Governments Work…
Governments are good. Governments make our lives better. Governments keep corporations in line and working toward our common good. We need government run courts, police, schools, transportation agencies in order to be a prosperous modern country. In a Democracy, the government is not some destructive force – the government is us.
It is sad that we have to make that case, but we do. Disgust with Republican failures does not mean that voters will simply turn to the Democrats.
Democrats have to come up with some formulation of that message, or just get used to constantly losing to Republicans with a clear message in the service of hair-brained, destructive and anti-American policies.
“POLICE, SCHOOLS, & TRANSPORTATION!”
That’s my first run at a Democratic slogan to match the simplicity of the GOP’s “No Taxes” slogan.
How would “POLICE, SCHOOLS, & TRANSPORTATION!” work on the campaign trail?
I’ll break it down.
POLICE – Some people and companies can’t be trusted to do the right thing on their own. We need policing and courts so that when people and companies break the law they will not get rich while others, following the rules get left behind. Voting for the Democratic Party is voting for a safer community and country.
SCHOOLS – It is common sense that a first rate country needs first rate schools. We need to support the schools and teachers that are working hard to prepare for the future.
TRANSPORTATION – Our economy depends on businesses to create good high paying jobs. The Democratic Party is the party of sound investments in our country’s transportation and infrastructure so that we have the roads, railways, and energy grids to compete in the future.
There should be no more detail that this. It needs to be concise and irrefutable.
Peace and Prosperity
Which also happens to be Ike’s slogan.
We have so much fun speculating about a split in the GOP we ignore that the Democratic party is struggling for its own soul. Look which party is standing firm on its principles, and which party is selling the farm piece by piece. The Democratic civil war has been underway in slow motion ever since 2001 when Democrats pushed the Bush tax cuts over the top.
If a Democratic Senate signs off on the SS/medicare cuts & “no revenue” deal and that “compromise” is signed off on by a Democratic President – I don’t see the point of a Democratic Party.
Wow – take a look at that roll call. Look at the Ds that voted with Bush, and look at who didn’t vote (WTF??)
That’s when we should have done a purity purge. It’s not like those defecting Senators did us much good during the Bush administration anyway.
the D party’s only role now, is to try to keep us from comming a Teatocracy
Plouffe getting grilled on ABC right now by Stephanopolous and Amanpour. Both are relentlessly trying to get Plouffe to admit Obama has caved by agreeing to a deal without revenues. Plouffe confirms by ducking and weaving. Plouffe did say, incredibly, that he is “confident” the spending cut commission will produce a “balanced” deal.
I think I heard Steph, in a Freudian slip, refer to Obama as “President Bush.”
“POLICE, SCHOOLS, & TRANSPORTATION!” is the perfect slogan for a police state.
We’re rapidly reaching the point where “FOOD, CLOTHING, SHELTER would be a viable campaign slogan.
INFRASTRUCTURE
I could explain it all to A1, but I think I’ll just file his comment under “why progressives always lose” instead.
Jason, what’s wrong w/ A1’s statement? How is it wrong? There is no guarantee of food, shelter, and clothing in the USA, and if the economy tanks more, more people will be in want of those things.
Using more police to suppress the hungry masses does have its own class appeal.
We already have the highest number of people imprisoned per capita than any other country in the world and with 25% of children living in poverty, more police and prisons will allow us to ignore that problem even longer and it will feed the corporate prison industry.
So MORE POLICE! Boooyah! “Love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.” (Phil Ochs)
Dana G,
There is a willful stupidity at work when A1 says that my suggested slogan is advocating for a police state. That’s what’s wrong with it. He could have read “We need policing and courts so that when people and companies break the law they will not get rich while others, following the rules get left behind. Voting for the Democratic Party is voting for a safer community and country.” and figured out what I was going for
It is just strident idiocy on his part not to see that I am using a concept that people are familiar with (police) and using it to connect with a progressive value – regulations that serve civil society.
But no. He’d rather just go off in a holier than thou jag which has nothing to do with the topic at hand. But that’s fine. We all get his act by now. I’m just not joining him there. Somebody who see enemies all around isn’t somebody I want to deal with.
Mark Sumner at dkos said it better than I could:
“Government and markets aren’t designed to be enemies. Honest. Governments are created to provide mutual benefit for citizens (again, honest), and one of those benefits is seeing that the exchange of goods and services happens as smoothly as possible. Sure, you can substitute gold bars and spiked clubs for currency and regulation, but the result is a lot less neat. Most people would rather not turn buying a Big Mac into a test of their ability to storm the McCastle.
Good economies aren’t a measure of the lack of regulation; they are regulation. In plumbing terms, if money is water, regulations are the pipes. You sort of need those if you expect the water to go anywhere, and you don’t move more water by weakening the pipes. Without government, you just get mud.”
“Regulation and legislation are what ensures that trade is possible, contracts mean something, and every deal isn’t done at knifepoint. You think namby-pamby la la la freedom-gulch fountain-shrug makes billionaires? Government makes billionaires. Government makes business possible. It does that every day, and all it asks in return is that big businesses & billionaires contribute something more than nothing toward the expenses involved. Apparently, that was too much to ask.”
Oh, I didn’t see his police state statement. I thought you were referring to his other statement. But I suspect that his police state statement is snark given his political orientation.
I understood where you were going, Jason, but we don’t need more police. We need more justice, and not justice criminal justice as your slogan implies. We need economic justice. We need environmental justice. We need educational justice. We need international justice. We need racial justice.
In America, “with police and prisons for all” has replaced “with liberty and justice for all.”
“POLICE, SCHOOLS, & TRANSPORTATION!” sounds like a slogan more fitting for Southern segregationist or Mao’s cultural revolution than a modern free America.
I’d be happy if a candidate just ran on a “Liberty and Justice for all” slogan and meant it.
Idiot, I’m not explaining this to you. Get over it.
This is completely awesome must-see TV and you must watch it right away.
Obama is speaking to a Hispanic audience and telling them he can’t do this, he can’t do that. The audience spontaneously begins chanting “Yes You Can!”
I love that that audience is the future of the Democratic party.