<
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-08-26-say-it-to-my-face-democrats-truth/>
"A quiet revolution has been unfolding in how Democrats campaign, and it helps
explain why being a Democrat has suddenly felt so joyous these past five
weeks—and maybe why the Harris-Walz ticket is pulling ahead of the opposition.
Democrats are suddenly allowed to
say what they mean.
No trimming. No “triangulation.” No rhetorical bank shots, no apologies.
Really, we haven’t seen anything quite like it since the surprise landslide of
Ronald Reagan in 1980 shocked the party of “Give ’em hell” Harry Truman into
its modern-day defensive crouch.
You probably know the story of how Truman got the nickname. His political
calling card was a Tim Walz–like, down-home Midwestern plainspokenness. He was
tearing into the opposition with a fierceness when a delighted audience member
cried lustily, “Give ’em hell, Harry!” He shot back, devil-may-care: “I don’t
have to give ’em hell. I just tell the truth and they
call it hell.”
And that’s what Democratic presidential candidates never seemed to do again
after that Reagan trauma: simply
tell their truth.
It wasn’t that they lied, precisely; outright untruth remained the province of
the party of Nixon, Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump. But they were never
quite truth-tellers, either. Campaigning as a Democrat, at the highest level of
the game—especially at the presidential-nominee level of the game—has come to
mean never directly and precisely saying what you believed.
If, that is, you even remembered what you believed, after the consultants got
through with you."
Via Kevin O'Brien.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
