Kerry and Kerry supporters must work for unity (should he win the primary)

CTLawGuy

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Fri Feb-27-04 10:50 AM
Original message

Kerry and Kerry supporters must work for unity (should he win the primary)

Edited on Fri Feb-27-04 10:51 AM by darboy

If Kerry wants to win, he will need a unified front behind him. This cannot happen by the shaming & scaring method I see practiced here on DU. "If you don't vote for the nominee, you are a traitor" and "Bush is so horrible that we can't afford another 4 years" are not effective at swaying supporters of other candidates. It may be good enough for some people, but not enough people.

The only way to get most people to vote is to energize them in a positive way. Many factors work to oppose a person actually going to the polls. (1) "My vote won't make a difference; Kerry (or Bush)is going to win my state anyway" (2) "I'm so busy, I don't have time. He's electable, he'll win anyway." (3) "Politics has been so unexciting lately, who cares?" etc. These rationales are enough to overcome the fear and guilt tactics used to pull voters into line.

Kerry needs to make himself someone every Democrat, whether he or she supported Lieberman or Kucinich, would be proud to vote for. Kerry and his supporters need to work at this. They are in a unique position because their guy is the man; his neck is on the line in Nov. They need to:

(1) Not be insulting to supporters of other candidates. Ralph Nader is waiting for anyone who is alienated by the Kerry machine. We cannot have that. Remember, every voter has to overcome all those rationales for not voting. If some supporter has been a jerk to that voter, it'll be easy to fall into those traps. NEVER ASSUME YOUR BASE WILL TURN OUT.

(2) Not attack other Democratic candidates, especially ones that have dropped out (that is particularly classless). Dean had the same problem at times when he was the front runner. It doesn't foster unity for the same reasons as stated in (1).

(3) Represent the base in the GE. Do not try to pander to "swing voters". Swing voters are who they are because they are more practical than ideological. That means they vote for whichever message is better for their interests at that particular moment. They don't really have positions or strong feelings about a lot of issues. If they did, they would be politically active, and would probably be a member of a party, and thus part of a base. They are also least likely to vote. For these reasons, you cannot use them as your base, like the dems tried to do in 2002. To get swing voters, do what Bush does, try to convince them your base's ideological preferences on issues are better for them than the other side's.

(4) Not make your campaign the "I'm not Bush, so vote for me" campaign. Swing voters don't hate Bush, but they do hate politicians who have no positions and who appear to be pandering to everyone. Kerry needs to be unafraid of taking the Dem message to them. The repubs won congress in 1994, not because they became Dem lite, but because they took clear positions (The Contract with America)and sold them to the voters. The Democrats did badly in 2002 partially because some of them ran ads showing how they worked with George Bush, and confused everyone. They offered nothing to grab any voter's attention, while George Bush was out there pushing the Repub message. No Republican would have ever put out an ad linking himself to Bill Clinton. Know why? Because the base would have been furious and stayed home and the Repub would have lost.

(5) Stand up to Bush. Don't cower when he challenges you. Don't obfuscate. Defend yourself and hit back. Everyone likes a fighter, especially the base. People were drawn to Dean because he defended his DLC-unfriendly positions against attacks and hit Bush all the time. kerry needs to say things like "We are not safer because of Saddam Hussein's capture." That ability to tell the truth shows he has guts. People admired that Dean he stood his ground. Kerry needs to do that, even when the issue or position seems like a sure loser.

I hope the Kerry people take this advice. I really want to work to elect a good president, but I, and many other non-Kerry supporters cannot take being marginalized. Unifying the party takes work. Let's win AND be a party again!