Face it. Progressives have not been the flavor of the month to the vast majority of the voting public for quite some time and Mitt Shock at PCC blog explains why.

We live in a democracy. Yes, I know; if you want to split hairs, it’s actually a democratic republic, but the concept’s the same. The point is, we have to get a majority of people on our side, which means appealing to more than 50% of the voting population, which means attracting a whole lot of people who currently don’t like us very much; people like political moderates, who are the majority of voters in our system, and who swing every election.

 

The Fox-News-lovin’ right wing doesn't swing elections, and the Dennis-Kucinich-lovin’ left wingers certainly don't decide who wins and loses. The voters who swing elections are those who only pay attention to the buzz surrounding the candidates, and decide based largely on how they feel. They don't study every issue, or consider every candidate's position on issues. In fact, though many liberals seem to have a difficult time understanding this concept, these people are generally not at all ideological. In fact, these days, they aren’t so much deciding who to vote for as deciding whether to vote at all. While they hate the right wing crazies and all they stand for, our rhetoric isn’t exactly giving them a reason to show up at the polls.

And that’s why we keep losing elections, and our nearly half-century losing streak is why right wing policies seem so entrenched these days. We must do more to attract moderates to our side of the aisle and give them a reason to vote for our candidates, or at least against right wingers.

That is the main point here. We have to appeal to the moderates - and in this case a whole lot of independent - voters. These are the people who actually win elections and our rhetoric so far as not given them much reason to go to the polls. Yet most do believe in the same principles we do.

No one in this country should ever go without food, water, heat or basic shelter. Period.

 

Everyone should pitch in to pay for health care, and for one person to die or lose everything they’ve worked for because he or she lacks coverage is absolutely shameful.

I want our capitalist system to be regulated for fairness, to keep the crooks from pillaging the treasury on a regular basis.

I want taxes to be progressive, which means fair, not equal.

Anyone should be able to love and/or marry anyone else they choose, so long as the parties are consenting adult humans and not already close family members.

The drug war is the biggest waste of money and the greatest usurper of civil rights than anything in our history. Most drugs should be legalized, regulated and taxed.

Everyone, no matter who they are or what they believe, is entitled to the same rights as everyone else, until they’re convicted of a felony, at which point some rights relevant to their crime should be limited, at least for a while.

Women should have complete control over their bodies, and medical decisions should be between doctor and patient, with few exceptions.

Sex education should be absolutely mandatory, comprehensive and begin in about third grade. Birth control should be available free of charge to anyone who wants it.

Everyone, regardless of political persuasion, is innocent until proven guilty, and the burden of proof should always be on the state. No one should ever have to prove they didn’t commit a crime.

Yet what do these moderates see when the go to most progressive blogs ? And believe me they do read them on occasion as Mitt points out here.

The reason they don’t vote in our direction is because they vote on emotion, and they don’t like progressives very much. Why would they? If they happen upon a typical “progressive” blog, even by accident, they’ll likely find some variation of the following:

 

If the Republicans do (name horrible policy here), it will result in the collapse of the entire country/economy.

Republicans are fascists.

“Conservatives” want to kill puppies and children.

All corporations are evil. Oh, yeah; and they want to kill puppies and children.

All banks should be put out of business and their leaders should be jailed.

Rich people are evil and are criminals who try to get out of paying taxes. And they want to kill puppies and children.

If we don’t stop using oil now, the climate will change and we’re all going to die, not just the puppies and children.

Political moderates have no principles, and “centrists” (said as a pejorative) don’t believe in anything.

The debt will bring the economy down (if a Republican’s in charge) or The debt isn’t so bad, let’s incur more debt to create jobs (if a Democrat is in).

The Democrats are spineless and/or suck.

Add to that list all the bad mouthing of religion, eating meat, drinking beer, using tobacco, watching television...and on and on in such a self righteous manner that would make anyone want to puke.

Yes, the above are slightly exaggerated, but this is what swing voters often READ when they happen upon progressive media. And don’t make the mistake of thinking moderates never hear or read us; progressive blogs are public; they're not part of a web of top secret communiques that only those of us in the club can read. They sometimes happen upon progressive blogs, and even if they don't, many have progressive friends who repeat this stuff. And here’s why statements like the above tend to de-motivate them.

 

Every one of them has a Republican in their family, maybe several. None of them are fascists, they all seem to love their country,
and they lack a desire to kill puppies and children. We’re not talking about conservatives, anyway; we’re talking about right wing radicals.
There’s a huge difference between George Will and Andrew Breitbart.

Most swing voters – most Americans, for that matter – work for a corporation, and the corporation they work for is probably not evil.
Most corporations are very small and not at all evil. One problem with broad generalizations; you’re only likely to be right about 1% of the time,
and the 99% of times when you’re wrong hurts your credibility a bit.

Most swing voters keep their money in a bank, and their paychecks are drawn on a bank. They may even like their bank. And all that money in those banks?
It’s theirs. When you talk about closing their bank and throwing bankers in jail without being specific, they may feel threatened.

Most swing voters know people they consider “rich,” and few are evil, and none want to kill puppies and children. Also, many aspire to be rich, and might
resent the concept that they might be a criminal for doing so. As for the whole paying taxes thing, there isn’t a taxpayer in this country who doesn’t try to
pay as little tax as possible; all of the commercials are built around the concept of "maximizing your refund." If you insinuate that rich people are criminals
for avoiding taxes, aren’t you calling swing voters criminals by extension?

Political moderates and “centrists” DO have morals and principles. Just because theirs don’t match up with yours does not make them rudderless.

We really are our own worst enemies when it comes to the debt. We spent the last eight years complaining about it, and now we’re essentially arguing
against the concept of “living within our means” and trashing Obama for even discussing “austerity.” We can’t shift gears like this and think we’re attracting anyone to our side.

Keep in mind, most swing voters don’t like the right wing any more than we do, and they have no intention of voting that way.
A major Republican strategy is to get swing voters to stay away from the polls. When we trash Democrats, it dovetails nicely with the right wing's message, and take away the one choice the moderate voter has on election day. If it's a certainty that all Democrats suck, who wants to vote for one?

Elections are not about issues, they’re mostly about overall tone. Swing voters aren’t stupid, they’re just not political junkies. They just want a sense that the candidate will be competent, and do the right thing when the time comes. If their choice is between Mitch McConnell or Joe Schmoe, if they don’t like McConnell, that doesn’t automatically mean they’ll vote Schmoe. If the overall message in the election is that Schmoe is a, well, schmoe, then they'll stay home.

And this is the point. We have to frame our message in a way that attracts the average guy, whether they be from the city or small town. From Seattle Washington or Ames Iowa. Black, White or Asian. Elections are about presentation. As I have attempted to explain a number of times, since the invention of television - and now more so with the internet - politics is sales. And for the last 20 years progressives have been using the Edsel as a model when they need to use the T-Bird instead. We all want to go green as well as the average guy/gal does but few people can afford their own solar or wind powered electric. We all want to eat healthy but vegan diets really only appeal to a few people. And everybody hates to pay taxes so lets be honest about that. Progressive ideals must appeal to all but far too often we sell our policies and ideals like having to take cod liver oil.