I started Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future,
by Democratic strategists James Carville and Paul Begala. This book was
published in 2006, but it was written before the Democratic victories
that year. The setting of this book is the aftermath of the 2004
Presidential election, when George W. Bush beat John Kerry, and even
Republicans whom Carville and Begala considered to be quite looney
defeated reasonable Democratic candidates. This was a time when the
Democrats were tired of losing.
The question that Carville and
Begala ask is why the Democrats did so badly. In my latest reading,
they offered some answers: the Republicans crafted a narrative about
John Kerry being an elitist flip-flopper, whereas John Kerry failed to
convey a coherent narrative and even to attack George W. Bush
adequately; the Republicans were able to identify people who were likely
to vote for them and knew what buttons to push to get those people to
the polls; and there was a feeling among a number of low-income and
middle-income people that the Democrats did not share or even honor
their values.
There were at least three noteworthy passages in my
latest reading. First, Paul Begala had a moving story about when he and
his son were taking a ride back to Begala's farm. They passed a
trailer that had a new Bush-Cheney sign in the window, and Paul's son
asked why poor people would vote for Bush and Cheney, when the Democrats
are the party that cares for the poor. Paul replied that they feel
that the Democrats do not respect their values (i.e., religion, guns,
right-to-life). This has been a common narrative: that Republicans in
the lower economic classes vote out of values rather than their economic
interests. But I can think of reasons that they'd be drawn to
Republican rhetoric on economics, not just values. They may value
individualism and see dependence on government as a bad thing (even if
they find that they have to receive government assistance in order to
get by). Perhaps they pay taxes----not federal income taxes,
necessarily, but other taxes----and they feel that they are over-taxed.
And they may have seen or experienced government regulation of business
and found the government's demands to be arbitrary and unreasonable.
Would Republican economic policy help them? I doubt it. But I can
understand why they would be economic conservatives, not just social
conservatives.
Second, Carville and Begala portray Tom Coburn as
one of the looney Republicans who won in 2004. As they say on page 2:
Tom Coburn "called for the death penalty for doctors who perform
abortions. He also called his state legislators 'crapheads.' And he
decried 'rampant lesbianism' in Oklahoma schools. He won. By 12
percent. Against Democratic congressman Brad Carson, who is a Rhodes
Scholar, a former Defense Department official, and a member in good
standing of the First Baptist Church of Claremore, Oklahoma----not
exactly a dangerous extremist." I myself remember Coburn being
portrayed as an oddball in 2004. And yet, my impression is that Coburn
since then has come to be regarded as a reasonable and highly-respected
public servant. Coburn is one who is willing and able to work with the
other side----he even sat by Chuck Shumer at President Barack Obama's
State of the Union to take a stand against partisan rancor, after the
shooting of Gabrielle Giffords. People can surprise you!
Third,
I got a chuckle out of what Carville and Begala say on page 12: "But
absent an overarching story----or a clear, specific rationale for firing
Bush and hiring Kerry----the [Kerry] campaign's issue litany didn't
have any resonance. Or, as Bush has said, 'It didn't resignate with
voters.' Sure, he mangles the nomenclature, but Bush...sure understands
the concept." Lol.
So why am I reading this book?
Barack Obama triumphed in 2012. If there are any people these days who
feel like ineffective has-beens who need to do serious re-evaluation
about their stances and strategy, it is the Republicans, not the Democrats. The reason that I'm
reading this book has to do with where I am ideologically more than
where the country currently is. I believe in God and go to
church. I have long believed that life begins at conception. But I
have become disenchanted with the Republican Party on such issues as
economics and health care. Yet I wonder: does the Democratic Party
speak to certain values that I hold, such as my respect for the life of
the unborn? If not, can it? After 2004, the Democrats were
chastened, they were humbled, and they were willing to acknowledge
strengths in the ideology of the "other side", if you will. Perhaps
this book by Carville and Begala can help me as I struggle to define and
to formulate my political ideology.