National Democrats Please Listen

If you want a message that will resonate with red staters — maybe even some of those macho white working class Nascar males who pride themselves on their independence — this is how you do it:

“I don’t need Washington to tell me how to live my personal life or how to pray to my God,” he said.

The Republicans spent multi-millions over the last 25 years selling the idea that the American people want the government “off their backs.” We should piggy back our candidates right on the back of that marketing slogan and ride it to victory.

What the national Democratic party needs to recognise is that when many people heard the Republicans saying that, they thought that they were talking about literally getting the government “off their backs” not just lowering their taxes. Instead, the Republicans are creating a national government that seeks to intrude in the most personal of ways, interfering with people’s religious and moral choices. That wasn’t what the independent, individualistic western style libertarian signed on for. They are ours for the taking if we have the nerve to say what Paul Hackett said up there.

Combine that with some big ticket ideas like “guaranteed health insurance for all Americans” with a foreign policy narrative that refocuses the threats and policy prescription in the proper direction as Matt Yglesias talks about here, and we have the essence of a Democratic message that will resonate.

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