Where We Go From Here
In the past few days there has been a great deal of talk and much has been written about what the Democratic party should do to rebound from the election loss.
It has become fashionable for the pundits to cite a post-election poll, which according to them, shows that one voter in five said moral values was the most important issue, and that eight out of ten of those voters supported Mr. Bush.
Not surprisingly, there has been a great deal of knee jerk reaction to this data. Bush supporters have insisted that this data shows that the “Liberal Elite” is out of touch with the majority. At the same time, some Democrats have suggested that certain issues should be abandoned from the Democratic platform, while other Democrats are calling for a need to close the cultural gap by further blurring the differences between themselves and Republicans.
It doesn’t shock me that Bush supporters would cite moral values as a key issue. Not because red states have a higher degree of moral values than do blue states, but rather because it became clear that Bush supporters could not rest their hat on a single domestic or foreign policy accomplishment of the Bush administration. Moral values is the one issue that is vague enough where no raw data is required in an argument to support Mr. Bush.
During the election, a lot of attention was given to the Anti-Bush voters. These were individuals that would have supported a potted plant against Mr. Bush. A lesser known and obviously more motivated group were the Pro-Bush voters, those individuals which cared less about Bush success and failures, and more about his reelection.
In an election where an overwhelming majority of voters had long decided on their candidate, it mattered little what one candidate did or said during the campaign; minds had already been made up. In the end, the reds were more motivated to get to the polls than were the blues. It’s important for Democrats to examine why this is and to seek the lessons that can be learned from this defeat, but changing the platform is not the answer.
Abandoning the core issues of the party is not only wrong, but it is wrong-headed. Republicans would like nothing more than to see the Democratic party morph into Republican-Lite. It wasn’t that long ago when Republicans were citing similar moral values as their justification for opposing Equal Rights. And it wasn’t too long ago when Republicans pointed to the Liberal Elite as being out of touch with the majority when Democrats were marching in the streets for Civil Rights.
It is essential that Democrats stick with their platform and remain loyal to their base. Adopting like-minded intolerance into the party will not win the hearts of more voters, instead it will do the opposite.
If Democrats are to rebound, the leadership of the party needs to hold strong to the platform and not allow themselves to be intimidated into compromising the core issues that brought them into the party. It is also crucial for the Democratic leadership to continually stoke the fire of the party to maintain interest in the issues while expanding and mobilizing the base. Mr. Bush has made it quite clear that more of the same is on the way. Because of this, it is essential that Democrats follow events closely and continue to educate themselves on the issues.