August 9, 2006
“I belong to no organized political party - I am a Democrat.”
Will Rogers
Congratulations to Ned Lamont on his victory in Connecticut and good luck to Joe Lieberman in his Independent bid to remain in the U.S. Senate.
This is not really such a contradiction. To win elections candidates and political parties have to appeal to as many voters as possible.
Political parties have to be inclusive and not exclusive. Parties have to tell voters they have answers to their economic concerns and have the ability to fix Social Security and provide healthcare and deliver on good schools and education.
A party cannot survive being a so-called Johnny One Note. A party has to be for things and not just against one big thing.
Of course, I am talking about the Democrats being against the war in Iraq. A poll released today shows 60% of all Americans are opposed to the war in Iraq. The war is a major concern and issue to voters but it is not the only issue of concern.
In 1971-72 as a young graduate student I worked for the McGovern for President campaign in Washington, D.C. and attended the Democratic Convention in Miami Beach. In 1968 I was outside the Democratic Convention in Chicago protesting the war in Vietnam.
After two years of working for the anti-war presidential candidate on election night I remember hearing CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite say it was a landslide for Richard Nixon and we had managed to lose 49 states in our anti-war presidential bid.
We may have won some kind of moral victory but McGovern did not become president and the Vietnam War continued for many years under Nixon.
I am not saying that history repeats itself or that the war in Iraq and Vietnam are similar but any time a political party goes out to the voters with only one issue on their mind it could lead to a disaster at the polls similar to 1972.
Voters want to hear positive goals from candidates - look at Ronald Reagan’s brilliant “morning in America” campaign for the presidency which glowed with optimism.
Being against the war in Iraq as Lamont was during the Connecticut primary and saying he will bring the American troops home from Iraq immediately is just not going to happen as good as it may sound on the stump. He will - if he gets to the senate - be only one voice among his colleagues arguing for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. If U.S. troops leave Iraq without a sense of honor and a sense of victory there will be serious political repercussions across the United States.
The Democrats have to have a sensible, workable and achievable plan that make us feel that we accomplished something worthwhile and that the entire venture was not just a huge mistake and that lives were lost for nothing.
The Democratic Party needs to quit shouting about leaving Iraq immediately and come up with a plan and a timetable that makes sense to the voters. The majority of American voters have turned against the war in Iraq but not against the American troops and not against patriotism. It takes more than simple slogans like “End the war now” and it takes more than candidates having to pass a litmus test on their views before they can be considered “politically correct” to win elections.
The Democrats have to have new ideas and new programs that appeal to the American voter and have to say more than “get out of Iraq now” if they want to win elections. Criticism alone is simply not enough.
In 1972 we were young and arrogant and thought anyone who didn’t believe as we did was against us and didn’t matter. And, of course our candidate for president only won one state- Massachusetts - and the District of Columbia. This is not a plan for victory in 2008.
The Democratic Party has not been taken over by leftist, anti-war extremists as several biased commentators on tv mentioned last night. The Democratic Party and the majority of Americans want to see a resolution of this war that began in March 2003. We see no viable end in sight.
When President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Desert Storm in the 1990s he had a plan and a real coalition that achieved its stated goals in 100 hours of pushing Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. The war did not go on year after year with no end in sight like the current war in Iraq.
Democrats: don’t exclude potential voters who might disagree with you on the war. Win them over on other issues that matter to them. As we found out in 1972 we might have won some meaningless moral victory in the presidential race but we didn’t win the White House and end the war in Vietnam.
Democrats: don’t look for moral victories, look for actual victories that put you in power.
Democrats: don’t be exclusive and turn against people who fail to pass a litmus test with 100% flying colors.
As I said at the beginning of the article politics should be a big tent. If Joe Lieberman wants to run as an Independent more power to him. And if Ned Lamont comes up with a workable, achievable plan on an honorable end to U.S. involvement in Iraq and speaks out on other important issues of interest to the voters in Connecticut more power to him too. |
