Transforming the cultural war into votes by Jerome Armstrong Here's a sample of something that I got from a staffer at one of the targeted congressional races in the midwest: "Here's something you're going to hear from a lot of races in Bush winning districts. We were swamped with Republican turnout throughout the district...the wave was too high... In Coal Counties where mineworkers had just lost everything, including their pensions people seemed to be voting values more than pocketbook....the Republican base of non-voting Republicans seemed motivated to actually vote ... among new voters in traditional Republican areas and Evangelicals who vote seldom or sporadically vote we were hit hard... direct-mail attacking him as a carpetbagger and as a liberal, and robo-calls by the right to life PAC and the NRCC suggesting the our candidate was for partial birth abortion and gay marriage. These went unanswered by the DCCC ...People were murmuring homophobic messages as they slept. The culture war this year was not fought on the presidential level, they fought it locally and in congressional districts so that Bush could seem clean of the hate much of his party were spewing and thus no one was accountable for hate." This went unanswered. The above quote sources the thinking that has not been shamed for what it is-- prejudice. It was a direct appeal to ignorance by the NRCC. The Democratic Party is going to have to get into the cultural issues, we have to combat hate and ignorance with reality and information. For 60 years last century, the Democrats enjoyed the majority because the debate was mostly economic and about financial well-being. Over the past 30 years, Republicans have figured out that they can win on the issue of values, they have the whole field to themselves, and they are the majority because of this tactic. Republicans define the frame, the issues, and the Democratic candidate. This is the root of the problem. Until it is addressed, until the opposition to Republican candidates enjoins the voters with cultural ideas and values that combat the frame and issues of the Republican Party, we'll lose. In a non-economic sense, what are the Democratic Party's values? Without resorting to talk about health-care, wages, or economic security, what does the Democratic Party believe? Where is the progressive vision on the cultural level? I'm not pretending to know the answers, and I'm certainly not going to blog out a 10,000 word post addressing these questions. I just know that the Democratic Party's strategy has failed to take a majority in the House for 5 elections in a row now in the House, that it's working on a second decade in the minority, and until we get down to persuading the people who are going to vote on the cultural issues, that's not going to change direction. The Democratic Party has no voice on these issues. Now, there has developed, over the past 30-40 years in this country, a progressive agenda that speaks to these issues-- it's just not been made political enough at the national level. The philosophical basis of the Green Party voices these issues. It stands for something. Now, Nader's poisoned the Green Party's future here in the US, but the ideas are there for the taking. Here, read them in a new light, it's a start:

The Democratic Party isn't just another political party. Democratic politics is a new and radical kind of politics guided by these core principles; 1. Humankind depends on the diversity of the natural world for its existence. We do not believe that other species are expendable. 2. The Earth's physical resources are finite. We threaten our future if we try to live beyond those means, so we must build a sustainable society that guarantees our long-term future. 3. Every person should be entitled to basic material security as of right. 4. Our actions should take account of the well-being of other nations, other species, and future generations. We should not pursue our well-being to the detriment of theirs. 5. A healthy society is based on voluntary co-operation between empowered individuals in a democratic society, free from discrimination whether based on race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, religion, social origin or any other prejudice. 6. We emphasise democratic participation and accountability by ensuring that decisions are taken at the closest practical level to those affected by them. 7. We look for non-violent solutions to conflict situations, which take into account the interests of minorities and future generations in order to achieve lasting settlements. 8. The success of a society cannot be measured by narrow economic indicators, but should take account of factors affecting the quality of life for all people: personal freedom, social equity, health, happiness and human fulfilment. 9. Electoral politics is not the only way to achieve change in society, and we will use a variety of methods to help affect change, providing those methods do not conflict with our core principles. 10. The Democratic Party puts changes in both values and lifestyles at the heart of the radical green agenda. Traditional politics divides humans from nature and the individual from society. The rejection of this way of seeing the world is fundamental to Democratic philosophy. Rather than set them against each other, the Democratic Party seeks healthy interdependence of individual, nature and society.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2004/11/3/202011/670