Obama et al: serve up the raw meat while taking the high road, too

Obama is somewhat stuck between the need of Democrats for raw meat and his long-term strategy of attacking excessive partisanship. Anyone who does not think most ordinary Democrats want to see today’s Republicans thoroughly discredited and destroyed is naïve. It is not just a few on the “left” who believe Bush and Cheney and their followers have been a true scourge that for the good of country and the world, not political partisanship as such, must be pulled out from the roots.

Democrats in the primary will be voting mainly on who will be the most effective at taking the Republicans down. Namby-pambyisms and lukewarm split-the-difference approaches are not what they want to see. Nevertheless, the “above-the-fray” strategy is a good one for the long haul because it appeals to a broad swath of the public, including even many of those aforesaid liberal Democrats who want to see today’s Republicans discredited and destroyed. Obama is an idealist in this sense, and a brilliant wordsmith. I think he truly believes that he can find the words and the right tone that will unite all but the most recalcitrant Republicans around concepts that are essentially liberal ones. I am enough of an idealist to think he’s right, even if it won’t be easy.

The question is, can he do both – serve up the raw meat for the primaries, while preparing with the same material for broadening his appeal in the general election? The answer is, yes, by truthfully and patiently explaining to Americans that the reason for all the rancor and nastiness in politics today is that the Republican Party has been taken over by extreme right-wing ideology. They have been controlling the Republican Party for 20 years, and the country since 2000, and they have done a lot of damage. If we are going to turn this ship around to a positive direction, we need the extreme right wing ideology outa here.

Right now, Obama is relying for support in the primaries on his record of solid liberal votes and policy positions – votes and positions which we know, by the way, are favored by the overwhelming majority of the American people and which by definition, therefore, are as solidly centrist as they are historically liberal. Most Americans don’t want to tinker with privatizing Social Security, in whole or in part. Most Americans want to know that from now on, whether they have a job or have lost one, or might lose one, they will at least be insured against complete financial disaster from an unexpected health problem. Most Americans think Medicare is a good idea, whether you want to call it “socialism” or not. Most Americans think it was wrong and stupid to invade and try to occupy a distant country based on phonied-up intelligence and lies to the public, and are beginning to understand that the war really had nothing to do with battling terrorism. Most Americans think we need to cooperate with other countries in a common battle with terrorism, not engage in unilateral preemptive warfare and incur the wrath of most people in the world. Most Americans don’t like the idea that the United States may be torturing prisoners, and want America to stand for something good and honorable. Most Americans are appalled and ashamed by what happened at Abu Graib, even if they tend to forgive the soldiers who were stuck in the situation with terrible direction. Most Americans want a Federal agency that is competent and can actually help in a natural disaster. Most Americans are concerned with the growing income and wealth gaps, with the fact that all the gains of recent economic growth are being grabbed up by the wealthiest Americans, with an economy that, even as Bush and his media allies claim it is soaring, seems to create more jobs in India and China than in this country, and with companies are finding it necessary to cut out pensions and reduce health insurance benefits. Most Americans are concerned about getting a handle on what we can do about global warming. Most Americans believe public policy should be based on genuine science, not vice versa.

These could be called liberal concerns, but they are what most Americans are concerned about, too. So liberal or not, whether the national press will say so or not, they are centrist. Americans have seen what governance by today’s Republican Party means, and they are, to say the least, not impressed. So there is, indeed, plenty to be gained from that record of votes and simply presenting the positions they represent. But that is also the same way Democrats have been doing it in recent elections -- and losing. There is more to be gained by being intelligently confrontational. This means honestly putting in front of the American people the true historical perspective about the difference between Democrats and today’s Republicans, even while pledging to restore civility in our public discourse. “The unfortunate truth,” Obama might say,

“is that it was the extreme right wing of the Republican Party that dreamed up using Newt Gingrich’s nasty words like “traitor” and “treasonous” as a way to attack Democrats; that found a way in the President’s private weaknesses to subject the Clinton administration to a relentless assault that would distract the country from the many actual successes of that administration; that has followed the Karl Rove strategy of accusing anyone who disagrees with the policies of this Administration of being “with the terrorists,” and trying to undermine the integrity of the Justice Department by firing U.S. Attorneys who were too honest to simply advance the interests of the Republican Party. It is an objective fact beyond serious dispute that most of the rancor and excessive partisanship in our politics and government comes from the takeover of the Republican Party by extreme right wing ideologues. The strategy of Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and their predecessors has been to divide the country by attacking Democrats and inspiring fear. If we want a better tone in our politics, if we want to see the return of civility, you must put the right wing ideologues out of office. Only then will the Republican Party be able to re-make itself into the party of Lincoln, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, the party of Dwight Eisenhower.

Make no mistake about it, even if the Republicans ever re-capture what they once were, I will still be a Democrat. I believe the Democratic Party will always be the party for the people more than the party just for the extremely wealthy. I believe the Republicans will always be more concerned with what their wealthy constituents want than what ordinary Americans need. But whether you have long shared that belief or not, there is one thing we all should agree on. We must go back to decency and civility if we are going to move this country in the right direction. . . .”

The focus of confrontation, therefore, is not on the Republican Party as a whole – many of whom we want to turn into Democrats or at least genuine independents -- but by the right-wing extremists who have taken control of that party and turned up the level of nastiness. You can see it in the hate speech of their media heroes like Anne Coulter, Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh. (“The cheers she got at a Republican gathering when she called one of our candidates a ‘faggot’.”) Real independents, weak Democrats and traditional moderate Republicans will recognize the essential truth in that. I might add, too, that while this is focused on Obama because he has more clearly adopted this high-road strategy going into the campaign, I would hope to see Clinton and Edwards shade in basically the same direction. They all have some things I’m not crazy about, but I am nevertheless full-tilt in “may the best man win” mode. I like them all one hell of a lot better than any Republican, and only hope the primary voters leave the Democrats in the best possible position to restore decency in government in 2008. This is a message strategy – we must get the extreme right wing out of control of our government -- that can work for any Democrat. It gives Democrats the take-down points they need next winter and spring, while also laying genuine, defensible groundwork for broader appeal in November. The Republican candidates will supply plenty of ammunition for making it more and more plausible through 2008.