Do we have any potential presidential candidates capable of talking to the people like this quote below from the top of the Democratic Ticket in Texas this year? Would our own leadership "allow" him/her to get the nomination?
We can recapture the South. The problem is not ideology, "left" or "right."
We need to stop thinking in terms of "left" and "right." They are an
artificial dichotomy that lazy journalism and lazy political operatives have
imposed on the nation's political discourse. Most working people and farming
people do not think in terms of a left-right spectrum. It is not real to
them, nor should it be, because it is not real. What is real is whether one
is on the side of the people or against the people.
And if one is going to win the people's trust that one is on their side,
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. The Democratic Party needs to stop giving
the people an academic issues symposium as its political "message." That is
all just words. The Democratic Party needs to SHOW the people through ACTION
that it exists to FIGHT for them. For example, nominating a hugely wealthy
man for president who lives in a gilded mansion and who crafts his
political communications based on what he thinks will win an election rather
than based on the convictions of his heart is not the action of a party that
exists to fight for the people. What I will for the sake of language call
"heartland" voters - rural and blue collar voters - are NOT dumb. To the
contrary, they are VERY smart. They have to be smart to survive in the face
of a ruthlessly exploitive economy. The Democratic Party's continued use of
patrician elitists of the political aristocracy is transparent to them. The
Democratic Party's continued failure to give them distinct choices in
opposition to what the Republicans offer them is the main thing that prompts
them to vote Republican.
They don't any more want their churches to run their lives than the man in
the moon. They don't let their churches run their own lives. But when the
Democratic Party does not offer them (1) boldness, (2) distinct choices, and
(3) a FIGHTING spirit, they say to themselves (in some cases subliminally,
in some cases consciously), "The Democratic Party offers me nothing, they
don't really believe in anything, so what the heck I might as well vote the
way my church recommends, because that's the only thing I have to go by."
(Yes there is a hard core of genuine theocratists among the Republican base,
but they are only a small minority of the voters who put R's in office. I am
not talking about Republican leadership, I am talking about voters.) As a
candidate, Bush did offer voters a clear message and the gumption to fight
for it, even though it was all based on lies. A political campaign is an
adversary process. For the voters to understand that the Bush message is all
lies, it takes the opposition campaign, i.e., the Democratic campaign, to
point that out to the voters, aggressively with no holds barred. But the
Democratic campaign didn't do that.
It does no good to complain to each other about Republican campaign tactics.
They are going to do what they are going to do, and we cannot control their
actions. But we can control our actions. I know that a meaningful number of
heartland voters will vote Democratic if they are given real choices, and if
it is presented in down-to-earth fashion, with passion and conviction and
FIGHT, rather than sounding like a university symposium. I know it from
personal experience. In my recent race for the Texas Supreme Court against a
right-wing pro-corporate Republican, I carried some rural Texas counties
that John Kerry lost handily. My statewide margin of loss was 400,000 less
than Kerry's margin of loss (of Texas). The difference between my campaign
and Kerry's was that I directly challenged corporate power in a give 'em
hell manner that wasn't crafted on the basis of any damn polls, but from my
own passion because I'm mad as hell about the corporate takeover of
government and Republican Party totalitarianism, and I said it on the stump
just exactly the way I really feel it. Whereas John Kerry is so used to
basing his votes and his positions on what pollsters tell him, he doesn't
even know what he feels or believes. Rural Texas audiences didn't lynch me;
to the contrary they responded with standing ovations. They are HUNGRY for
FIGHTING Democrats to return, in a way they haven't seen the Democratic
Party act in years. Their mommas and daddies loved "give 'em hell" Harry
Truman, and they were brought up to think of the Democratic Party as the
party of the people. But they don't see that any more. Party of the people
means you mean what you say and say what you mean, and you don't run away
from fights, and you fight for the people. For myself, I am not going to
campaign for any Democratic nominees any more who are softies who are afraid
to confront corporate power and Republican totalitarianism with passion and
toughness.
Yes, the Democratic Party can get the heartland back. Whenever it
rediscovers a politics of the heart and throws out all the polling,
Democratic participation indexes, computer projections, and targeting and
the consultants who peddle it, out the nearest window. That includes
throwing out the "battleground" tactics. We damn sure aren't ever going to
win in the South if we don't have the guts to fight for the South.
Communicating from the heart will reclaim the heartland.
David Van Os
San Antonio, Texas
www.vanosforsupremecourt.com