|
...but my wife and I both worked the ground level for Kerry after he won the nomination. I took a giant dose of criticism as a sellout from the Dean folks for working for Kerry.
Like so many thousands of people, Sue and I saw that John F. Kerry was a seriously flawed candidate with huge liabilities in terms of his record and his approach to campaigning. But like thousands of others, we worked our hearts out, on phone banks and in meetings, at our local Democratic headquarters and out in public, for him....and not because we thought John Kerry was a fabulous choice, but because we had (and have) deep reservations about what 4 more years of DUHbya would do to this country.
In the end, we were proven correct about Kerry. There was not enough enthusiasm among the general public for the man Democrats had nominated on the basis of "electability," rather than any real contrasts he had with Bush. The fears of many who were lukewarm about Kerry and yet supported him became reality, as his plodding and at times downright lackluster campaign left the man a question mark in the minds of most common Americans, even many thousands of them who ultimately voted for him as an anti-Bush protest. Kerry's inability to define himself left that work wide open for the Republicans, and they defined him with a zeal and effectiveness that was stunning.
As many of us who had battled John Kerry in the primaries predicted then, there were not enough Americans willing to vote solely on "not Bush" alone, and the Democratic nominee gave them little to no additional reasons to vote FOR him.
Yet I too was swept up in the enthusaism as election day neared and historical precident after precident was revealed, all going against GWB. It looked like it would take a miracle for him to win, he was bucking so many historical trends. I began to tell friends Kerry would win by 5 percent, and that should Bush win by some miracle, he would have made history himself by breaking a huge string of historical trends all lined up against him.
For that time period , I forgot my earlier predictions and actually thought we could win. I set aside my earlier convictions that our candidate had not made a clear case for himself, and hoped that Sen. Question Mark could be bolstered by enough anti-Bush sentiment to win.
In the end, my earlier and more pragmatic assessment turned out to be true. But for a little while, I did see the signs at the White House that they were worrying, too. And that was good, although in the end it was a small, short-lived and bittersweet triumph.
Now, onward to the future, in which we may be able to apply the lessons we ought to have learned.
If we want to win, we need to listen to our base electorate, and then give the general electorate real reasons to vote FOR our candidate. We need to nominate candidates not on the basis of who is safest, but on the basis of who draws the greatest contrast with the opposition, can define himself, and who can fire up the voters. And we need to take Marketing and PR 101 to tune up our message, and all talk about the same coordinated points, every day.
Instead, at present I find our party leaders running from the traditional party once again...running to the right, a place they think will be safe for them. They are so attuned to and so used to running away to be safe, like deer.
Or like lemmings. I watch them rush off the cliff. And sigh, watching current events and wondering where I will go, should the present trend continue, after the Democratic Party leaves me in its quest for more losses.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
