Regarding the attempts of some commentators to spin the results of the recent election as a victory for conservative Democrats and conservative thought, Thomas Schaller respectfully disagrees:
Conservative talking heads usually rush to paint Democrats as a pack of tin-eared, out-of-the-mainstream liberals. That's why it's so surprising that some of these same voices are now cherry-picking the results in an effort to perpetuate the fiction that Republicans lost, but conservatives somehow won. It suggests that this year's defeat so stunned the conservative movement, it lost its messaging mojo, too.
For liberal Democrats, that may be the biggest victory of all.
However, George Lakoff sounds a cautionary note:
Right now, though, no language articulating a Democratic vision seems in the offing. If the Democrats don't find a more assertive strategy, their gains will be short-lived. They, too, will learn the pitfalls of staying the course.
I've been thinking of thematic phrases progressives could use to give some coherence to their various ideas. Here's an idea: The American Community.
The word "community" activates (I hope) the frame that most people have of a supportive, nuturing environment, a kind of large extended family. "American" is there to press the patriotism button, but more significantly to suggest that despite our rugged individualism mythology, our greatest accomplishments have been communal.
It goes something like this:
The American Community takes care of its own. It provides fair, affordable and equitable access to health care. It pays people a wage they can live on. The American Community defends itself against the forces that would destroy it, be they terrorists or monopolists, rogue nations or rogue industries.
The American Community is not a nanny state; it permits failure and insists that people be held accountable for bad decisions and bad actions. However, neither is it a punitive state. It does not seek to punish couples wh0 fail to use birth control by compelling them to become parents. It offers tolerance and support, not license and amnesty.
I will be playing with this idea here over the next few weeks. Comments and ideas are always welcome.
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