A Democratic Strategy

The Republicans quite simply have out marketed the Democrats. The Republicans in the 2004 election were able to understand their target electorate and build clear benefits for the voter to vote Republican. Democrats warned voters that a Republican vote would simply exacerbate the redistribution of wealth away from the lower and middle classes in the direction of the wealthiest Americans. While that may be true, voters were less concerned about economics and more concerned about “values” and “security.”

Clearly the Democrats’ rusty New Deal-esque message is apparently not enough to win elections. Thus, it seems clear that the Democrats need some new planks in their platform. They need planks from a new playing field. They need to latch onto issues that hit home. Voters will respond if Democrats can frame the issue, own the issue and propose credible ways to solve it.

Sounds easy enough…right?

Americans are focused on Americans. Truth be told, above all else, Americans are focused on themselves. “Values” and “security” are issues in every household in America. Iraq, despite wall-to-wall coverage on the news, does not directly impact most Americans’ lives on a daily basis.

I know what the Democrats should do. There is a huge issue that impacts most Americans and yet consistently gets worse. Local government can’t fix the problem; it’s a problem only the federal government can solve. The problem impacts most of us every day. If we could solve this problem it would mean a number of important benefits for every American. These benefits include:

More time for every American to enjoy life
Significant economic impact on virtually every industry
Reduced reliance on foreign oil
Job creation at all ends of the income scale
Improved security that extends all of our life expectancy

The issue that Democrats can solve is traffic.

Here’s how the speech might go:

My fellow Americans, if elected I’ll invest in America’s infrastructure. We have 21^st century ideas, technology and the know-how to solve this 20^th century problem. To think that Americans accept spending an hour, two hours or three hours commuting back and forth every day. To think that one inattentive driver can impact thousands of workers and impact business productivity. To think that each of us risks our life every time we get in a car.

This is a problem that we can solve. This is not a problem that state and local government can solve. Simply building more roads and adding lanes is not enough. We need smart cars and smart roads and we need to invest in our nation’s infrastructure so that we take human error out of the transportation equation.

Solving the traffic problem will benefit Americans in so many ways. This will improve American productivity, improve the American quality of life, reduce the cost of every product where transportation is a significant cost. These initiatives will reduce our reliance on foreign fuel; improve the air we breathe and our overall quality of life.

Why are we sitting in traffic? The Democratic party is famous for investing in America and this is a natural extension of this proud history. Traffic congestion is a problem that government can solve.

I offer this strategy free of charge to the Democrats but unfortunately I fear that this non-traditional approach will be eschewed in favor of the tried and true strategies that will continue to help elect Republicans.

Greg Harris

February 15, 2005