Narratives
There are going to be three narratives coming out of the Democratic Convention, the one by the media, the one by the Republicans, and the one by the Democrats. Which one you think reflects reality is probably a function of your political persuasion. The media usually comes up with a narrative feed by the Republicans, because the Republicans are better at framing an issue than the Democrats, which will emphasize high drama and conflict. In a perfect world the media would simply reflect events as they happen, but they are so infused with “the best political team on television”, that their coverage pings back and forth from one biased political philosophy to the other. John Stewart did the nation a great service by showing the narrative of Democratic dissent the media has set up, and then made fun of how, when they couldn’t find it, tried to create it.
MSNBC, which of the three Media News outlets is my favorite, was showing the strain of dissent. Joe Scarborough, who thinks he is an unbiased Republican, was waxing elegant on how the Republican political machine was staying on message, and Keith Olbermann who thought he was off mike was heard mumbling, “Why don’t you get a shovel Joe.” Keith himself can be over the top in his liberal beliefs, but he is a breath of fresh air in that he is not a tool of Republican talking points. Chris Mathews showed some anger at Keith for suggesting maybe he had talked on too long, which of course is what Chris Mathews does as the master of blovation. Meanwhile David Gregory, he who still claims they asked all the right questions before the invasion of Iraq (to all the wrong people), was showing his distain as he questioned Democrats on the floor of the convention and could not shake them from their message of unity. They just were not cooperating with his narrative of internecine strife. Too bad he couldn’t have shown the same distain when he asked “all the right questions” before we invaded Iraq. Meanwhile over at FOX news they were busy reinterpreting reality to fit their own narrative and I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. These people did not listen to the same speeches the rest of us did. The problem here is that we now have a media that is too tied into the process and its entertainment value. Except in the print media, we have lost an independent media. Thank goodness for CSPAN so I could just hear the speeches and judge for myself what the meaning was.
Now the Republican narrative is going to be very simple. Barack Obama does not have the experience to be President. The world is a scary place with bad guys waiting to blow us up so you need an experienced warrior like John McCain to protect us from all the evil doers out there. They will use both Hillary’s and Joe Biden’s primary statements about the young upstart Obama. They will hammer home that the world is a scary place (be afraid, be afraid) and we need experience in the White House to face down these threats. They will leverage the Russian threat to Georgia as the 3 am call that Hillary made so famous. There are some major flaws in this narrative, but it will appeal to those who hold their “guns and religion close”. First question the Demos might ask is just what experience does John McCain have that applies to the 21st century and do old approaches really work. The Republicans have this huge problem in that they have had total unfettered control of the government for the last eight years controlling both the Congress and the White House and the mess we are living in is the result. They will claim that Ron Reagan defeated the Russians and now John McCain will do the same. The problem is that this is not 1980 and the only country going broke is us. But their narrative must keep the focus off the economy or the disasters they have created elsewhere and keep the focus personal. The media will love this because they won’t have to talk about real issues and can focus once again on the soap opera.
Finally we have the Democrat’s narrative. This one is also quite simple. We have been under Republican Control for eight years and it hasn’t worked. We need to change directions and restore America’s leadership in the world. As the Republican narrative is based on fear, the Democratic narrative is based on hope and optimism for the future. There is a wonderful strength in this argument in that the litany of Republican failures from Enron to Katrina goes on forever so there is a wealth of data to show their failures. The weakness is that people are resistant and fearful of change. It scares them and that feeds into the Republican narrative of be afraid. But I think enough things have gone wrong that most people see we must change. You know, it is that old saw, you must be face down in the gutter before you recognize you have a problem. The Democrats leveraged that idea when many of the speakers in Wednesday’s convention were ex-Republicans. They also utilized quite a few military personnel to counter the “warrior” image of John McCain. If they can keep the focus on the failures of the Republicans and that John McCain just brings the same old people back into power, they may be able to overcome the fear of a young Obama leading this country.
The Democrats have gotten smarter than they use to be and they are ready for a fight. The media will be putty in the Republican’s hands because they will want to focus on the personal mud slinging, not the crux of the issues or the validity of the arguments. As long as we have two shouting partisans, the advantage is to the status quo. But I think this time the Democrats are ready. I think Americans may really understand that it is now or never. We are face down in the gutter. I know I am ready for a new approach to our future and our only hope is Barack Obama.
What I saw in the Democratic Convention was a true cross section of America with hope for the future, an America I want to be part of. What we will see next week in the Republican Convention is a bunch of fat old white men (don’t worry they will strategically place the eight people of color they could find in camera range) whose whole existence is based on cronyism, fight for the status quo with fear. They will do everything they can to distract Americans from their failures. Which America do you want to belong to?