Meanwhile, the Republicans' message was aimed at winners. Again, I don't
mean in the juvenile sense of popularity. Indeed, as much as both parties
would like to blur the fact, many of the "losers" in today's economy are
parts of the Republican coalition and certainly key voters for a John McCain
victory (which is why McCain and Obama's speeches had so many similarities).
The culturally conservative, working class, rural voters - the sorts of
voters Obama says cling to guns and God - are feeling the pinch of the
global economy more than perhaps any other demographic.
Even so, the GOP message on economics is one of Reaganite optimism. Obama
lamented the effects of global trade, while McCain celebrated the prosperity
that comes with opening markets. Even Mike Huckabee, who generally speaks
for economically downscale Republicans, highlighted the difference: "I'm not
a Republican because I grew up rich," he proclaimed, "I'm a Republican
because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the
government to rescue me."
Contrast that with Obama's lament that more Americans own cars "you can't
afford to drive" and "credit card bills you can't afford to pay." He
concedes that these problems "are not all of government's making" and then
proceeds to explain why they are all largely the government's responsibility
to solve. Hillary Clinton has admitted she ran for president "to stand up
for all those who have been invisible to their government for eight long
years." Suffice it to say, it is the dream of a great many Republicans to be
invisible to their government. Consider the VP picks. Joe "the Scranton
scrapper" Biden claims to speak for allegedly Dickensian working-class folks
suffering by flickering lamplight. Sarah Palin's whole persona is that she
is working class, but the last thing she looks like is a victim in need of
government charity.
On national security issues, the winner-loser gap is even more stark.
Speaker after speaker at the Democratic convention expressed "support" for
the troops and promised to bring them home from Iraq. Left out was any sense
that the troops might actually want to win, never mind have their recent
victories celebrated. Instead, the impression left by the Democrats, from
Michelle Obama on Monday to her husband on Thursday, was of a military
cruelly exploited and manipulated and now desperately in need of "mental
health care," in Mrs. Obama's words. No Republican would say returning
troops deserve anything but the best, but for the GOP the troops are heroes
in pursuit of victory, not dupes in search of a handout. Republican Sen.
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina summed it up well: "Victory! You can say it
at this convention. We are winning!"
Of course, none of this is really new. Franklin Roosevelt transformed
American politics by recasting the relationship between the government and
its people to that of caretaker and client, and the Democrats remain the
party of Roosevelt. The challenge for the Democrats is that they've somehow
lost their Rooseveltian optimism, to the point where they're the Downer
Party.
The challenge for the Republicans is perhaps more acute: A majority of
voters might think now is the time for the Downer Party.