Why Democrats Lose

John Heilemann's thumb-sucker in New York Magazine is a study in contrasts. For the first six pages of the article (how many words is this thing, anyway? Is newsprint free at the NYMAG?) he does a workman-like (or is that workperson? I forget) job of bringing the reader all the way from the primaries through to the conclusion of the Republican convention. So far so good, although the following excerpted paragraphs are foreshadowed by the Northern lights of a Democratic theology which holds that Republicans are bad at government but boy do those guys know how to campaign.

At the end, though, Heilemann can't restrain himself and plunges into the deep water of Democratic denialism:

For all the jabber about Palin’s gender, the more relevant political fact about her may be her working-class appeal, and the working class has never exactly been Obama’s sweet spot. And though part of that may be owed to the dexterity of Schmidt et al. in branding him a celebrelitist, a bigger part can be put down to his consistent, maddening failure to conjure a compelling economic narrative on which to hang his policy proposals. And that in turn has handed the Republicans an opportunity: to highlight culture over economics.

Or, put more bluntly, to restart the culture wars [emphasis mine]. It required no great perspicacity to see this was what the Republicans were up to last week in St. Paul. The signposts were everywhere and garish. Here was Fred Thompson, essentially accusing Obama of being in favor of infanticide. Here was Rudy Giuliani at his feral, bloodlusty, sarcasmagoric worst. “I’m sorry that Barack Obama feels that [Palin’s] hometown isn’t cosmopolitan enough,” snarled the mayor. “Maybe they cling to religion there.” And here was Palin, rhetorically attaching sandals to Obama’s feet, draping beads around his neck, and placing an ACLU membership card in his back pocket. “Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America,” she said, “and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.”

The script was old, the act was tried, the performances ludicrous to the point of being comical. And the whole ugly circus was made all the more ridiculous by the performance of McCain calling for unity amid the howling hyenas, grinding his way through a speech text whose archaic cadences, if read by someone remotely capable, would sound like something from the mouth of Henry Clay or John Calhoun. A performance, that is, so at odds with the others at the convention, and with Palin’s in particular, that if you actually tried to reconcile them in your mind, the titanic degree of cognitive dissonance would make your head explode.

But there is a reason the Republicans keep falling back, again and again, on such hoary tropes. The reason is that, from the age of Nixon to the era of Lee Atwater to our current (yes, apparently, it’s not dead yet) epoch of Rove, they have all too often worked. Us versus them is a potent message—and one tailor-made to a candidate with the name Barack Hussein Obama. Who, need it really be pointed out, is plainly not like you.

This isn't reporting or even journalism. It is either full-blown partisanship or, more likely, a deep draught of what Democrats really believe about politics, Republicans, and, most importantly, the American people themselves. You can almost hear the enraged confusion, "Why do these rubes (aka, the voters) keep falling for this stuff? Don't they understand that they are trading their real interests (real in this instance meaning economic) for a mess of potage ("mere" values issues like abortion, religion, patriotism and national security)?

What Mr. Heilman and the Democratic Party can't bring themselves to acknowledge or admit is that for tens of millions of Americans, what the elites regard as potage unworthy of notice is actually a birthright. The the reason that these themes have had and continue to have such resonance and political potency is that they are symbols of fundamental realities (like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness beyond the nanny-state) that the highly-educated urban dwellers, in their unrelenting and impenetrable self-regard, long ago downgraded to mere kindergarten sing-song.

Of course, we don't want to wake them from their slumber too soon. The alarm clock is set for November 4 and there will be plenty of time for self-examination and mutual recrimination then.