The malaise is palpable, from both sides. Mitt Romney is clearly a consolation prize to every single member of the GOP except twenty or so CEOs, while for many on the other side the almost impossible magic of electing a young, charismatic black man as leader of the free world has inexorably given way to a low-grade depression, both fiscal and psychic. The cure to what ails the electorate is not more policy but policy across an array of urgent middle-class issues all in the service of creating and enforcing an irresistibly infectious and uplifting narrative.
Facts don't excite voters, stories do. If one could teach us to dream again, we'll follow them anywhere. That's why somebody needs to tell us and keep telling us from now to November, "It's going to get better. I see it! I see the steps that get us back up there in the sky from down here in this cold, sucking mud."
The Obama campaign's resistance to providing a cohesive, easily digestible message has famously plagued the administration's first term and plagues it still. Infrastructure investment, aid to states and health care reform, for example, could easily have been woven together into a tapestry that explained how Obama planned to first save the nation from Bush's recession and then prepare it for a glorious renaissance through a balance of short-term stimulus (roads and bridges) and long-term debt reduction (Medicare reform). As Drew Westen pointed out early and often, the Obama administration went out of its way to not blame its predecessor for the recession until the midterms when it was too late. Though 68 percent of Americans still blame George Bush, 52 percent blame the current president for our rut. Obama and surrogates should have started shouting, "unpaid wars," and "unpaid tax cuts to the wealthy" from the day after inauguration and never shut up.
The administration's messaging problems are ironic since they won the presidency with the help of just two words, hope and change. The message this time could be just as simple, just as compelling. As someone whose only job has been working with words, might I humbly suggest one to define Obama's campaign this time:
If they would ask me, I'd tell the administration to stamp "Forward" on every piece of campaign literature they print. The American version of Britain's World War II slogan, "Keep Calm and Carry On," "Forward" pairs well with the "No Drama Obama" Americans have come to know as a leader. It reminds them that they are moving forward, albeit much too slowly, and that the president is their best hope continuing the momentum. It also defines the president favorably against Romney, who can be framed as hopelessly retrograde. ("I mean, c'mon," they could say. "We've seen the movie Romney's starring in before. It's called, Bush III: Back to No Future.")
A simple, hopeful message is so key to the president's reelection because it needs to forcefully counterbalance the extreme right's incessantly focused storyline that America is so lost, so hopeless and resistant to change that now it's every person for him or herself. The shocking success of their cynicism has poisoned even those diametrically opposed to them.
Americans of most persuasions used to be able to argue around a shared center, like two evenly matched rugby teams locking horns in a scrum. Today, elements of the extreme right have so infected the GOP that it proudly advocates sabotaging our nation's economy for its own political gain. From aid to the states to help for the unemployed to the continued economic brinksmanship around our nation's debt-ceiling, no elected officials in our history have so cavalierly toyed with the fundamentals of our economy. As Ezra Klein wrote earlier this month in an important piece, "The Keynesian Case for Romney," the current GOP's unmistakable message today is, "vote for us or the recovery gets it."
Those that feel betrayed by Obama's polished, emotional delivery last time need to be convinced that this election is a cause and the president is not just their leader but their partner. Furthering that end, we all know that if Democrats don't hold onto the Senate and retake the House, or at the least cut the House GOP majority enough to scare them into stopping their ongoing actions, then an Obama reelection won't be any different from the bilious paralysis we're suffering through currently.
Without the hope that Obama will have not only the will, but the tools to fundamentally change Washington in his next term, a vote for Romney is not an illogical choice for an independent voter. Yes, that voter will usher in a lot of things they either don't care about or oppose, but as Klein points out, as things stand today, gridlock would almost certainly be eased.
I would urge the president to think bigger than the swing states and electoral math, to dream again of profound change. Free of ever having to campaign again, Obama can spend the next four years, if he has help in a new Congress, on paving a road to a bright American future.
That's a road I think a lot of us would still like to travel down. Mr. President, show us the way.
This story originally appeared in our weekly iPad magazine, Huffington, in the iTunes App store.
Follow Trey Ellis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TreyEllis
Richard (RJ) Eskow: Is Obama's Corporate-Friendly Approach Really "How Liberals Win"?
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Obama should go forth with the progressive/democrat/liberal mantra:
"Only government knows best for you and me!"
Obama should further contrast this with the conservative mantra:
"Trust People" and "Question Authority" and "A rising tide raises all boats" and "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country"
Progressives have made a lot of progress in this vein. Now is the time to drive reality home!
I have heard some say that if we lose everything then we will become better, that it's better to start from want instead of from satisfaction, because only then will our direction be clear and we will be forced to think more clearly and perhaps even work together.
I don't see any impediment to our cooperation but our selfishness. How big a leap in evolution is it to discover and implement cooperative solutions? It's a mere choice. Do or die, right or wrong, up or down, together or separately. Refusing to be taxed or governed by a government cedes power to the most powerful, neutering government's role to restrain the powerful from controlling and exploiting the weak, the poor, the young, and the infirm, and preventing it from fulfilling its requirement to promote the general welfare.
My worry is that things are not so bad yet that we are forcing needed changes now. Elections are great times for debate, but I am dismayed that the rhetoric seems all about 'the other guy' and not about the conditions of the country today, or about achieving our needs in a changed world.
People do long for clarity and simplification. I cringe at each State of the Union address when a president proposes a 6.27 tax credit phased in over 4.75 years for those earning between $17,500 and $118,000 phasing out at 1.4 percent for each additional $2,800 over the higher amount.
I'm fearful that systemic changes will not happen anytime soon. Politicians look too much to polls and heel like a dog to the lobbyist's dollar. Usually crisis is the sole motivator for action. In other words, the barn must burn down before politicians take notice, and even then response is not always guaranteed.
I don't know whether we can overcome this systemic inertia, but isn't it worth a try.
Romney on the other hand is very bland, but also downright dangerous. Even if I were a Republican, I would not like him and would not want him. He is not a statesman and he has no business being in the White House.
In fact, if I were a Republican, I would wait for 2016 in the hopes that the GOP would manage to find the best men or women in the party to run for the top job, rather than those in the margins. Instead of going the Sara Plain, Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann route, I would hope the GOP would have taken a good lesson home and would choose to go the route of the bravest and the brightest, the most qualified Republican in the land for that job. Mitt Romney is certainly NOT that.
Isn't that how we got in this mess in the first place?
At some point the American people are going to have to grow up and stop believing in "Santa Claus".
Until we do, THIS is the future of America.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0
When the candidate that lies best wins..................................America loses.
You should vote for the progressive third party of your choice. It will make you feel better; your brain will be filled with lovely endorphins.
http://youtu.be/e0q1PH_6Yys
If I liked it // Ifit benefited me// If it gave me lots of money
I am sharp enough to know that isn't going to happen
so how about a president I can trust to do the right
thing for the American majority. NOT race or color
but ehonomic conditions; to elevate the poor,
how about that for a change?
My 'secret' longed for candidate? Andrew Cuomo. He leads with distinction, thinks outside of the box, is not afraid to review his stance(s) to see if a compromise is possible but also not afraid to occasionally take the bully pulpit if necessary. I cannot wait for the day he runs for national office. Registered GOP, but I will campaign for him without a doubt.
Now if only he'd give up the fracking idea, he would IMHO be a PERFECT candidate for all!
He's a perfect presidential candidate - but not yet, we NEED him here
The chief is pursuing a path counter to the requirement of the tribe. What logic places profit before people? It possesses no interpretable reason.
"Facts don't excite voters, stories do."
Once upon a time there were humans. And the next thing they knew, there weren’t.
"the steps that get us back up"
Stop mandating personalities, start mandating polices. Candidates that refute referendums, do not care what the electorate want.
"a cohesive, easily digestible message"
We can’t. Only the mandate of the majority can.
"Obama and surrogates should have"
chewed though that leash attaching them to their (pay) master.
"might I humbly suggest one to define Obama's campaign"
Plebiscite (We tried doing it our way. Now we’ll try doing it yours)
"Forward"
into the swamp.
"No Drama Obama"
Dharma, not Obama.
"Bush III: Back to No Future."
Obama II: Back to No Say.
"two evenly matched rugby teams locking horns in a scrum"
Has evolved into one very large team and a singleton. Who has hidden the ball away.
"GOP's unmistakable message today is"
death and dishonour?
"the president is not just their leader"
he’s the conduit for commands coming from higher up.
"the tools to fundamentally change Washington"
Breakout the referendums, and the people will finish the job.
"Romney is not an illogical choice"
As things will become so bad so quick, the inevitable will be initiated.
"Obama can spend the next four years"
As a houseguest in Hotel Gitmo?