archived: 27 Mar - 2 Apr, 2005         Back                 Next

UPDATED:  March 27, 2005   

                        REICH REVISITED
                        [Authored by Mac Whatley]  

Junkie:  TPJ published Reich’s article referenced by Whatley on Sunday.  Readers should scroll down and read TPJ’s article and then read Whatley’s article. 

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Reich’s whole article in The New Republic is more thought-provoking than just four digests.  I don’t think Reich here is trying to “frame” issues except in the broadest terms—he’s looking for unifying principles, the mythology of the Democratic Party in its role in US history.   

The gut reasons anybody chooses to be, or chooses to remain, a Democrat instead of a Republican aren’t “true” except on the mythic level.  These are his first take on the Jungian archetypes of the USA, if you will, “true” on the unconscious level in some way for everyone, just twisted one way or another.  The Republicans have their same version of all four—but mirrored in the opposite direction from Democrats.   

Ronald Reagan made full use of all four during his presidency- that’s what made him “The Great Communicator,” he was able to play on these themes like a virtuoso.  For Republicans, “The Triumphant Individual” was Reagan himself – how many times did we hear the stories of “Dutch” Reagan, minor league radio announcer, moving from Midwestern hick to Hollywood Star to Governor to President?  The Benevolent Community: Reagan’s theme song was “A Shining City on a Hill”, and he used its tear-jerking organ swells to top off every big speech.  The Mob at the Gates— Reagan coined the phrase “Evil Empire”, and used it to hammer nails in the communist coffin.   

The Rot at the Top?  Here’s the biggest difference-- to Republicans the only rot is Rot at the Core—wishy washy Limousine Liberals who “piss” on the virtues and faith that Made This Country Great, Welfare Queens who drive Cadillacs to pick up their food stamps, Loose Women who need abortions because they can’t keep their legs together, Girlie Men who are after your children or your masculinity. The Top can’t possibly be rotten because the top is made up of all those heroic individuals who made it up from the broad-shouldered masses of #2 to #1. 

Republicans have emphasized number 4 to distract people from their wholesale attacks on numbers 1, 2 and 3.   The facts would indicate that Republicans are systematically gutting every government program that makes #1 and #2 possible for anyone who didn’t inherit wealth and position, while continuing to play the siren song that lulls people into thinking everything’s just fine.  When the diabolical forces of #3 threatened to disappear, they manufactured some new ones.  And they stoke the fires of #4 with every piece of every Trojan horse they can find, to keep the public attention focused where it can’t do any harm.  As long as people are scared to death about #3 and #4, nobody cares if #1 and 2 take some collateral damage. 

I think what Reich is saying is that Democrats have got to learn these themes and then play our variations on them so loudly that people hear us again.  Why aren’t we playing the Ken Lay/Enron Symphony so loud that the “Rot at the Top” theme is on everybody’s lips?  Because Democrats in Congress are tone deaf, or care more about re-election than about the whole piece of music, and because the rest of us aren’t even singing off the same page in the hymn book. 

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Junkie: Whatley’s analysis is impeccable.  However, what Democrats may be lacking is a conductor.

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                        TUMBLING TUMBLE WEED 

The evidence continues to mount that Bush’s approval ratings are indeed falling.  Taking the average of all publicly reported polls since January 2005 through last Friday, Bush has maintained an approval rating of 50.05% with a disapproval rating of slightly less than 44.74%.  March polling results indicate a dip in Bush’s numbers. 

TPJ’s chart below demonstrates the trends: 

                                                                 Approve      Disapprove  Unsure

Several important points emerge.  They are: 

Bush’s March average has clearly fallen below 50% to 48.33%.  

Bush’s March disapproval rating has risen above 45% to 45.50%. 

In January and February, four polls showing Bush’s approval rating below 50% were in the upper 40% range (49%, 49%, 46%, and 49%).  In March, three polls showing Bush below 50% are in the lower to mid-40% range (45%, 45%, and 43%). 

Only one poll in February reflected a Bush disapproval rating greater than his approval rating (45%/47%), while three polls in March reflect disapproval rating greater than approval ratings (45%/48%; 45%/46% and 43%/48%).   

Those “unsure” has risen to above 6%, up almost 2% since January and one full point above Bush’s three month average of 5.16%. 

Bush’s approval rating is falling in small but clearly perceptible measure.  What explains the fall?  One would suspect that declining support for Bush’s social security privatization plan and the Schiavo case have had a significant impact. 

                        SCHIAVO  

Last week, TPJ featured the successful Republican effort to politicize the fate of Terri Schiavo. Click here to see the story: -- SCHIAVO   TPJ noted that Republicans distributed “talking points” to Senators emphasizing the anticipated political advantage Republicans would gain from passing legislation Republicans believed would restore artificial life support to Schiavo.   

This is a copy of the “talking points:” -- The Raw Story

“Despicable” is the only word that aptly describes Republican intervention in Schavio’s case at the federal level.  Public reaction has been equally severe.  Consider these poll results from CBS News: -- Polling Report  

Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg has called for an investigation to identify Republican Senator’s office authored the “talking points.”  This is a copy of Sen. Lautenberg’s demand: -- The Raw Story

Sen. Lautenberg’s request is precisely correct – the public has a right to know the source of those who politicized Schavio’s case.  Will Democrats in the Senate join Sen. Lautenberg’s effort? 

Democrats missed another opportunity to demonstrate that the Party stands for the constitutional rights of the individual and families.   In both the House and Senate votes, Democrats were split on the Republican legislation. 

Last week, TPJ asked the question if the blowback from the Schavio case would be on the Democrats as well as the Republicans.  The public has correctly perceived that Congressional Democrats offered little better than the Republicans in the unveiling tragedy as clearly denoted by a recent Gallup poll: -- Polling Report 

Of course, Republicans continue to reach news lows: 

[Rep. Tom] DeLay told a conservative Christian group that the Schiavo case was a gift from God for their cause, drawing fresh complaints from Democrats that he was trying to score political points.

"One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo to elevate the visibility of what's going on in America," the Texan congressman told a meeting of the Family Research Council. – Yahoo  

The question now is whether Democrats can find their measure as a Party and reach new highs. 

                        A TALE OF TWO PARTIES 

Chairman Dean has devoted considerable early energy to fundraising, both for the DNC and state parties.  The early results portray a tale of two Parties.  Dean has raised more funds for the DNC in the first weeks than the Party raised last year: 

The Democratic National Committee raised $3.4 million in three weeks - more than double the amount raised during the same time in 2001 after President Bush was first elected, the new Democratic chairman said Monday. -- NewsMax 

The Republicans, however, have a substantial lead in fundraising: 

Chairman Howard Dean is working to keep Democrats competitive with a national Republican Party that had a 6-1 cash advantage at the beginning of February. In January, the GOP raised $10.5 million.  . . .

The DNC has raised nearly $9.6 million in 2005 - less than half the total raised by the Republican National Committee in that time. -- NewsMax 

In order to make the Democratic Party competitive, every Democrat needs to give.  Any amount helps the cause. Follow this hyperlink to make a contribution today: -- Contribute  

                        FRAMING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY 

Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, has waded into the issue of how to frame the Democratic Party.  His thesis is simple and thought provoking.  Reich believes that the Democratic Party historically stands for four principles: --History News Network 

The Triumphant Individual. This is the familiar tale of the little guy who works hard, takes risks, believes in himself, and eventually gains wealth, fame, and honor. It's the story of the self-made man (or, more recently, woman) who bucks the odds, spurns the naysayers, and shows what can be done with enough gumption and guts. He's instantly recognizable: plainspoken, self-reliant, and uncompromising in his ideals--the underdog who makes it through hard work and faith in himself. Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography is the first in a long line of U.S. self-help manuals about how to make it through self-sacrifice and diligence. The story is epitomized in the life of Abe Lincoln, born in a log cabin, who believed that "the value of life is to improve one's condition." The theme was captured in Horatio Alger's hundred or so novellas, whose heroes all rise promptly and predictably from rags to riches. It's celebrated in the tales of immigrant peddlers who become millionaire tycoons. And it's found in the manifold stories of downtrodden fighters who undertake dangerous quests and find money and glory. Think Rocky Balboa, Norma Rae, and Erin Brockovich. The moral: With enough effort and courage, anyone can make it in the United States.

The Benevolent Community. This is the story of neighbors and friends who roll up their sleeves and pitch in for the common good. Its earliest formulation was John Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity," delivered on board a ship in Salem Harbor just before the Puritans landed in 1630--a version of Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, in which the new settlers would be "as a City upon a Hill," "delight in each other," and be "of the same body." Similar communitarian and religious images were found among the abolitionists, suffragettes, and civil rights activists of the 1950s and 1960s. "I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low," said Martin Luther King Jr., extolling the ideal of the national community. The story is captured in the iconic New England town meeting, in frontier settlers erecting one another's barns, in neighbors volunteering as firefighters and librarians, and in small towns sending their high school achievers to college and their boys off to fight foreign wars. It suffuses Norman Rockwell's paintings and Frank Capra's movies. Consider the last scene in It's a Wonderful Life, when George learns he can count on his neighbors' generosity and goodness, just as they had always counted on him.

The Mob at the Gates. In this story, the United States is a beacon light of virtue in a world of darkness, uniquely blessed but continuously endangered by foreign menaces. Hence our endless efforts to contain the barbarism and tyranny beyond our borders. Daniel Boone fought Indians--white America's first evil empire. Davy Crockett battled Mexicans. The story is found in the Whig's anti-English and pro-tariff histories of the United States, in the antiimmigration harangues of the late nineteenth century, and in World War II accounts of Nazi and Japanese barbarism. It animates modern epics about space explorers (often sporting the stars and stripes) battling alien creatures bent on destroying the world. The narrative gave special force to cold war tales during the '50s of an international communist plot to undermine U.S. democracy and subsequently of "evil" empires and axes. The underlying lesson: We must maintain vigilance, lest diabolical forces overwhelm us.

The Rot at the Top. The last story concerns the malevolence of powerful elites. It's a tale of corruption, decadence, and irresponsibility in high places--of conspiracy against the common citizen. It started with King George III, and, to this day, it shapes the way we view government--mostly with distrust. The great bullies of American fiction have often symbolized Rot at the Top: William Faulkner's Flem Snopes, Willie Stark as the Huey Long-like character in All the King's Men, Lionel Barrymore's demonic Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life, and the antagonists that hound the Joad family in The Grapes of Wrath. Suspicions about Rot at the Top have inspired what historian Richard Hofstadter called the paranoid style in U.S. politics--from the pre-Civil War Know-Nothings and Anti-Masonic movements through the Ku Klux Klan and Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts. The myth has also given force to the great populist movements of U.S. history, from Andrew Jackson's attack on the Bank of the United States in the 1830s through William Jennings Bryan's prairie populism of the 1890s.  

Reich’s four themes for the Democratic Party are certainly not the only themes or even perhaps the best “frames.”  They are a beginning to find unifying principles. 

NEXT- MICHAEL CARMICHAEL

Last Update: 03/23/2006