The Democrats: Freedom and Opportunity

One weakness the Democrats have right now is what one might pretentiously call the meta-message. Republicans stand for lower taxes and moral values. Period. Can anyone say as simply what Democrats stand for? It's hard to do, I think, without, like Kerry, resorting to a list (health care, progressive taxation, affirmative action, civil liberties).

So here's one attempt to boil the two parties down to their respective essences. In short, the Democrats are the party of freedom and opportunity. (I know that sounds like a meaningless platitude, but trust me, I mean something specific.) It's a message that can have real content and at the same time rise above Us vs. Them and identity politics.

See what I mean below.

The Republicans want to get government out of the market (supposedly) and into the culture (with censorship, NCLB, abortion laws, restrictions on same-sex marriage).

Democrats want to get government out of our culture (more or less) and into the market (to a degree). They want people to live their lives freely, making their own choices, and they want the government to give people the opportunity to do so.

If you put marriage rights, free speech, legal abortion and de-centralized education under the rubric of "freedom," which suggests less government involvement rather than more, I think you make a significant stride in the rhetorical battle. It also provides a better way of talking about church and state: churches are better off without government interference (why else would the US be so much more religious than Europe, which has a long history of government involvement in religion?).

The idea is to get government out of our lives, and let people make their own decisions, with the equal opportunity to do so.

Which brings us to "opportunity," which, I think, provides a better way of talking about government assistance than, for instance, "helping the poor." Many Americans believe 1) that churches and individuals can do that better, and/or 2) the poor need to help themselves. That kind of New Testament language also implies Jesus's comment that the poor are always with us, which is not a message a politician should send.

Now, this must be done astutely, otherwise the message will be attacked as decadence (in the culture) and socialism (in government assistance). But done well, it might provide the kind of meta-message that will make people associate the Democrats with something other than a list of agenda items tending toward the mushy middle. It's also a message everyone can rally around-- it's not Us vs. Them, it's not identity politics.

The Democrats: Party of Freedom and Opportunity.

•  Excellent Idea

  I appreciate that this is a good step in the right direction, and I think most everybody around here can agree that the Democrats have a horrendous disadvantage in the political rhetoric of this country.  The Republicans have done a good job of distilling their rhetoric, communicating it broadly and specifically targeting their base, and keeping those in their party strictly on message.  IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE DO THE SAME.

  by prairiedog on Mon Nov 08, 2004 at 12:29:23 PM PDT

•  great way to put it

  thanks

  by Katydid on Tue Nov 09, 2004 at 11:23:49 AM PDT