----- Original Message ----- From: "John Thornton" <jthorn65 at mchsi.com>
Am I being deliberately obtuse in not understanding the "need" for this narrative? I just don't get it. Why is it needed to win an election? Maybe I don't understand what is being put forth with the narrative idea itself. Someone want to explain to me what I am apparently missing because I think the narrative idea is a bit disingenuous and I don't think that is what others have in mind?
John Thornton
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The Conservative's narrative is simple: Personal liberty and moral traditionalism secured via free markets and limited government. Barry Goldwater 101.
We can and must have a richer narrative of personal liberty [Amartya Sen, anyone?], a great counternarrative showing the ugly underside of moral traditionalism [w/lots of *jokes*] through history combined with a deconstruction of the terminology of free markets that always asks *are you better off than you were since the last election* as the frame for our pet issues on jobs, healthcare, gender/racial equality, the enviro. etc. KISS without dumbing down and lots of *jokes*.
Oh, and paint the other side as a bunch of Nihilists drunk with power wielding too much hi-tech weaponry bent on apocalypse...."Barry Goldwater would be appalled!"