The really smart pundits like Robert Reich (Treasury Secretary under Clinton) and Nicholas Kristof (NYT) , are now telling us what the Dems done wrong.
The Dems peddled Issues (Snore) while the Repubs sold Values (Yayy!)
This is wrong, the experts say.
If you really want to connect with people at the gut level and make them vote for you, you must sell them what they are ready to buy, something they already believe in, like, "God is on our side." (Or "Gott Mit Uns," if you happen to be fighting for the Third Reich.)
The Red states that went for Bush are all in the middle, between Blue California and the Blue Right Coast, and below the Blue Rust Belt of the north.
The GOP, by focusing on moral values, such as God, Country, War, and Gay-Marriage, caught the small town and rural folk where they live, in hundreds of thousands of small churches across the land.
So what if factory workers lost their pensions and retirees had no money for spiraling-priced stay-alive pills.
They voted for God and His values, as ordained by Archbishop Rove and sold by itinerant Preacher Bush.
Looked at this way, Kerry didn't stand a chance.
What was Kerry selling?
Reason.
In a marketplace of faith.
As my good friend Baldassare Conticello could have told him, "The period of maximum danger is when all the rational arguments are on your side."
That's why northern legislators 'waved the bloody shirt' of the Civil War in debate to defeat southern measures afterwards.
It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
Gets a rise out of 'em every time...snort.
***
My suggestion: Put Kerry on the shelf alongside Gore and Lieberman.
They didn't quite connect either.
Kerry attracted Bush-haters more than Kerry-lovers.
Next time, the Dems gotta get a True-believer in values that the middle of the country believes in too, someone who can preach.
That's why Clinton was so effective; guy could preach the gospel of rich vs. poor.
Kerry was up to his ears in wealth he didn't earn. To borrow a metaphor from ex-Gov. Ann Richards of Texas, against Bush-41, Kerry landed on 3rd base on errors and thought he'd hit a triple. Couldn't steal home.
Plate guarded too well by Archbishop Rove, who also plays a mean game of hardball.
Ah, well.
If it's values they want, it's values they'll get.
Value vision I call it.