Centerfield

Excellent advice for Clark supporters!

Or maybe it's simply good advice...period!

Posted by The Bashing Needle at the Women4Clark weblog:

Now, may offer a little advice to garner greater support for General Clark? The following is a recent post (by me) from General Clark’s forum at Leadership for America.

I rarely use the term evil, and I'm nauseated every time I hear any politician use it for political purpose...it shows a serious lack of intellect, a large dose of manipulative cynicism, and total contempt for the intellect of the target audience. However, it doesn't sound much better (in this context) coming from the audience. (not meaning you JeanPaul or Mike). This is something I've actually been meaning to bring up here for quite sometime, but I always seemed to get sidetracked.

I'm sometimes reminded by my father (extremely bright man) to be careful about using absolute terms when writing or speaking, as it shows a lack of intellect. He's right, it does. The more descriptive and logical our arguments, the more persuasive and powerful they become. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have read 'so-and-so is evil' whether it was by the right referring to Clinton, or the left referring to Bush. The problem with this type of statement is that it tends to turn away the very people both sides claim to court...those of us in the middle who are really neither left or right. It often makes this very large group look at both sides as a bunch of extremists, who are then discounted.

"One of the things I constantly appreciate about General Clark is that I've never heard him bash Bush personally in public"

Whoever becomes the Democratic nominee doesn't have to convince the rank and file to vote for him, he has to convince as many of the other side to vote for him, and more importantly the swing vote...and it's a huge number of people! This is where Dean will be in serious trouble. His popular Mean Dean approach works now because he's preaching to the choir. Gephardt’s rhetoric at the New Mexico debate did the same thing, only in his case he was trying to out-Dean Dean.

One of the things I constantly appreciate about General Clark is that I've never heard him bash Bush personally in public (though I wouldn't doubt he has privately)...or anyone else in the administration except DeLay, who earned it, and even that was mild. He's gone after policies rather than people by pointing out both what was wrong and how to make it right. I hope he can continue in that vein if he runs as I think he'll get more traction and have a good chance at getting many of the 50% who didn't vote last time to vote this time.

"don't beat up your opponent, beat up his record"

A lot of people have commented on the fact that interviewers who are normally combative to Democrats have been unusually respectful of General Clark (Tucker Carlson, Scarborough, Hannity, Tim Russert, etc.). They are because he behaves as a gentleman, doesn't lose his cool, and gets his points across with logic, rather than beating up on the opposition. We have to do the same thing. Whether General Clark runs or not, he's right in saying that the Democratic Party needs a cohesive message. Here it is: don't beat up your opponent, beat up his record, beat up his character as it applies to his record and only if it does, and offer actual alternatives to the present circumstances as opposed to empty promises i.e., here's what was done...here's what should have been done and what would have happened if we had (in other words, using comments like 'Bush is a drunk, a coward and a deserter' will not, I repeat not, sway those who think he did the right thing in going after Hussein, or those who are on the fence. And I'm saying this as a former member of the Republicans and that 50% who rarely vote. These same kinds of remarks about Clinton didn't sway people away from him either.

"Slamming Bush is like saying to this group "...Good God, you voted for him? Are you a complete moron or just insane?!" Not the way to bring them over the fence."

Ask most who support General Clark why they took such notice of him, and the answer will be something like "...because I saw him on CNN and was amazed by his analysis of what went right and wrong...because he was right every time...because he's brilliant and articulate...because his views and solutions are balanced and fair." Not one of them will say it's because he bashes Bush and his administration every chance he gets...because he doesn't. It's why he has such enormous cross over appeal. If the Democratic party wants to have that same appeal...they'd best follow his lead. We need to also. Every time one of us tells someone about General Clark, we're stumping by proxy, including in this forum. Several of us have wondered why only a third of the members here post. We've posed several possibilities...but the one thing no one has mentioned is that a lot of these people may be part of that swing vote and pissed off republicans groups...they're not going to be interested in hearing a lot of Bush bashing. They want to know who is a better alternative and why. Slamming Bush is like saying to this group "...Good God, you voted for him? Are you a complete moron or just insane?!" Not the way to bring them over the fence.

So, what I'm saying is that I realize people are more than angry about Bush & Co., and are scared by what he potentially represents for our country and our lives, but vilifying him/them makes us sound as bad as he does every time he says "evil" or "axis of evil". The only way to kill the idea of this administration as being the right one, is by discrediting it and the perception it's created with facts...not emotional rhetoric and near to full conspiracy theories. That's what they use. If they are the only ones doing that, it won't take long for them to sound like idiotic lunatics. People aren't nearly as dumb as most politicians think they are...let's try not to prove the politicians right for once.

Posted by Kelly Flinn on Sunday, September 14, 2003 at 17:17

Note the importance of what she's saying: We have a candidate who actually practices the virtue of respecting other people!