I am sure, in the future, we will all look back and wonder how we got through it all. Will we have persevered through it all to victory or will we have fought in vain against the massive forces of the opposition. Time will tell but as we work I have become aware of some of the problems we face. We are becoming aware of reasons why this race is not a landslide in either direction. I am looking at lessons for Democrats to learn for the future.
So, to kick off, let's look at this race. This election year was supposed to be EASY. A Democrat should have been able to walk into the White House, right? The Republican brand in the toilet and people are fed up with the present Administrations policies on some issues and lack thereof on others. With the ongoing, mismanaged war and a terrible economy, Democrats everywhere should be picking up all the pieces. Six years of a Republican-dominated Washington DC and eight years of a Republican-controlled White House have failed us, the voters. Veterans are hurting. Elderly are facing harsher health care issues. Families are unable to put kids through good schools. Workers can't find jobs. Military families are still facing multiple deployments. Our national values are under attack. Our status in the world is in sharp decline. We are out of money and overburdened with debt.
What else can go wrong?
Simple. Plenty of people still want to vote Republican.
That doesn't even make sense. On one side you have a less experienced but effective orator who has had phenomenal achievements in his short tenure in politics and has shown masterful leadership during his campaign. His vice presidential pick is a firm choice who is capable of stepping into the presidency at any time and whose experience will provide a good sounding board for the presidential candidate.
On the other side you have an ailing man with plenty of experience but plenty of scandal as well, including ethics violations. His background is compelling but has voted against his constituency plenty of times. His vice presidential pick has ethics scandals of her own and while she has light experience, she has even lighter understanding of national issues, much less a grasp on global challenges.
So what is happening that makes this race so close when it should be a landslide in one direction?
First, this race is experiencing, perhaps like the last two races, hyper-partisanship. People are flocking to their parties and vilifying the opposition. While I feel little to no regret about it, we all know, my having said it numerous times before, that even I have become increasingly partisan over the course of the last two years. My fiance and I joke about the fact that when we met I was a progressive centrist, a slightly liberal moderate, and a firm anti-party Washingtonian. I believed in the idea of electing the person and not the party, and I still do. However, I have become increasingly sick of the Republican party, their talking points, tactics, and goons, both on the various tickets and behind the scenes. Democrats are not free from guilt but I have yet to see a Democrat pull nearly as horrendous the stunts as some of the Republican operatives today.
It would seem that people are slowly becoming, like me, very close to their party in an effort to "hold the line" in some sort of trench warfare type of political war against the opposition. Frankly, this sort of mentality is crazy talk and really is building a fierce divide in the country. I know because half my family is completely intolerable now. This follows into the second point.
Second, despite all the fact-check organizations, truth is hard to find and the very fact that we have such organizations is disturbing. People are increasingly susceptible to the bull and spin of the campaigns. Truth is harder to find among the lies and talking points have become the political discussion among those brave enough to still want to talk politics across party lines. I was recently reduced to demanding a family member to stop outright lying so that we could actually talk issues (yes, people still believe that Obama is a Muslim).
I have found that spam emails are effective because people frequently do not inform themselves. They read news that caters to their preconceived notions of reality and rarely step out of their comfort zone. I, only occasionally, peruse the conservative and/or Republican websites and comment boards. I cannot stomach it and most people seem to share this issue. Add on top of that that people simply do not have time to go searching for truth. Even, RK has bull on it somewhere though I am sure it is not RK endorsed. While I believe that we should be making the effort to neutralize our language and gives facts and reasoned arguments to support our causes, why bother when the opposition refuses to do the same? Why should liberal media be nice when conservative media is not? Why do we have liberal and conservative media in the first place? People just cannot find the facts distilled into layman's terms.
Third, the notorious single-issue voters are out there. These people only care about one thing: their point-of-view. Their values are more important than sturdy law or national health. These people are pushing rigorous changes to every section of the Constitution to affirm their beliefs and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it done, even the illegal. There isn't much to say on this because it is categorically wrong. When compromise is taken off the table, so is politics. There are no solutions to problems when one side refuses to acknowledge the merit of the points of the other.
Fourth, political strategy is undermining politics. Consider this for a moment. When the other three issues are drawn onto a map, a 50-state strategy is whittled down to a couple battleground states to be fought over. It is argued that there is no amount of money or visitation that can be used to turn some states to the other side. I do not believe this is as true but Democrats simply cannot attempt their beloved 50-state strategy when the race will inevitably come down to the wire in only a couple states. Campaigns end up turning into a war of attrition whose primary focus is identifying the battleground states in an election as soon as possible and then flooding them with resources. You neither see Barack Obama nor John McCain in Utah or Vermont when Virginia and Ohio are so ripe with teetering electoral votes. People tend to try to live next to those who share their beliefs (which is why I neither live in Chesapeake nor Poquoson).
So, in the end, this election to me is not about demographics and it is not about party bases. This election is about the swing votes. Plenty of people and states are not up for grabs and that is undermining the democracy more than issues with election financing and the tampering of ballots (both are important though). This election should be easy because the choices are so stark in comparison. If it weren't for some of these issues, McCain would never be able to stand as a presidential candidate. Closer scrutiny of the system and the candidates would undoubtedly disqualify plenty of present politicians. Extremists in both parties would be quelled and both parties would come closer together in the center. Candidates would not be judged based on with whom they align but the actual plans they propose.
But we probably will never get all of that because it is just to hard to give up what we have (kind of like how redistricting reform will never happen).
The problem with politics is undoubtedly politics in that plenty of people try to get ahead rather than do the right thing or compromise.