New Democrat Update - January 2005
WINNING THE BATTLE OF IDEAS
This last election, state Democrats and their supporters did something incredible. They surprised Republicans by recruiting better, more experienced candidates; raised a lot of money; and smartly targeted the right races. The team did a great job marketing our candidates and mobilizing supportive voters, resulting in the first Democratic takeover of the state legislature in 44 years.
Unfortunately, that strategy can only work in one election cycle. In a way, it is like a company which temporarily stays ahead of is competitors by secretly increasing its advertising budget. Great ads boost sales in the short run but eventually customers will turn from the sizzle to the quality of the steak.
For one, Democrats have lost the element of surprise for the foreseeable future. In 2006 and beyond, the GOP will more than match Democrats dollar-for-dollar, find good candidates and mobilize their voters.
This last factor is the Republicans’ trump card - their voters outnumber ours. While we have a legislative governing majority, voter registration records indicate that our party is far from being an electoral majority.
Mobilizing Democratic supporters will simply not be enough for our party to win in 2006 and beyond - victory will also require the constant courting and persuading of undecided and unaffilated voters. Persuasion, versus mobilization, requires a compelling message - not just slogans or meaningless sound bites - but a coherent governing philosophy, grounded in core convictions and coupled with attractive ideas for the tackling the state’s biggest problems. That is especially important now that Democrats are in charge of the legislature.
To build a lasting progressive majority coalition, Democrats, unaffilateds and even moderate Republicans must have compelling, positive reasons to vote our way. In the Information Age, majority coalitions are built around values and ideas, not narrow appeals to constituency groups. Connecting with voters who are increasingly upscale and more educated requires clearly articulating what we stand for, not just by the organizations we stand with.
In preparing for his run for the presidency in 1992, then-Governor Bill Clinton realized that the hectic pace of political campaigns did not allow enough time and attention for creating a well-developed rationale for his candidacy. He understood that a winning rationale requires an in-depth understanding of the real, everyday problems facing voters and developing a new set of innovative solutions, rooted in mainstream values.
He also understood that communicating those positions effectively is just as important as the substance itself. Distilling an agenda into effective political messages is essential. These values-laden messages must be relevant to the everyday concerns of voters, credible and understandable.
Developing that message and agenda, especially for 2006, must start immediately. Pulling a coherent message and agenda together requires a significant amount of intellectual firepower, effort, energy and time. Developing one “on the fly,” especially in the heat of a campaign, almost always yields very poor results - a candidate with no message, a set of initiatives that have no overriding theme, or both. Cobbling together a collection of policy positions only confuses voters - and when they do not know or understand a candidacy, they will not support it.
Instead, Democrats must have a true and well-developed vision. That means communicating a thematic argument about where Colorado is headed and where we want to take it - and the ideas to back it up.
A successful vision, backed up by ideas, should hold firmly to the traditional principles of progressivism and further those values with fresh ideas and modern means, tackling Colorado’s most difficult challenges. It should define Democrats with broad governing themes revolving around a vivid picture of values and policy goals, rather than government programs.
That vision should also be positive and mainstream, but unmistakably distinct from that of conservatives. It must reach beyond the progressive base, building a coalition of those in the middle class struggling to stay there and those who are aspiring to get there.
Its underlying values should include equal opportunity for all, special privilege for none, a public ethic of mutual obligation - opportunity, responsibility, community, and reforming government. Its accompanying agenda should be filled with ideas that equip people with the tools to solve their own problems and get ahead.
Retaining our legislative majority - and recapturing the governor’s office in 2006 - will require pushing big ideas that make paradigmatic leaps in economic and social policy and serve as a rallying point for building a new progressive majority. That kind of agenda will give Democrats a platform on which to stand, and a framework from which to work. It will identify and assess the state’s needs, determine the policies that best meet those needs and develop a communications strategy to promote those policies.
That’s a big challenge. But as election day has already demonstrated, anything is possible with the right leadership, good ideas and enough resources.
STAYING ON MESSAGE
The Democratic legislative majority’s effectiveness at governing will also have a lot to say about the future of our party’s viability. Offering and implementing progressive, pragmatic solutions to the state’s problems has the potential to turn Colorado into a solid blue state.
Democrats in the legislature must realize that what they get done - or don’t get done - will have significant implications for our party’s political prospects. Without question, the quality of our candidates, strong campaign organizations and sufficient funding in 2006 will be crucial to retaining our legislative majority.
However, at the end of the day, the single most important factor will be our party’s effectiveness at solving the state’s problems. Just as important, legislators must communicate a realistic narrative about how our solutions have made - and, more importantly, will continue to make - Colorado a better place to live and work. Our policies on jobs, the environment, cultural values, health care, education, fiscal reform and taxes must be more than a mere list. They ought to form a coherent picture of how things could be better for everyone.
Such a compelling narrative will empower Democrats to get things done. Without one, our party could easily lose most, if not all, of its major policy and political battles with the governor and his allies in the legislature. For the sake of Colorado’s future, we cannot let that happen.
Winning those big battles requires Democrats to focus on a limited number of important priorities so that a clearly defined message can be continually communicated to the public. Otherwise, if we try to do too much, and communicate too much, the public will have no idea what we are trying to do and, thus, will conclude we did nothing.
That also means having the discipline to communicate a consistent narrative, in value-based terms, of what our agenda will do for everyday Coloradans. At each and every opportunity, legislators should refer to our party’s overall message to set a consistent frame as to what the Democratic majority is trying to accomplish. Speaking in detailed programmatic language or about “inside baseball” legislative process issues should be avoided.
Having a clear, consistent and simple message will allow Democrats to stay on the offensive. How will we know if legislative Democrats have succeeded? - when a significant majority of the public concludes that “those Democrats” share its values and are making sense with new, fresh, innovative and pragmatic reformist ideas.