Looking Back, Looking Forward (Page 17)

The defeat of John Kerry, combined with the Republican advances in the House and Senate, has unleashed waves of dismay and perplexity within liberal and progressive circles. What happened? Why did so many voters embrace a President whose Iraq policy was paved with lies and deceptions, who has shown contempt for science, the rule of law and many of the principles of the Enlightenment, and whose economic policies favor the rich at the expense of the vast majority of Americans? What lessons do we draw from Kerry's failure to win over the electorate in spite of the Bush Administration's conspicuous failures? Are the Democrats crippled, or merely wounded, and is the party really out of touch with "mainstream" values? Finally, what should the priorities of the progressive movement be in this era of Republican dominance, and what is the best formula for future electoral success? The Nation asked some of the country's leading political activists and intellectuals for their thoughts on one or more of these questions. Their brief essays follow.   --The Editors

JULIET SCHOR

ON NOVEMBER 2 HALF THE VOTING PUBLIC supported a President who would be sending their sons and daughters to die in an imperial quagmire, handing over their hard-earned Social Security contributions to his scandal-ridden Wall Street cronies, blocking access to cheaper prescription drugs and accelerating the catastrophe of global warming. Pretty stunning. Did Republicans neutralize these realities through culture and character? No, and yes.

Republicans have steadily consolidated their control of the electoral process. Kerry got beaten in Ohio partly by a nefarious plan that denied Democratic precincts an adequate supply of voting machines. Nationwide, he lost votes to software breakdowns. How many is unknown at this point, as is the scope of e-fraud. No amount of cultural repositioning will cure this problem. Democrats' top priority must be to accelerate the momentum for nonpartisan electoral reform and not worry about looking like sore losers. They need to own fairness and transparency, hammering away on the theme that every vote should count, and right now it doesn't. Demonize the Republicans for opposing recounts, suppressing voters and installing insecure e-voting systems with proprietary software owned by partisan companies.

That said, Democrats must also gain ground on authenticity (character) and quality of life (culture). The former trumps policy positions and facts. It's an animating value in consumer markets, where authenticity is created by promoting a brand myth and history. It's why companies use "founded in" language, and niche brands don't reveal their corporate owners. Once presidential politics became a branding exercise, the value of authenticity soared, and we got "postrational politics." It explains the appeal of McCain and Dean. Bush successfully rebranded as a real-deal Texan. Kerry got hammered as an opportunist. Whether it's possible for him to successfully rebrand himself in the next four years is an interesting question.

On culture, it's not "god, guns and gays" the Democrats should address but the quality-of-life issues that cross the red-blue divide--excessive working hours, loss of community, commercialized childhood and rampant materialism. A people's environmentalism could target the poisoning of food and neighborhoods. Eighty-five percent of Americans believe society's priorities are "out of whack," and they're not all in blue states. But to be authentic on these issues Democrats need to give up corporate money and remake themselves as the party of small donations. It's a bold but high payoff move that would enable both cultural and economic populism, differentiate the Democrats from their opponents and free them up to offer real, galvanizing solutions.

Juliet Schor, professor of sociology at Boston College, is the author of Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture (Scribner).

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