So John McCain is going to be in O’Fallon next Sunday, August 31, along with Romney and Huckabee. From talking to a few of the people who’ve organized protests the last few times he’s been around the area, I think there will be some response to his event, but as far as I know none of the details have been determined yet.
Anyway, I’m not expert in messaging, but below the flip I want to offer a couple thoughts on what I hope the messaging will be, based on what I’ve seen during the last couple visits.
My main gripe with the past two “responses” organized by local progressive groups (SEIU, Pro-Vote, etc) is that they combine their rallies with having Democratic politicians speak. I personally think think this is a mistake, and here are the reasons why…
1. The press will always cover the Democratic response, so there’s no point in having a “rally” to go along with it. In the name of balance, the media will always include the Democratic response in their articles, even if the Democratic response is simply a press conference where they read a statement. So what’s the point of organizing a rally for something that will be covered anyways?
2. It’s not really “news” that Democrats are opposed to Republicans. Yes, the media will always cover it, but does the public actually care that Democrats are not fans of Republicans? I think the public would care a lot more that a group of “concerned citizens” or a group of labor leaders are opposed to McCain. Thus, keeping the protest separate from the Democratic response sends a much more important message to the public.
3. Having a protest of citizens or labor leaders sounds much more grass-roots than having a rally led by Democratic Leaders, which sounds like a top-down event.
4. I personally think it’s important for progressive institutions to maintain some conceptual distance from the Democratic party. I always vote for Democrats and will be doing so this November, but I think we need progressive institutions to be independent enough where they can criticize the Democrat Party when the party (all too often) begins to drift away from the ideals of rank-and-file Democrats. In the past few years we’ve seen the disastrous consequences of the D.C. Democrat’s shift to the right (though I think things are beginning to change, thanks in large part to the netroots), and I think at least part of that shift was allowed to happen because of progressive institutions’ willingness to always support Dems rather than stay true to their founding principles. Thus, I’d love to see unions and other progressive groups organize their own rallies in response to regressive candidates like McCain, without having to feel that they need to be seen holding hands with a Democratic candidate at the rally.
So, in summary, I hope that the response to McCain’s visit next Sunday will consist of both a Democratic response (issued by press release) and an actual rally organized by a progressive institution (or several). That way, the public can see that ordinary citizens are opposed to McCain not because they want their own political party to be in power, but because they understand that McCain’s agenda is directly opposed to the well-being of ordinary Americans.
particularly in terms of public perceptions re McCain protests.
As far as parsing the relationship of progressives with the Democratic party, I personally think that there is more strength long-term in identifying with the party, but defining a progressive wing that can use party resources while working to redefine it. An important role now for that wing of the party is to actively stand by and defend Democratic politicians when they take a risk and embark on the journey home from the center-right.
And an upcoming post will pick up some of those threads.
But a pedantic note: It’s not the Democrat Party, it’s the Democratic Party. Only Republicans misspell it.