Democrats' Top-Secret Formula for Victory
Stop obsessing over ideology. It's about personality.
Sept. 15, 2018
'In a Pennsylvania congressional district, Conor Lamb defies the odds to beat his Republican opponent in a bitterly fought special election and the message is clear: Democrats must hug the center. Dozens of strategists take careful note. A hundred news commentaries bloom.
In a New York congressional district months later, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stages an extraordinary Democratic primary upset and the wisdom inverts: Leftward lies glory. The strategists regroup. The commentators rewrite.
Michigan delivers one verdict about Democrats best direction and then Massachusetts hands down another. What happens in the partys gubernatorial primary in Florida is contradicted by what happens in its gubernatorial primaries in Rhode Island and New York. And so it seesaws, over and over, as we rapt observers yearn for a pattern and persuade ourselves that weve found one only to have it vanish before our eyes.
Thats because were staring at the wrong thing. Intent on some ideological takeaway, we miss the human moral. This years victorious candidates, like so many winners before them, arent prevailing simply or even mainly because of the labels theyre wearing or the precise points on the political spectrum to which they can be affixed.
Theyre powered by their personalities, their organizations or both. They communicate effectively. They have backgrounds that make sense to voters or temperaments that feel right to them. And theyve devised ways to reach voters that their rivals havent.
The lesson of 2018 isnt novel. But its overlooked because it doesnt come wrapped in fancy analytics, it cant be integrated into sweeping pronouncements about the arc of America, and it transcends our beloved binaries of progressive versus moderate and blue versus red.
Candidates matter. Campaigns count.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/opinion/sunday/democrats-candidates-victory.html?
RHMerriman
(1,376 posts)Good column... as Tip O'Neil said, all politics is local.
Squinch
(50,955 posts)Thanks for the thread.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)but so does money. And the right spends so much money that constant media exposure and right wing slogans are seen as actual positions and solutions. That was a huge reason that Trump was successful.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,047 posts)That said, I have not seen ads about the failure of the GOP to put any checks on Trump or the impending GOP plan to cut Social Security and Medicare to pay for those billionaire tax cuts. I could be missing them, but I haven't noticed any posted here either.
Seems like all the GOP ads are about scary immigrants.
All the Democratic ads I've seen are about health insurance. Which is fine until you need seven paragraphs or three minutes to explain why GOP proposals would not really cover pre-existing conditions.
Personalities matter too, but if that all that was needed Beto vs Ted would not be a tossup.