----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Perelman" <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu>
-I live in Butte County, probably the most conservative county in California. My town, -Chico, is a college town and votes relatively liberal. Would you say that the Democrats -are doing well, even though the county regularly votes far right Republican? Yet, here in -Chico we have probably the smartest strategist in the California Democratic Party. But the -Democrats and the Democratic Party really don't have much of a presence or a message. -There are just the un-Republicans.
Look, I'm not making large claims for Democratic Party brilliance; in many cases, they do win by default, but the default is that rightwing ideology just isn't that popular, which is why Bush talks about "saving Social Security" and "Clean Skies Initiatives" rather than dismantling government pensions and deregulating business as his supporters would call it. It's a lie, but the fact that they need to lie shows how much the right hasn't won the serious ideological wars.
I can't talk about Chico but the labor-Democrat takedown of Arnold this year was pretty damn impressive. They hacked apart his rhetoric, blocked most of his initiatives through political attack and other challenges, and his popularity went into the toilet as it was made clear how allied he was with corporate interests.
It's not enough of a postive program, I agree, but it's a start and, frankly, it's not like the Left has a very strong postive message these days.
Nathan Newman