Daily Archives: 09/13/2008

(Community Matters) I like Arianna Huffington and her idea for the new campaign theme.

I joined Arianna’s good friends (neighbors in LA) Suzanne & David Booth along with Kirk Rudy, Diane Land and Steve Adler plus about 400 others at the Austin Convention Center for lunch and Arianna’s keynote at the Out & Equal Conference. Evan Smith emceed.

She is a remarkable, insightful and articulate woman. I read her everyday and Steven & I co-hosted a luncheon & table conversation for her a few years ago. She remembered (or claimed to) when I greeted her before her speech where she talked mostly about the current presidential race – of course.

Not unlike my conversations with the campaign this week, with our friends at the dinner table Thursday night, and with our friends and campaign staff at Tommie & Lynn’s last night, Arianna believes we screwed up by paying much attention to Sarah Palin and that we’ve got to return the campaign to Obama and McCain. And, like earlier postings on this blog, she too agrees the race is less about eating into the opposition’s base or even the 43% of swing voters who actually believed the Kerry Swift Boat ads, including that he self-inflicted his wounds to get a Bronze Star. She too believes it’s about attracting new voters, whether newly registered or registered but who don’t vote – citing the 83 million registered voters who didn’t go to the polls in 2004. I’m with her here but won’t make a quotable statement about those swing voters.

While talking with a friend about Drew Wilson’s book, The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation we were discussing the importance of Obama’s political narrative. The GOP Convention and their adopted language brilliantly coop Obama’s narrative: change, hope, leadership you can trust. And, given their base and evangelical following, Sarah Palin is their charismatic new leader.

Arianna recalled one of Barack’s themes in his convention speech: Enough! At our table, we agreed with her, it’s the right one for the rest of the election. ENOUGH!

(Community Matters) Jonathan Haidt, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, on The Edge.

…the second rule of moral psychology is that morality is not just about how we treat each other (as most liberals think); it is also about binding groups together, supporting essential institutions, and living in a sanctified and noble way. When Republicans say that Democrats “just don’t get it,” this is the “it” to which they refer.

Excerpts: What makes people vote Republican? Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies?
People vote Republican because Republicans offer “moral clarity”—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate.

When gut feelings are present, dispassionate reasoning is rare. In fact, many people struggled to fabricate harmful consequences that could justify their gut-based condemnation.

The moral domain varies across cultures. Turiel’s description of morality as being about justice, rights, and human welfare worked perfectly for the college students I interviewed at Penn, but it simply did not capture the moral concerns of the less elite groups—the working-class people in both countries who were more likely to justify their judgments with talk about respect, duty, and family roles.

When Republicans say that Democrats “just don’t get it,” this is the “it” to which they refer. Conservative positions on gays, guns, god, and immigration must be understood as means to achieve one kind of morally ordered society.

Unity is not the great need of the hour, it is the eternal struggle of our immigrant nation. The three Durkheimian foundations of ingroup, authority, and purity are powerful tools in that struggle. Until Democrats understand this point, they will be vulnerable to the seductive but false belief that Americans vote for Republicans primarily because they have been duped into doing so.

Jonathan Haidt studies morality and emotion and how they vary across cultures. Steven and his colleagues are big fans of his book, The Happiness Hypothesis

Hat Tip: Jason Heffron

(Community Matters) Unfortunately, Senator Biden cancelled yesterday’s trip to Texas, not because of personal logistics but b/c it wouldn’t be prudent to distract law enforcement from hurricane tasks. While we cancelled the larger reception, Tom & Lynn Meredith went ahead with the dinner. Missed hearing directly from Joe Biden. But, everyone was able to speak and Juan, the campaign’s Texas director, gave us the latest greatest information nationally and statewide. We’ve all pledged to refocus on Obama and what we’re doing for the race, rather than focusing on McCain’s vice presidential nominee. Luci Johnson gave great perspective in talking about how she decided to pay $28,500 to attend the dinner. She acknowledged it was a startling number and talked about how she decided to attend when she thought of $2,590 per grandchild and the importance of this investment. Jerry Jeff Walker cracked us up and at the end serenaded us.

(Community Matters) Take a look at Real Clear Politics polls by state for the battle ground states. At what I hope will be the height of McCain’s convention bounce, we’re still ahead in many.