Branding Democrats Posted by Shadi Hamid

Matt Yglesias links to this ad from Canada's Liberal Party. What I like about it most is that it defines very clearly what Liberals are about (see the last couple seconds). Liberals are for strengthening the safety net. Conservatives are for shredding it. Here at home, Obama has succeeded, to a degree, in conveying this distinction in the presidential race. However, it is time to take this beyond specific candidates and make the case to the American people that this is not just a contrast between McCain and Obama, but between two philosophies articulated by two very different political parties. I wish there were ads out there (at least after the election) that straightforwardly explain to the American people what the Democratic Party stands for and how those principles different from Republicans. Not just on economic policy, but also on foreign policy.

Comments

[Dan Kervick]

I find myself in the curious position that my admiration for and confidence in Senator Obama increases every day, but my respect for the bulk of Democrats and the Democratic Party has declined.

Part of that disillusionment is due to the outpouring of ignorance and sputtering imbecility from the left blogosphere during the debate about the financial meltdown. There are lots of stupid, rage-filled, left wingnuts out there who traffic in anti-rational and emotional dogmatism, and who are little better better than the stupid, rage-filled right wingnuts on the other side. I despair of the prospect of being governed by either camp.

What's worse, it appears that left wingnuts now thoroughly dominate the blogosphere, so it is getting harder to find intelligent discussion of any topic, anywhere on the internet. There are really just a handful of sites that maintain standards above the level of a drunken rabble.

Then there is this site. You guys aren't stupid, and you aren't wingnuts, but you do seem very much out of touch to me. You profess to be a "national security network", but seem frequently unwilling to allow your foreign policy obsessions and fantasies to be sullied by crass concerns with the fundamentals of security. Getting you guys to talk in any serious way about those dirty, ugly things like money or budgets or oil or life and death has proven close to impossible. And when you do discuss actual security issues - and some of you are clearly capable of doing it well - you frequently descend to the level of very, very dumbed-down partisan talking points and speechifying. Frankly, there are several of you I wouldn't want anywhere near actual decision-making role in our nation's security. You would get us all killed with your aloof and dreamy "ideals", and evident lack of concern with the practical dimension of human survival and existence.

[Zathras]

I would put the matter a little differently than Dan Kervick does. I've worked in public policy most of my adult life, and followed electoral politics nearly all of my life. The two fields really are separate disciplines; people who can have interesting things to say, and can say them persuasively, about one can rarely do the same about the other.

I think of this when I happen to see a television panel like the one on ABC's This Week program, where lifelong campaign operatives like Donna Brazile are asked for their "take" on events in Pakistan. I also think of this when touching base with this site. I don't think contributors here are stupid, or wicked, or mentally ill. They just don't have any talent for writing about electoral politics, a shortcoming underlined every time one of them ascribes stupidity, wickedness, or mental illness to someone on the other side of the partisan divide.

Will anything written on the DA site influence this year's election? No. Are there a large number of DA readers who do not already agree with the site's contributors as to who should be President in January? No. Do repetitive, frequently overwrought posts about campaign ephemera or wood-pushing commentary on electoral "branding strategies" like the one here advance the career prospects of their authors? Not that I can see, unless an Obama administration adopts wholesale the hiring practices of the administration we have now, and selects if junior officials based on demonstrated partisan zeal rather than some quality related to their ability.

A blog devoted to foreign policy really should be, to some extent, "out of touch" with American politics most of the time. Most Americans do not exert themselves thinking about foreign and national security policy; most of the people who do, don't do it enough to devise policies on their own. They don't need advice from people who seek to be foreign policy professionals on campaign tactics, or strategy, or about what the country is all about. They need advice about what is right -- what policy is sound policy that advances American interests in the world. For this blog to again become a useful source of such advice, its contributors need to display a lot more maturity and self-discipline than they have in recent months.

[Dan Q. Public]

Agreed with Dan and Zathras. When there isn't an election going on, I look forward to reading the posts on DA. But when there is an election going, I cringe at seeing multiple posts per day telling me how stupid the other party is, and not much more. It's sophomoric. When the election's done, I'll happily go back to reading every post; right now, I just skim the first couple lines until I get to the first 'Republicans suck' attack, and then tune out.

[Dan Kervick]

When I say this blog is frequently out of touch, Zathras, I am not talking about being out of touch with politics, American or otherwise. I mean that they are out of touch with some of the actual security issues and developments that are supposed to be their core concern.

Right now the world appears to be in the midst of a radical and painful restructuring of the global financial system. Nouriel Roubini, who just a couple of weeks ago was objecting to the proliferation of 'crisis' talk, is now describing this as "the mother of all bank runs" and says "the world is at severe risk of a global systemic financial meltdown and a severe global depression." The connections between this crisis and almost every aspect of national security and global security are too numerous and obvious to mention. You would think that people who proclaim their interest as "national security" would be devoting some time to the issue that is now at the top of the the global security agenda.

My little rant is just another installment in my long-running complaint about the disdain of so many of the Democracy Arsenal folks for the economic and material dimension of global affairs and global security.

[Zathras]

Dan's point is not without merit. However, in perfect fairness, to do what he suggests DA would need new contributors. The ones it has now have even less of a background in finance and economics than they do in campaign politics. It may or may not be fair to say they share a disdain for the importance of these subjects, but it's hard to say something worthwhile if one doesn't know anything worthwhile -- and for better or worse, foreign policy and security affairs have long been considered fields of study separate from the economic areas.

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