Progressives Don't Do Fear Posted by Heather Hurlburt

Suzanne, I agree with 7 out of 10 of your "Top 10" below.  Number 3 is an especially timely rebuke to some people we know and love who think that alliances are a policy end, not a means. 

But the progressive-wonk mythology about nos. 1, 2 and 4 -- not coincidentally, all issues about how we relate to our base -- is the result of so many layers of misinterpretation, pseudo-science and elitism that we need to go back to basics.

There's no myth about the poll results -- Americans are firmly, though not irrationally, pro-UN, pro-cooperation and anti-policies that put the US in a lone sheriff role.  One of the best distillations of decades of polling and focus-grouping on the subject that I've ever seen is this article by Steve Kull of the University of Maryland's well-respected Project on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), in the form of an interview with Ms./Mr. America.

The answer to the problem you cite, that Americans seem not to favor candidates that favor cooperative global policies, is not as simple as "never translate into political payback."

In fact, it seems that either voters assume their leaders share their beliefs, or (before this last cycle, anyway) simply don't get coverage of what candidates think on these issues and just give up.   This PIPA poll from last fall found that Bush voters favored US participation in the treaty banning land mines (66%), the International Criminal Court (75%), the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (68%), and even the Kyoto agreement on global warming (54%).  Intriguingly, majorities of Bush voters believed that Bush supported these international initiatives as well.  How did the pollsters explain this?  The public believes that Bush has done a good job of keeping them safe, and therefore assume he is a good guy enough to support the things they support.  The pollsters also suggest people actively screen out information to the contrary. 

So it isn't the case that the way to win elections is to cast the world even more gloomily than our opponents.  Besides, that is a game at which progressives will always be playing catchup -- and unsuccessfully.  We don't do fear very well, because a core tenet of progressivism, after all, is that there are good things out there to progress toward.

Think about what Clinton and Reagan had in common.  Each won the White House by offering an alternative, more appealing and more hopeful vision of the world in which Americans found ourselves, and the world to which we might aspire.  That's the place to steer toward, rhetorically and attitudinally -- though clearly, you can slot a wide range of actual policies into that tough-but-hopeful worldview. 

And remember, why did Bush even bother going to the UN before Iraq?  Why the bowing and scraping at various points subsequently?  Because somebody was reading the polls.

Comments

[Jeff Owen]

The positive vision is important.

The left could be pushing a reform-the-UN platform that is positive, genuine and contrasts sharply with the conservatives who are trying to build upon recent anger towards the UN and our alliance partners.

Voters will not remain angry at the UN over Iraq forever, and conservatives undermine their own credibility when they paint the UN and our alliance partners as evil anti-Americans.

[Jeff Owen]

You are right though to highlight that alliances are a tool, not an ends. And the UN does have numerous human-rights abusers and tyrannies who get equal votes with liberal democracies.

Reforming the UN is in our interests, we should not be calling for its end or defending the status quo.

[Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg]

"And remember, why did Bush even bother going to the UN before Iraq? Why the bowing and scraping at various points subsequently? Because somebody was reading the polls."

I don't think it was a Poll that brought us to the UN, but a Powell. The payback from the NeoCons was to completely trash his standing by having him stand in front of the whole world with an amateur Power Point presentation full of information that he knew was full of bullshit. (I remember thinking at the time that if only I knew 3D studio max or Maya(both animation applications) better then I could have "proven" that Saddam had not only mobile biological labs but an army of zombies, vampires, and demons. Note to Bush- next time don't skimp on the special effects).

As far as the PIPA poll goes, I like the fact that you seem so optimistic in your reasoning for why Bush supporters seem to live in a world of fantasy (their otehr poll on WMD in Iraq and connections between Iraq and Al-Qaeda shows a similar trend). How about this- Bush supporters are fed BS by the "news" outlets they watch, and this combines with their lack of political knowledge to create a situation where they're more and more ditached from the real world. You could also just say that people who vote Republican are just dummer than Democrats, at least if you were to define intelligence as "The capacity for knowledge, and knowledge possessed."

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