DAS Blog

It has occured to me and I presume others (I know it has at least in the context of abortion) that part of the political problem we Democrats have is that we support things a lot of people consider "icky".

People generally agree with us on those issues and, if we were to change our platform, it would hurt us as it would be seen, quite rightly as pandering and it would actually move us away from the mainstream. OTOH, people, even as they support abortion, see it is "icky" and thus don't feel comfortable with our support for it. The pundit-class, even as they live lives impossible before feminism, are largely men who've not outgrown Middle School (the Middle School mentality is obvious by their ideas on appropriate public discourse and national security) and who hence find women icky -- and, since people perceive the punditocracy and media as liberal, they have an especial ability to disuade people from voting Democratic. Too many people feel gays are "icky" even as they, when pressed, support gay rights. Blue-staters may actually want to keep America safe from terrorists, but people in the safe heartland really respond to the GOP platform on the subject because they find terrorists "icky". Etc. Etc.

So the question for us Democrats is "how do we get people to vote based on how they think and feel in their hearts rather than based on the ick-factor?" Because ... no matter what we do -- unless we abandon all principles, we will have to support icky things ... because, well, society cannot work without some ickiness ... now can it? But alas, the Republicans will win every time if elections are decided by the public's reaction of "ick" rather than their actual views on issues.