Reply #32: For 45% the contract was a factor in their vote. [View All]

[I_am_Spartacus]

That's a remarkable number.

That voters approved of 6 out of 7 proposals shows that it had resonance.

I don't think the Contract was the primary reason the Republicans won. But I do think that organizing a campaign around beliefs was very effective. They didn't just run against Clinton or on anger. They ran upon principles. I disagree with those principles. However, they did help a lot of people organize what Republicans were about in a way that certainly helped them in that election.

Selling diversity is great in principle. But as an organizing principle, I think it's weak.

I also think that Democratic core principles exist and not as platitiudes but as pithy, concrete, meaning statements of principle. Nobody -- no good argument, no good book or movie and no meaningful philosophy cannot be reduced to a pithy, clear, brief statement of purpose. The same is true for political campaigns.

People need to know what something is about before they embrace it. If they don't know what it's about, they're much less likely to embrace even if they might check off your issues if you were just comparing laundry lists of positions. I think most voters go into the booth with a paragraph or a couple of sentences in their mind about what each party stands for, and the party with the more forceful presentation wins. People don't go into the booth with laundry lists.