Bringing cultural populism to the Left

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

I'm currently reading Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter with Kansas." In the work he states that the Republicans are playing a cultural class warfare where they represent popular traditions. I tend to believe that the political game has become so focused on cultural issues because the Democrats have accepted the neoliberal economic consensus for the most part (thanks to Clinton and the DLC). The major differences between the party platforms has become cultural.

What would happen if we stole these culture issues from the republicans AND pushed left economically (like the progressives of old)? Would you think that's a good idea?

If we were to do that, then the Republicans would be exposed for the elitists they are.

[Nederland]

1. Bad Idea

Shifting left on economic issues and right on social issues is exactly the opposite of the way the country is moving.

[Warpy]

2. Thanks, but if culture means race and sex bigotry, homophobia,

antiabortionism, anti intellectualism, and the rest of slob culture, they can have it.

Personally, I think we can win on economic populism if we can convince our candidates to decline the help from DLC handlers and their ability to package a candidate so blandly nobody knows a thing he stands for.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

4. The Progressives were prohibitionists

Is temperance slob culture?

[SteveM]

7. Boy, I'll say. But "modern liberalism" continues prohibition...

During Prohibition, liberals were in the ranks of the banners. Today's War on Drugs has many prominent liberal Democrats among its ranks. And there is no doubt how lib-dems feel about guns. (Dianne Feinstein is a virulent marijuana and gun prohibitionist.) As long as prohibition remains front and center in the Democratic Party, little will be done about issues of substantive economic and social inequality.

Hate is the font of prohibition.

[Warpy]

13. Operative word, WERE.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

3. No one wants to touch this one...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. The cultural issues is a dead horse. Let the Repugs keep flogging it.

The religious right is having a grand time fighting among themselves over who's more fanatical and "acceptable". The last thing the Dems need is to try and out bigot the bigots.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

6. But they keep winning

Isn't it feasible that many of those who are hit hardest by outsourcing turn to God and religion for salvation? Isn't it feasible that they become resentful of elitist society?

Abortion is still legal despite the fact that conservatives have controlled all three branches of government, yet it's still an election issue. The question is not policy, but capturing the angst.

[SteveM]

8. "capturing the angst" -- nice phrase. Too much hate among Dems ...

...to try and capture sentiment of those who are "left" on economics and "conservative" on social issues. As long as the Party (and posters on this site) exhibit the wholesale hostility and hatred toward millions of Americans they do not identify with, they is little chance Dems will capture much angst, let alone address the real concerns of "middle America."

By the way, to get a look at the hostility some DUers have toward their brethren on this site, see Forums: Guns, and check out some of the old threads. The "Gungeon" is the closest you'll get to seeing persistent culture war on DU.

[Richard Steele]

9. You think so?

Some of us think they've been marginalizing themselves,
playing at more extreme positions to pander to a dwindling,
radicalized base.

B*sh's approval ratings are not those of the Leader of
a "winning" party.

Last Novembers elections didn't reveal a "winning" Repub
party, did they?

Sun Tzu wrote, "When your enemy is in the process of making
a mistake, don't interrupt him."

And let me add: "And you sure as hell shouldn't IMITATE him, either."

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

10. Great points

I agree.

[northernsoul]

11. Yeah, the Schiavo deal worked out great for them in '06

I think most Americans are pretty disillusioned with the Right's unilateral "culture war" right now.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

12. I would like to see polls for that

I do not think it's the culture war that screwed the right. I think it's the war and the job market.

in other words, I don't think many are switching votes simply because all of a sudden they don't like the right's stance on abortion or Schiavo.

[northernsoul]

20. Well, here's a few tidbits

Here's a CBS poll from March 23, 2005

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/23/opinion/polls/main682674.shtml

(CBS) Americans have strong feelings about the Terri Schiavo case, and a majority says the feeding tube should not now be re-inserted. This view is shared by Americans of all political persuasions. Most think the feeding tube should have been removed, and most also do not think the U.S. Supreme Court should hear the case.

An overwhelming 82 percent of the public believes the Congress and President should stay out of the matter. There is widespread cynicism about Congress' motives for getting involved: 74 percent say Congress intervened to advance a political agenda, not because they cared what happened to Terri Schiavo. Public approval of Congress has suffered as a result; at 34 percent, it is the lowest it has been since 1997, dropping from 41 percent last month. Now at 43 percent, President Bush’s approval rating is also lower than it was a month ago.

Here's an April 11, 2005 USA Today article titled "GOP's Moral Agenda Doubted"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-04-05-gop-poll_x.htm

WASHINGTON — The controversy over Terri Schiavo has raised concerns among many Americans about the moral agenda of the Republican Party and the political power of conservative Christians, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll finds. (Related: Poll results) In the survey, most Americans disapprove of the efforts by President Bush and Congress to draw federal courts into the dispute over treatment of the brain-damaged Florida woman. She died last week.
...
By more than 2-to-1, 39%-18%, Americans say the "religious right" has too much influence in the Bush administration. That's a change from when the question was asked in CBS News/New York Times polls taken from 2001 to 2003. Then, approximately equal numbers said conservative Christians had too much and too little influence.

The National Journal "Public to Politicians: 'Keep Out'" (April 5, 2005)

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200504u/nj_schneider_2005-04-05

There is evidence of a backlash. A Gallup Poll taken just before Bush and Congress acted in the Schiavo case showed the president with a 52 percent approval rating. But in the Gallup Poll taken just after he signed the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction over the case, his rating fell to 45 percent. CBS News polls show a similar decline in Bush's ratings, from 49 percent in February to 43 percent after he signed the Schiavo bill.

Now granted, I don't think the Schiavo incident is the only or even a primary reason the GOP got hammered last fall, but it was one ingredient in some mighty tasty stew. I think mainstream America is genuinely repulsed when they see how little respect for individual privacy or autonomy the RW Culture Warriors actually have and that it would be foolish to emulate them.

[Fovea]

14. Certainly it is feasible that religion becomes the opiate

of the oppressed masses. But I don't think that means the Democratic party should start pushing smack.

If you want to capture the angst, preach universal healthcare, public transportation, and rebirth of a new, responsive organized labor movement sponsored by the Dems, regulated by fair and smart legislation.

How about a budget swap on the DoT where a national rail system gets what we currently spend on highway support systems and subsidies. I think we should build down the interstate highway system around a smaller ADT and more durable pavement and vehicle standards.

If you really want to capture the angst, talk about outsourcing, executive pay, and taxing capital gains.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

15. That's the problem

The Democrats are hardly talking about it. And when they do, it's quite wishy-washy (at least when the MSM-approved candidates do).

[Fovea]

16. The Democratic frame for faith in America

The framers of our constitution, and the first to fight and win for the cause of self government were men who were born into a world that acknowledged the divine right of Kings, and came to believe in the right of the citizen to self rule under a social contract as the wisest form of government.

To that end, they drew a bright line between church and state, between pulpits and houses of legislature. In the more than 200 years since, we find nothing better or wiser so far than their logic. This is not surprising, as they had a perspective that we do not possess, many of them grew up with a state religion-- the one that promoted the divine right of Kings.

So the Democratic Party acknowledges the value that faith may have in compelling Americans towards the right course of moral action, but places faith in the subtle and profound wisdom of the framers of the Constitution of the United States on matters of government.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

18. Very beautiful

But historically that wasn't always the case. William Jennings Bryan.

[Fovea]

19. I think Bryan's social conservatism

in the end did not fit even with his times. His economic populism needs to be fit to the times. Free Silver, for example is no longer an issue.

But thank you for your compliment, I think we could do far worse than such a plank.

[Iris]

17. I dont' know what to say, but I'm going to say something anyway.

If those hit hardest by outsourcing are resentful of elitist society and have turned to God but vote for the very people responsible for their plight, than what can really be done? I think it's obvious that they make up about 28% of the population and nothing is going to make them see what's right in front of all of our eyes.