The Wall Street Journal's editorial today accuses the Democratic party's attitude of "nostalgia for tradition is too often considered racism, opposition to gay marriage is bigotry, misgiving about abortion is misogyny, Christian fundamentalism is like Islamic fundamentalism, discussion about gender roles is sexism. And confidence in America's global purpose is cultural imperialism. "To put it mildly," the newspaper says, "this is not the values system to which most Americans adhere."
This raises a philosophical as well as a strategic question: should a political party adapt itself to conform to the most widespread public opinion in order to win elections, or should they hold on to their convictions and ideals?
The truth is that Kerry had to say one thing to win the Democratic nomination and something different to win the election. His efforts to do so got him accused of flip-flopping on the one hand and lost him the election on the other. What infuriated the Republicans about Clinton was that he was so in tune with public opinion and advocated solutions that Repubicans claimed intellectual property rights over.
The Republicans would be fools to believe that every vote for Bush was a vote for all his opinions. Considering the context of a national emergency, this was an exceptionally close vote. We have nothing like the conservative mandate the Journal seems to imply.
On the other hand, the Democratic party clearly has lost relevance in the south, and outside urban areas. It is hardly persuasive to dismiss attitudes prevalent in those areas as bigoted, mysogynistic, sexist, etc. Even if they are.
Bill Clinton recently said to Jon Stewart, "when people think, Democrats always win." What Karl Rove seems to have realized is that when people feel, they're likely to vote Republican. Images of late-term abortions, men kissing each other in front of a minister, etc., spark a visceral reaction that play right into the conservative agenda. Democrats have thoughtful responses to all these reactions but not emotional ones. Emotional appeal is reserved for accusations along the lines the Journal outlines.
Cultural liberalism isn't the handicap the editorial proposes. Most Americans are open-minded about the issues and have proven again and again that their attitudes will change. The problem is rather that the Democratic party doesn't know how to be anything but slef-righteous about its platform. And if you want people to think, you can't start by making them defensive.
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