I have been busy with work the last few weeks, so I have not been able to really explore the Presidential campaign’s various up and downs, but have at least been able to pick up Obama’s conservative drift ever since he got the nomination.
On some level this should happen, as the general election is a more moderate affair than a primary. On another level though, this tactic has disserved the Democrats for years, and if you look at most Republican general elections, they do not move to the middle nearly as much as Democrats, preferring instead to stay true to their talking points.
As a result, Republicans have better brand identity and have functioned more efficiently as a party since they demand greater loyalty and ideological purity.
Their success I believe largely informed the Democratic move to the right, that and the fact that clearer conservative vision, narrower focus, and stricter discipline helped transform what was largely a liberal populace into a decidedly conservative one.
At least in the public’s mind’s they were conservative. Polls for years have shown the public is largely progressive on a myriad of issues. They just were not voting that way. In essence, they were liberal they just did not identify themselves as such.
The Democrats, however, took the wrong lesson from this and moved the Party to the center, rather than try to readjust the public’s perception of liberalism and the Democratic Party as a whole.
Obama in the primary seemed to understand this. He was using religious language and style to describe the moral underpinnings of progressive vaules – a key failure with previous Democratic candidates. He spoke of post-partisanship and a need to move beyond typical Washington gridlock, essentially convincing people that progressive values are beyond politics and what Washington would embrace if it moved beyond partisanship.
Brilliant, and was largely effective. However, what Obama seems to have forgotten Read the rest of this entry »