Daily Kos: ... in which I call your butt out Howard Dean supporters were too grass-roots, apparently. They were called "Deaniacs," "Deanybabies," and that was just on leftie sites. He didn't talk enough about policy, we were told, and his policies weren't so compatible with his online supporters. If only they weren't so emotional, they'd realize how wrong they were.
Remember that?
Too many smart people are dumb about feelings. Since they know they're smart, and trust in their smartness, they tend to stay dumb. Their friends know this, and still love them. But they also laugh at them, and not just behind their backs. It's good-natured, but a little sad. Perhaps our anti-intellectual culture breeds an antagonism in our more intellectual people. Being clueless about feelings becomes a sort of badge of honor.
But ignorance is never a strength.
Now, on this issue, you could wonk away about gay marriage and adoption, child care subsidies, tax credits, health care, school lunch subsidies, education, or the laws protecting children, but you're only dealing with the issue because it matters deeply to millions of people. If you can't deal with the latter half, fine: stay and wonk. Everybody's got a part to play. But if you disparage people because they have this strong, affective response, then you are going to be an obstacle to winning.
So much of politics is emotional. It's emotional because we don't just disagree, we disagree passionately, and we disagree about things that are very important to us. If you can't touch those heartstrings, who will be motivated to go and vote? Motivation gets people out to vote even when Republicans are trying to make it difficult to do so. Motivation gets people to spread your message, even when the corporate media is lying to you or just plain blacking out a candidate they don't like. Motivation gets people to enunciate the principles in the face of a decrepit punditocracy that is trying to sell us on the notion of paying for someone else's lifestyle.
You may be right on the issues, but what did you bring to the fight? You have lots of specifics in your speech. That's nice. Is the corporate media going to carry your message for you? Back in 2004, I remember how Kerry and Edwards gave policy speech after policy speech. The corporate media talked about haircuts and green tea.
I learned that lesson. Obama learned that lesson. Have you? You can't get "wonk" through Jabba the Crowley any more than you can play a Bach chorale on the kazoo. So, excuse the fuck out of me while I go play "Tequila" on my kazoo. You can stand over there and make snarky comments about how it should be polyphonic, octotonic, and polyrhythmic.
But no one's going to shake their ass to your jejune sniping, Fauntleroy.
Those are a couple of snippets. Good thoughts in there to counter the natural reaction of people like us to the Obama campaign.
Do you want to succeed? Or is this getting too scary for you?
02-13-2008, 08:40 PM
