Why Conservative Policies Dominate

Why does the public flock to conservative / corporate policies that generally run against their own interests? Take tax cuts for the rich, or the current offshore-drilling campaign as examples.

Here is my opinion of the reason: Conservatives have a huge outside-the-party infrastructure devoted to persuading the public to support their policies and progressives do not.

Conservatives recognize the value of movement-building and work steadily to create popular demand, which then gets their candidates elected. This is why so many terrible Republicans are able to get elected just by pointing their finger at their opponent and shouting, "Liberal, Liberal!"

Progressives instead for decades have believed that a candidate will come along who will be so popular that he or she will lead them out of the wilderness, and convince the publi of the rightness of all of their ideas. Therefore almost all of their money and effort goes into short-term election efforts, candidates and the party instead of to ongoing outside-the-party organizations that work over the long term to build lasting demand for their ideas.

Discuss.

Comments

[SamThornton]

For some strange reason, the very, very wealthiest people in America are quite mad and harbor quite mad ideas about nearly everything, including politics. Since our form of "democracy" gives power exclusively to he or she who can buy the most votes, both on election day and in the humdrum, every day halls of Congress, we have our current situation.

A 27% approval rating for the President and a 9% approval rating for Congress seems to me to be proof positive that to term our form of government a "democracy" is almost as silly as our "elections."

[Michale32086]

CONT

And that is why Democrats cannot seem to connect with Joe Q Public. The very foundation of the Democratic Party is one of individuality. Each person's ideas have merit and are given consideration. The result of this is a lot of little fiefdoms, a lot of "chiefs" and very few indians. This is why Joe Q Public cannot get a grasp of the Democratic Party's message, because the Democratic Party simply cannot agree what their message is.. Talk to 20 different Democrat "leaders" and you will get 20 different "messages" on what the Democratic Party stands for.

Contrast that with the GOP. A single and nearly uniform entity that moves, functions and espouses as a single coherent thought. As an earlier poster mentioned, the GOP has symbols that are inherently it's own. The GOP's success has been the ability to create inherent and instinctive links between itself and everything "good"... When Joe Q Public sees the flag, he doesn't think Dem. He thinks GOP. When Joe Q Public thinks of military might and military right, he doesn't think Dem. He thinks GOP.

These are the contrasting styles of the two political parties. Of course, there are exceptions. But these exceptions simply illustrate the rule.

In the here and now, in the eyes of Joe Q Public, the GOP is better suited to lead.

For the record, I am an avid Obama supporter and intend to vote for him.

Michale.....

[Arethirtypercentinsane]

Michale,

What you say is true and that's the problem. Members of the GOP either don't have or aren't using any critical thinking skills which the majority of DEMS do, much to their disadvantage. It's truly unfortunate because at this point in history our country needs people using whatever critical thinking skills they have as much as possible. If they did, every single seat in politics would be held by a Democrat.

ATPI

[Michale32086]

I am with Fressia2 on this..

I too, am an official NPA (No Political Affiliation). While I have a few (4 to be exact) right leaning philosophies, I am willing to wager that I am the most liberal one here..

But as an NPA, I can be objective about the problems in BOTH parties.

Americans crave order. Maybe it is the "being told what to do" mentality, maybe it's simply being content with a "place for everything and everything in it's place" attitude. Call it "tradition", call it "status quo", whatever.. Americans like everything in a nice neat package, easily consumed and understood.

CONT

[mamacita]

Republicans are very good at advertising campaigns. How many catchy, repeatable Republican talking points can you think of off the top of your head? Fighting them over there so we won't have to fight them at home? God, Guns, and Gays? Tax and Spend Democrats? Do-Nothing Democrats? Grand titles for policies: War on Terror, Progress for a New American Century, Iraqi Freedom....

Democrats tend to get too wordy and love to discuss and debate. Let's face it--much of America has a short attention span, and the Republicans know how to use that to their advantage. It's the KISS rule--Keep It Simple Stupid.

Personally, I think Democrats should hire some Budweiser ad guys.

[sparkandy]

The Democrats are constantly nominating candidates who are seen as the greater of two evils. If they ever nominate someone that middle of the road and conservative voters are comfortable with, they'll win. I'm an Independent, formerly Republican. I voted for Gore in '00. I voted AGAINST Kerry in '04. A controversial candidate may be what the progressives crave, but to people who are just struggling to survive, sometimes the devil you think you know is better than the devil you just can't get a firm hold on.

[Freesia2]

I'm an Independent, which means that with both parties I'm usually on the outside looking in. I prefer it.

But one thing I have noticed is there is a consistency in the Republican agenda. And they have specific symbols. They can take almost any candidate, wrap a flag around him, hang some familiar labels on him like "war hero" "every man" "straight talker", and by the time they're done he looks like a red, white and blue Christmas tree and the whole party dances around him.

Democrats tend to have some very good ideas, but unfortunately they have them all at the same. They like choice, they like social programs, they like nature, they like many many things. Good things. They just can't agree on order of importance. And so they all clamor to stick their label on their candidate and jostle each other out of the way and by the time they're done the candidate looks confused and he's so covered with labels you can't see really see who he is anymore.

Democrat's ideas are better. But the Republicans are more efficient at presentation.

I read once that if a store wants to get a man to buy clothes, that they should offer limited options, easy access and all accessories within reach. Men don't want to have to think about it too much. That may be why middle class men keep choosing our President from the Republicans. They're shopper friendly.

[HowdyDoody]

The thing that's so discouraging to me is that we're not engaging with the right-wing on an even basis. They've spent the last 30 years dumbing down the populace, and now the righties can have their way on most issues by lying -- no honesty left in them. Example: offshore drilling. People are drooling for that now, because they can't think critically enough to figure that any increase we might contribute to the world's oil supply won't change the price one iota. And how about evolution? People actually think there is a controversy about that, as they believe that global warming is controversial. This state of affairs just flabbergasts me. Most of my friends and I knew that "W" was a fool the first time he opened his mouth, yet a large majority of folks thought he was a saint. And McCain? Don't get me started...

The long-term answer is education, IF we can find our way, collectively. But it's going to be tough for a very long time, and I fear, like Randy Newman, that we long ago lost our #1 position.

[nk007]

It is important not to overlook the importance of the Media. Ever since Ronald Reagan's Presidency, the conservative take on the issues has pretty much become the default position in American politics. George Bush's incompetency, the dire state of our current economic conditions has began to undermine the conservative position and Ideas. I think the problem for Democrats is that they have a hard time communicating their ideas because corporate media, (that mythical liberal creature) prevent that from happening. Corporate media (aka-MSM media) accomplishes that through these methods: by continually to be advocates of GOP( e.g. Fox), or by feeding the public scandals and and other news, that are devoid of any political consequences.

[FearlessFreep]

Here's another reason: Because the Democratic Party leadership keeps taking the path of least resistance.

[JXB]

Doesn't the reason lie more in the fact that conservative generally means preserving the status quo and related themes, such as "tradition," "traditional values," etc., and progressive generally means change, development, and socio-political evolution. Change and progress almost always require more work and uncertainty than simply maintaining things where they are. Change is hard, change is risky, change is scary, even when you aren't being served by the status quo.

[BadChristian]

I think that Jane Eyrez, CitizenE and Wilbur or on the ball, but I would add that we live in a time of overwhelming "identity politics." Liberals and "the left" are identified and labled by their personalities and their charateristics more than their policies.

In the world of corporate advertising, surrounding the people in "the culture" of their ads is becoming the way of modern life. People in the United States have started to live more inside the television than within their communities. The Frontline series "Merchants of Cool" is worth watching for a perspective on this.
I think that the Republican Party isn't necessarily the correct target, but that their corporate masters are. They are engaging in high order social engineering, and it is very effective. I recomend that people start to watch for the cross polination between corporatism and politics that is in the majority of television advertisements. See if they can pick out what the political beliefs of the "Straw-man" are, and what are the political beliefs of the character they are supposed to identify with. Ads are like music videos these days, and, if you watch television, you are bombarded with messages far beyond the simple "buy product X." It's not just FOX News... It is literally EVERWHERE on the boob tube.

[realpolitic]

Conservatives support a number of think tanks that have a lot of sway among certain conservative politicians. There they develop radical ideas such as attacking Iraq and instead of selling these ideas to the American public at large just convince a few opinion makers that theirs is the right idea. The public is brought along whenever the policy has already been put in place. Liberals need an answer to these conservative think tanks and should begin more grass roots campaigning. Liberals also need an answer to the domination of conservative talk radio where all the nuts gather.

[army193]

Did I miss something....Dean has been doing this for sometime and it is paying off it wasn't going to happen overnight and many of the establishment wanted nothing to do with it....The leadership has missed the boat and is still in the old mode of things...They may not like what could happen when the Democratic house and senate seek new leadership in January 2009 with over whelming numbers elected.

[Dave Johnson - Huffpost Blogger]

Dean IS the party. He is doing a great job building election infrastructure, but it is not a party's job to create demand, it is their job to respond to demand.

I'm talking about outside of the party organizations like the Commonweal Institute, Drum Major Institute and others that work to explain the benefits of our core progressive values of democracy and community. This brings appreciation of these values and creates demand for progressive policies.

[oldpotsmuggler]

Americans are a fat, lazy, not overly bright people who have had an easy life dumped into our laps. We have come to take things for granted and have developed an entitlement mentality, leading us to now be easily steered by any argument that reinforces our natural inclination to be greedy and self centered. And, boy, does modern conservatism have an easy time exploiting this reality.

Let's face it, the average person here has a leg up on the average European, for instance, only because our ancestors left there a few hundred years ago and "discovered" this large, empty, and resource wealthy continent. And the aboriginal peoples of the Americas cannot really prevail in an argument that we stole the place from them because that battle has already been fought and won by us.

Next, we have the fortuitious circumstance that American military might decimated in World War II nearly all of our prior economic competitors, while leaving our country as the manufaturing powerhouse of the entire planet. If this kind of a history doesn't give us a momentous headstart, what would it take.

Amazingly we now have the kind of a country where even dull normal folks can become very well off right wingnuts/

We come from a tradition which said "from those to whom the most has been given is the most expected" and we have evolved into a place where we are encouraged to say "I've got mine, so f---- you".

[twofish]

If I could lead you into the Promised Land, someone else could lead you right back out again. -- Eugene Debs