Monday, June 04, 2007

Controlling the Narrative

E.J. Dionne had an op-ed recently in the Washington Post about the messages of each party’s main candidates, and what the voters in their parties respond to and care about.


The takeaway:

Consolidating these results dramatizes how different Democraticland is from Republicanland: 42 percent of Democrats listed one of three big domestic issues (the economy, health care and education) compared with only 20 percent of Republicans. The hot-button issues of immigration and abortion were overwhelmingly Republican concerns (20 percent to 2 percent).

And so the Democrats who debate on Sunday and the Republicans who debate on Tuesday will offer a portrait of an election in which our parties are speaking different languages to two very different Americas. This can't be good for us, and it surely won't help whoever is lucky or unlucky enough to be our next president.


The constituents and the candidates seem to set their priorities differently and the problem is that there is yet to be a candidate that is honest and sincere about all the issues. Each candidate seems to be content to cater to the narrative of their party, and not speak . I at least hope this will change after the primaries.


I believe this is partly as to what leads to the myth of the rational voter.

1 comment:

Joel said...

mikey k,
twas a pleasure to have met you this weekend at the bachelor party. thanks for getting us home and the wawa stop. your car is a-mazing.

check out my newly established blog sometime at http://blog.joelrakes.com
i added you to my blogroll!