Bottom-Up
I just read the American Prospect magazine, where article after article analyzes what the Democrats did wrong in the presidential campaign, and insists that we must follow the techniques the Republicans used so effectively. Everywhere I go I hear the same thing. It's upsetting. Regardless of all this analysis, I believe the Republicans won by means of a propaganda barrage of lies, distortions, smears and bigotry, mounted by Big Business and Big Media, who used the religious right as pawns. Democrats should NOT follow this top-down outrageous approach. Democrats must follow a bottom-up outreach approach.
Alan Brinkley, in his article "What's Next?" starts the parade by telling Democrats to build an infrastructure as good as that of the Republicans, contest Republicans about "moral values" and religion, and present a more muscular foreign policy to counteract that of the Republicans. In other words, imitate the Republicans.
Why should Democrats imitate Republicans when the Republicans ran the most repulsive campaign that I can remember. There is no doubt that the Republican Party is the party of Big Business. And since Big Business represents a minority of the population, it must sell its ideas aggressively. It founded think tanks and other institutions to build arguments agreeable to Big Business. It ran PACs and lobbyists to get its way with Congress. The Big Media ran with the Republican propaganda.
This was not enough. So Big Business enlisted the aid of the religious right. They both screamed about sex, abortion and gay marriage in order to convert ordinary workers to their party. But don't kid yourself; Republicans are first and foremost for Big Business.
The business elite ran the show. Everything was centralized. Control came from above. Everyone was disciplined, i.e., they followed the messages of the leaders. This is a top-down strategy.
Top-down strategies are OK for those with autocratic tendencies. Top-down approaches enable a small group of people to impose its will on others. Top-down suits the Republican Party.
Top-down does not suit the Democrats, since the Democratc Party is the party of the little guy.
What ails the Democratic Party is that, because it needs to collect lots of money from fat-cats, it must tone down its populist message. In the process, Democrats become more and more pseudo-Republicans. Why should anyone vote for a pseudo-Republican when they can vote for a real Republican?
Most of the commentary about the Democratic campaign faults the Democrats for not properly selling its program. Republicans have the snake oil. They need to sell. Democrats represent the people. They do not need to sell. They need to go to the people and find out what their needs and aspirations are and then fight for their needs. Instead of selling they need to represent.
How can the Democratic Party do this? Two ways:
1 - It must free itself from money from fat-cats. Howard Dean showed the way by collecting small donations from average people through the Internet. To truly represent the average guy, Democrats must eschew big fundraising events and encourage lots of small donations.
2 - It must run town-hall meetings across the country to discover what the little guy wants. Some of these will be informational discussions and some will be debates. All will be used to gather the pulse of the country on a given issue or strategy. Let the people talk and let the leaders LISTEN.
The result will be a democratic exchange among the people, the enlightenment of Democratic leaders and a true representation of the people by Democratic politicians.
This is bottom-up politics. This is what the Democratic Party should do.
