Glenden BrownWait! Don’t Move to Canada - Part II
In both book and blog, Bill Scher advises Democrats to fight back. Never surrender the point to conservatives; don’t buy into the conservative premise, don’t concede the argument. Rephrasing his consistent theme, I’d say it this: if you don’t fight back, conservatives win by default; fight back and chances are you’ll win the day.
Chapter 5 of Wait! is entitled Defuse the Culture War. Scher reviews some basic polling data that shows that a majority of Americans, hold liberal positions on a wide array of social issues. He challenges the received “wisdom” that culture war issues hurt Democrats and instead shows how Democrats can effectively communicate their values around theses issues.
For example, in 2004, 55% of Americans believe abortion should be always or mostly legal; 60% of Americans support same sex marriage or civil unions. 63% of Americans support gays serving openly in the military. These are the liberal positions - not conservative ones.
Scher reviews 5 areas of the culture war:
1 Reproductive Freedom
2 Illegal Immigration
3 Equal Marriage Rights for Gays
4 SUVs
5 Offensive Content on TV and Radio
Then reviews some basic liberal responses to all three areas.
In reproductive freedom, he points out that liberals need to avoid conceding the basic conservative point that abortion is bad. If abortion is bad, then logically access to it should be strictly limited. By contrast, liberals should argue that it is a moral good for women to have control over their futures, including if and when to have children. Two thirds of Americans oppose “partial birth abortion” - a completely misleading term - unless the procedure will prevent a “serious threat to the woman’s health” - then nearly two thirds believe the procedure should be legal. Scher works his way from these statistics to a critique of the conservative arguments against abortion, and ending with an analysis of the voting patterns of Americans and offering a simple guideline for moving voters to the democratic column.
Scher uses this model in all five sections of Chapter 5. He intelligently dissects the issues, offering polling data about Americans attitudes, a liberal talking point, and finally, critiquing the conservative arguments. When necessary, Scher points out how Democratic politicians have engaged in double talk and how that hurts the overall liberal narrative and then provides alternative talking points.
After working through each issue, Scher concludes with an important final concept: Consistency Wins Constituents. Rather than waffling on cultural issues, liberals need to simply articulate their core values on these issues, and stick to it. Constantly waffling, trying to “finesse” these issues with poll tested phrases creates the impression that Democratic politicians have no core values. Marking consistent arguments is a powerful tactic. Scher writes, “That’s why it’s important for us to take the time to root all of our positions in our set of core liberal principles, even for issues as disparate as gay rights, immigration and fuel efficiency.” As part of this argument, point out that conservative rhetoric is often self-contradictory - they say they support small government, until they want to use government power to impose their morals on the rest of us.
I’ve focused on a single chapter closely because it begins and ends with a basic insight: The culture war actually doesn’t help conservatives outside of their base. The culture war keeps the conservative base fired up and motivated. But on most culture war issues, conservatives hold a minority view; by avoiding or attempting to talk around these issues, liberals cede the ground to conservatives, appear to have no core values. By fighting back on these issues and consistently grounding arguments in core liberal values, liberals and Democrats can effectively claim their rightful place in the culture war - fighting for the mainstream majority of Americans against a callous, and authoritarian, conservative minority.
November 6th, 2006 at 10:15 am
What does Bill Scher say about illegal immigration? That’s an issue that pits the corporatists against the xenophobes on the right, but it also splits the left. Just ask the Sierra Club, which a couple of years ago tore itself apart over immigration.
November 6th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Richard - Scher’s point about illegal immigration is pretty basic. We want to stop illegal immigration. The challenge facing us is to identify the root causes and address them. The solutions are not to leave the system as it is - which rewards corporations wanting to pay subsistence (or less) wages, which rewards the corporatist wing of the conserative movement. The solution is also not to build a wall - which would please the nativist wing of the conservative movement. Instead, Scher suggests we allow the two parts of the conservative movement to tear each other apart, then step in with a commonsense, somewhat radical solution.
Most illegal immigration arises from the extremely poor economic conditions in Mexico. Scher suggests the US, Canada and Mexico agree on an economic, infrastructure development plan for Mexico - with the US and Canada putting up half the money, Mexico raising the other half. As economic conditions in Mexico improve, the flood of illegal immigration will slow to a trickle.
November 6th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Worth checking out– I just read a post by Bill Scher on HuffPo. It’s about how the Republicans will most likely react when they lose control of Congress (hint: it won’t involve self-criticism).