss leaders like Senators Sam Nunn of Georgia, Fritz Hollings of South Carolina , Scoop Jackson of Washington, Pat Moynihan of New York , Jim Allen of Alabama and Governors like Reubin Askew of Florida and Terry Sanford of North Carolina.
Yes, I had some concerns about Howard Dean as DNC Chair. I hope that he will do a good job but do have a feeling that his supporters will move the party further to the left. Of course, that will make our challenge in Red America even more difficult.
I am socially conservative and economically liberal. To hear the media you'd think people like us didn't exist.
How do you guys think we can begin to elect more politicians and have an effect on policy at the national level?
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