Dan

Calabrese

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August 28, 2008

Democrats Do Denver: Who Would Want to Elect Such a Bunch of Sour Pusses?

Three nights of listening to Democrats will either serve as an intense form of amusement or leave you thoroughly depressed. It all depends how seriously you take the message.

But if you really listen to the message, it’s both inescapable and painstakingly familiar – which might be the reason Democrats running for president usually lead in the polls at some point, only to typically fall short in November.

Keep the number to your therapist handy. Prepare for tale after woebegone tale of struggling Americans, worried and apprehensive about the future and desperately seeking a big, benevolent hand to keep them from falling into the abyss.

It’s about kitchen tables, where families pore over bills and despair that all is lost. It’s about the “global economy”, which we are warned darkly that America will “lose” (Democrats always think economics is a zero-sum game) unless every single American is prosperous, which of course is not going to happen, which means we are going to lose.

It’s about how we just can’t produce enough oil to meet our needs, so we have to stop using it. It’s about life in America, which in the Democrats’ view is forever beset with despair and injustice.

All this may “connect” with people who are struggling or worried, but that comes with a price. Elections are won in the middle – by convincing moderates and independents to elect you. Is this the vision of America that will win over moderates and independents? Does anyone really want to put these Johnny Rainclouds and Debbie Downers in charge?

Election cycle after election cycle, Democrats talk like this. America as they describe it is a tapestry of sad stories – of tragedy, unfairness and coming disasters.

Democrats do this partially because they truly believe life in America is Hell on Earth without them in charge, but also because they think this is how you show your empathy toward the American middle class. When the middle class declines to reward them with enough votes to put them in the White House, Democrats figure they were the victims of evil campaign tactics or something of the sort.

But maybe middle-class Americans, even those who are struggling, aren’t so sure they want to hand the reins to such a bunch of sour pusses. Struggling people are present in America, but that doesn’t mean that struggling people are the definitive face of America. Yet at one national convention after another, this is the picture Democrats paint. Times are tough, man, and if they’re not tough for you, shame on you!

Once they establish such a depressing narrative, how do Democrats expect to inspire anyone to vote for them? They implicitly suggest they will fix all this, but listen to the actual promises they make. A million plug-in hybrids on the road in two years? Government, when run by Democrats, is going to do that? Energy independence without drilling our own resources? Jobs created while taxes on corporations and “the rich” go through the roof?

Who can possibly take all this seriously? It may sound good to those with shaky economic underpinnings, little education and virtually no sophistication about the process of governance. But no centrist voter with any grip on reality is going to believe such silliness.

When you watch the Democratic National Convention, you see the faces of myriad grievance groups – too numerous to mention – nodding in agreement as one speaker after another bemoans America’s shortcomings. Only more government can save us from all this, they insist, but their vision for how government would make life better comes off as utter nonsense. Because it is.

The best way to watch this or any DNC event is to view it as a source of amusement. The parade of oddballs, on hand to air their gripes and grievances, is funnier than Saturday Night Live most nights. But if you’re watching in a serious attempt to decide who should get your vote, you can’t help but notice, and squirm uncomfortably to realize, that such people feel at home in this party.

Tonight, Barack Obama’s acceptance speech will doubtless be filled with talk of hope. But for the past three nights, the party nominating him has made it clear that they see America as the home of anything but. Who would expect prosperity under the leadership of people who scarcely believe it exists in America, and who excoriate anyone they think is experiencing it?

Supposedly, the nation’s dynamics line up this year to deliver a Democratic victory. Yet Obama is losing ground in the polls. Perhaps that’s because his party’s brand of defeatism has a way of leading to defeat.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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