A Noble Loser vs. A Dirty Winner

The reason that the Democrats have become experts at losing the Presidency is that the Republicans have become experts at the dirty win. Or so the mythology goes. This idea gained traction with the smear campaign run against Michael Dukakis in 1988, when the patrician George Bush played the part of Pontius Pilate, washing his hands while Willie Horton's face was plastered all over the TV. Since then we have seen Swift Boating and Democratic candidates faces split-screened with Osama bin Laden. This year sets a low water mark in dirty campaigning, with John McCain claiming that Barack Obama wants to teach sex education to kindergartners and that he is pals with 'terrorist' William Ayers, the former member of the Weathermen, and now professor at the University of Illinois. Even with Obama's good poll numbers right now, McCain's nasty accusations have some Democrats worried once again. Personally, I think there's too much mythology and not enough realism at work here. Democrats have lost every election since 1980, with the exception of Bill Clinton, for several reasons:

· The Democratic majority was chipped away when the racist South turned Republican in the Nixon era.
· The union movement, which was solidly Democratic, collapsed.
· Blue collar voters, with the arrival of prosperity, stopped voting their pocket books and started voting their social resentments against war protesters, minorities, gays, and the elite class.
· Widespread disillusion with politicians after Watergate drove voters away, allowing splinter groups like the religious right to seize power in a climate of apathy.
· The rise of character assassination and fake scandals promoted by the right wing drove away good potential candidates who refused to fight in the mud.
· An aging population moved right, as happens in almost any aging society.
· Pressure from immigration, terrorism, and crime triggered an angry defensive reaction. This aided the right-wing's opposition to social progress. Falling back on patriotism and xenophobia is commonly seen under these circumstances.
· The Republicans forged a new coalition of Southerners, social and religious conservatives, and the mountain and plains states, taking advantage of the electoral college (which can give a candidate the Presidency while he loses the popular vote).

If you add these factors up, it's clear that dirty campaigning is only one ingredient among many factors in the Republican victories. Barack Obama's task isn't to win nobly instead of losing nobly, it's to counter the factors I've listed. He needs a perfect storm against the demographic gains the Republicans have built in the last few decades. With the recent financial meltdown and the insecurity it is engendering across the country, it is likely that Obama now has that perfect storm. The voters' focus on leadership that can address these economic issues should be enough to wash away the narrow majorities that Lee Atwater and Karl Rove were able to carve out of the middle class electorate.

The McCain campaign understands that the ground has shifted under their feet, and that negative ads will likely work only if the election is already pretty close, but given the limitations of their candidate, smear tactics is all they have. As Sarah Palin and McCain whip their crowds into frenzies of anger and hatred toward Obama, letting shouts of "terrorist!" and "kill him!" go unchecked, they may find that the shouts of this poisonous pocket of their constituency will be their enduring legacy. Going dirty without the underlying basis to win means going down in history as a dirty loser.

Visit www.intent.com to read more from Deepak Chopra and other prominent voices.

Comments

[carlonw]

The McCain campaign incessantly harps on Obama's lack of experience in foreign affairs and not actually running anything in his short political career. Aside from McCain's lack of experience at running anything, has anyone ever made the point that 19 million voters thought Obama was capable of leading our country and only one person has thought that Mrs. Palin was similarly qualified?

[GrainOSand]

"¢ The union movement, which was solidly Democratic, collapsed."
Under the weight of Reagan"s "Union busting". How could we have allowed organizing, for worker"s rights, to become dirty words?

"He needs a perfect storm against the demographic gains the Republicans have built in the last few decades."
¦and people claim there is no God. The stage of circumstances has been set for what is occurring this year. What is occurring is more of a question not just for the United States, but also for the world. Here on the precipice of our downfall, based on how we have acted in the past -- shall we continue or change course? We have a choice and I am enthralled as I watch a nation make up its mind about what it stands for, what it represents, or how it defines itself.

Great treatment Mr. Chopra and thanks. Nothing happens by coincidence is what I come away with and if Obama is to win he will have to do combat and win against the divisive past which has brought us to where we are now -- a tall order. One he has thus far proven himself ready willing and able to fulfill.

Legacy is nonsense to me, but I will say that to be known as a dirty loser cannot be any persons" want.

[HoosierRadical]

If aging populations tend to vote right, should we not be concern with baby boomers?

[UCSD101]

Thank you Deepak, we are watching much more carefully than we've ever done before.

Thank "heaven" for the internet we even communicate much better than ever before.

We are on watch and on guard. Alraedy you see a change in the McCain campaign - they know the majority of American will not stand for what they were doing.

[FPElitist]

Deepak you are forgetting a vital reason why we've lost the past two Presidential elections, I love ya, but you are glossing over this:

Voter Suprression
Election Fraud through the machines.

Why do you not address these aspects?

[BuzzingAlong]

Don't forget the role of the Supreme Court.

[JRsNana]

I have to hope every single day that people will see this ugly rhetoric for what it really is - hate speech and nothing but. It's McCarthyism. It's sad.

[Liddyboo]

Continuous of previous blog....

John is someone who has supported 90% of Bush's economic policies.

John is someone who despite saying he is going to increase jobs has voted for the very things Bush proposed that decrease jobs. John is someone that has said there will be more wars and less jobs. John is someone that is so fixated on the War that he doesn't realize the real cost of war. With the money spent on this war HEALTHCARE could have been paid for, for every man, women, and child, all of our roads and other infrastructures could be fixed, and multiple Energy projects could have been implemented that in turn produce thousands if not millions of jobs.

John is someone that doesn't understand that diplomacy is the cornerstone of the United States of America. John is someone that who once stood up against telling lies but now is embracing them for his own good. John is someone who is injecting fear into the minds of the American people. John is someone who will cut Medicare $1.3 trillion dollars.

John is someone who admits that Social Security benefits will be decreased when he is in office. John is someone who is so concerned with guilt by association that he forgot to check his own background. John is someone who despite his Maverick persona is nothing but.

[Tilnar]

Once again we see the repetition of the myth that American values have shifted to the right. Opinion polls have demonstrated that this isn't the case, and, for that matter, psychological studies have shown that counter to the opinion here, people actually become more liberal as they age.

I think, really, it would be a lot more beneficial to talk about many of the other points, and, for that matter, consider the fact that Republicans have become remarkably adept at pushing the wedge-issues - making single issues (especially abortion, gay rights, and the fear of terrorism) into the driving force behind people's voting. [Never mind that the only major attack came on their watch, and they've made the world less safe by the reports of their own offices...]

But that's me.

[RepugsOut08]

Barack Obama was the only one who got it right this year. Just as he was one of the few who realized Iraq would be a fiasco, he correctly judged the mood of the people. This would not be the year of a successful campaign based on character assassination.
Gore and Kerry both ran bad campaigns, and they allowed the Republicans to win narrow victories with Rove's Nixonian smear tactics. Those tactics didn't work against the superior campaigning of Bill Clinton, and they've failed to stop Obama's brilliant campaign for change.
As McCain finds himself mired it the slime of his own campaign's mudslinging, one can only admire the karma of it all.

[wasap1]

Your analysis is 'right on the mark'. Every democrat should read this. There are two points which I would add.
(1) The economic down turn (and ross perot) helped elect Clinton in '92.
(2) In '96 Clinton's Dick Morris devised pseudo-repub strategy worked.

Given Obama/Biden's response to the economic decline and their emphasis on get-out-the-vote efforts, they like Clinton in 92 should win.

[FPElitist]

you forget the manipulation of the machines and voter suppression. Oh and the Supreme Court messing with state's issues.

Kerry won. Gore Won.

[RepugsOut08]

I agree, but they should have beat Bush so badly the election couldn't be stolen. I love Gore and Kerry, but they ran bad campaigns.

[DundeeNatalSA]

I agree with Dr. Chopra about this. However, we know we are very different times right now. If someone actually believes the Republican leadership is the best way to lead this country, then they deserve what they get - the hardship will only get worse. Maybe that is what is needed to finally drive home that the Republican way is just dead wrong.

Who said it:?? "If America is to fail it will not be from the outside, but from within"

Voters need to be courageous right now more than ever.

[mentallectual]

I believe you're referring to the Will Durant quote - "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destoyed itself from within"

[RepugsOut08]

A great quote from Durant.
Nikita Khruschev also warned that the US would destroy itself from within as well. I don't remember the exact quote, but it was similar to Dundee's example.

[frenchie25]

Political campaigns utilize smear tactics and dirty tricks because these strategies are proven winners. Only when the majority of the electorate rejects these tactics, only then will they cease to be a viable tool.

[FPElitist]

They are starting to reject these tactics....

I don't think it will work this time.

[BeamReacher]

I agree, as I usually do, with Dr. Chopra. I would like to add to this dialog by suggesting that the very nature of going negative will backfire on McCain campaign. This is because all of the hate and anger being fueled by their rhetoric is actually making more people focus on Barack Obama. The focus on Obama, even the negative focus, will draw energy towards Obama and his campaign. We can see this in the poll numbers since McCain has gone negative (yes the economy is helping that too). However, I liken this to the 2000 election when most Democrats (I include myself) really had a hatred for Bush and all he stood for. That hatred manifested an energy for Bush resulting in his election and 8 yrs of darkness. I wonder what would have happened if we Democrats and progressive independents would have spent more time in support of Gore and less time in opposition to Bush. I intend to focus the next few weeks on Sen. Obama and the new day that will dawn upon his election rather than the dirty doings of McCain . . . or at least Im going to try.

Cheers

[exmate]

The dirty trick has become an art form in recent years.

Rove and Atwater managed to lower the bar below what their mentor, Donald Segretti, managed to do.

[kate eryn]

We should arrest them for moral turpitude.

[gymmy]

The winning of an election at seemingly all costs is because the survival of America is at stake. What kind of 'America' is at stake for survival?, McCain/Palins' version of America is. We should hope that this disingenous and most likely temporary pull-back by McCain on devaluing Obama's patriotism and character will show to the broader context that McCain/Palin don't have the guts to be true to their mission. This could translate into a very large amount of thier so-called constituents, whom have supported them especially during those attacks, have lost confidence and may not even vote at all for their canidates running against Obama/Biden.