Supplementary > November 18, 2004

What strategy should the Democrats pursue?

By Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

After the 2004 elections, Republicans are in charge of the White House, the Congress and the Supreme Court. Democrats are left running the Democratic National Committee. What happened?

Democrats and their 527 organizations were very proud of the large numbers of new voters they registered and the get-out-the-vote operation they put in place for Election Day—and they did do a good job. But it wasn’t as good as the quiet operation Republicans had. On a state-by-state basis, Bush increased his percentage of the vote over Kerry (versus Gore in 2000) by 2 percent or more in 31 states. By contrast, Kerry decreased (versus Gore in 2000) his percentage of the vote in 24 states.

Bush and the Republicans took their basic message of lower taxes, less government and a strong defense and attacked Kerry with it. Then they called his healthcare proposal a “government-run plan,” attacked him on the issue Democrats projected would be his greatest strength—being a decorated soldier who served in Vietnam—and finally, and most devastatingly, pushed the line that Kerry would “do or say anything to be elected president.”

Bush, meanwhile, presented himself as a strong and consistent leader, regularly saying “even if you disagree with me you know where I stand.” He made the election about fear, terrorism and “moral values.”

How did Democrats end up as the party against God, guns, America and life itself?

Between elections Republicans made Democrats vote—that is, put them on record—for or against a series of constitutional amendments: to keep the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance; to display the Ten Commandments on public buildings; and to put prayer in public schools.

What rights and amendments did Democrats fight for, or try to get Republicans on the record for or against? Unfortunately, the answer is none.

I think Democrats should pursue a long-term human rights and constitutional amendments strategy. I’ve proposed that Democrats fight to put an individual right to vote in the Constitution (H.J. Res. 28). (That’s right, you don’t have a citizenship right to vote.) Americans believe education is important and that every student should have a public education of equally high quality. We should put that belief in the Constitution as a new American right (H.J. Res. 29). Kerry said every American had a right to health care. Let’s make his belief concrete by putting it in the Constitution (H.J. Res. 30).

The American people are looking for Republicans and Democrats to work together. Human rights and constitutional amendments allow that. They are nonpartisan, non-ideological, non-programmatic and non-special interest. They’re for all Americans. And a Democratic agenda promoting new rights for all Americans is the best way to jump-start our party.

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• Reader Comments

  The Democrats should just give up. If they couldn’t win in 2004, they will never win, because the Republicans now have a lock on absolutely every political and judicial instrument in the country. The election of 2008 is going to be even more of a scandal that those of 2000 and 2004 and once again the Dems are going to do SFA about it.
  After 2004, the Dems are just a foil for the Repugs. As long as they are around, pretending to be a political party, the GOP will be able to say that the US is a democracy. But an important feature of a democracy is an opposition party that actually opposes and actually wants to take power. The Dems ceased to be that in 2000, if not before.

  Posted by James Paterson on Nov 18, 2004 at 11:29 PM

  As I have posted in comment to other articles in this series, political strategy is meaningless unless we can trust that the results of our elections are demonstrably honest and reliable. Before we second guess the recent campaign and debate what combination of policy and pandering might have won the day we have to find a way to make all voting systems nationwide auditable and recountable. We must have a paper trail for each and every vote or there is really no point in having further elections. In addition the current practice of having openly partisan officials, such as Katherine Harris and J Kenneth Blackwell, make, enforce and change the rules as it suits them must be stopped. Until we have open transparent election procedures overseen by objective non-partisan officials, all talk of policy positions and campaign strategies are a total waste of time and effort. If these problems are not addressed, Democrats may never win another national election.
  Please see http://www.votergate.tv and http://www.blackboxvoting.org

  Posted by DAS on Nov 19, 2004 at 10:28 AM

  A bully will continue to steal your lunch money if you don’t, at some point, get fed up and hit him so hard his whole damn family will feel it.

  That analogy seems particularly apropox to what is happening now.

  Bullies rarely have any desire to reach out and corporate with anyone, nor to they fight fair. That is the very definition of a bully, whether he is on the school yard, or in the White House.

  We can’t play with these people. They do not care what anyone thinks, unless that someone has them in a major headlock.

  Posted by Dot Dedman on Nov 20, 2004 at 3:45 PM

  James Paterson you should take that crybaby attitude home and beat it to death.  Do you think America has the kind of time to build a Green/Libertarian/whatever consensus party?  There will be democracy even under the bootheel of the Bush administration’s monolithic authoritarian state apparatus because at some point people wise up.  If that means pushing the reset button on our nation, well, that is what it will take.  Get ready to taste the pain for the duration, but the game isn’t won in the first quarter.

  Posted by Bigfoot on Nov 20, 2004 at 3:53 PM

  Democrats have the natural advantage of having most americans on their side.  Half of all republicans are liberals or moderates who just don’t know it yet.  Here’s what we need to do to take back our govt and eventually have a supermajority nationally.

  1st - STay on the issues.  Most americans agree with us.  It’s just a question of communication.  Learn how to communicate in simpler sound bites for those who just pay a little bit of attention.  Challenge republican premises.  Why do u call their middle class tax increases tax cuts?  Why do you concede their “tough on crime” rhetoric? You call them tax increasers for every penny they add to the national debt and every penny they shift to the states. You go after them on terrorism and all they haven’t done and who they associate with.  Democrats who fight win.  Democrats who talk like republicans lose.

  2nd - Go after the obvious first.  offer a proactive program with proposals u know 80% of people support.  Issues like voter rights, paper ballots, statehood for DC, etc.  Work incrementally at first.

  3rd - Take on the media smartly and build up a liberal media in every town.  Stop wasting your time with Fox, go after the conservative biases at CNN, Abc, NBC, CBS.  Boycott them.  Demand firings after every biased report.  Buy em out. By allowing conservative networks to be passed off as liberal, you’ve sold out 75% of the political spectrum because the center of this balance is not centrist.

  4) Set up a polling apparatus to counter the RW polling companies.  Ask questions in ways that better frame the issue.  Example:  Do you support tax increases on the middle class while giving out handouts to millionaires?  OR Do you want govt bureaucrats deciding tort cases or citizens such as yourself?  Do you want to put women in jail for having abortions? 

  5) DRaw this clear battleline.  The conservative crazies are out to destroy America, destroy its economy, and impose their theocracy on us. You can not compromise with radicals.  There is no such thing as bipartisanship with sickos.  Thus you must make it clear to the American people that whether you are a progressive, liberal, moderate or independent, that we must unite and put aside the 10-20% of the times we disagree (issues like gays, guns, abortion, etc.) and work together to save this country from these radicals. Issues like restructuring our tax code, strengthening national security in a non-partisan way, repaying the debt, investing in education must override the wedge issues.  Do these things first, worry later about the other issues. If you appease or wither, you will stay the minority.

  Posted by big dave from queens on Nov 21, 2004 at 8:59 PM

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