Over the last week we've been having our annual county fair in Frederick, Maryland, which is a big event in this community, and with good reason: it's a fun, festive, affordable family-oriented activity that draws visitors from all around the county, and beyond, and from all walks of life and income levels. As good a cross-section of America as you can find.
Both major parties have their tents and booths set up at the fair, and I've spent my share of time hosting and manning the Democratic tent. We have what you would expect -- candidate displays and materials, a few free promotional goodies like pens and keychains, relevant policy literature, local candidates and officeholders, voter registration forms, and a running straw poll of tent visitors (Hillary's winning). But a lot of the visitors come in for conversation more than for knickknacks, and in this small sample I have become convinced of one thing: The only thing keeping the Democratic Party from OWNING this country is...the Democratic Party.
Maryland is a blue, it is true; it is one of the most heavily Democratic states in the union. Democrats control the governorship and both houses of the General Assembly. But Frederick County is one of the state's reddest counties -- we have a few local Democratic officeholders, but most of them are Republicans. This county went for Bush twice and for Michael Steele in 2006. People here vote Republican out of habit -- our congressman, Roscoe Bartlett, is a vacant, clueless do-nothing who retains his office out of pure inertia.
So you would expect jeers and sneers from a good proportion of passers-by to our tent. But while that happened a couple of times, the frequency of such episodes was FAR lower than it has been in previous years.
Instead, walking into our booth were rugged John Deere-hatted middle-aged white men asking about Hillary Clinton. Not necessarily complaining about her -- genuinely curious about her, as in, "Could she get us out of our current crappy situation?" One such man walked in with his wife (obviously at her behest), grumbling a bit about Hillary, but when I engaged him and spoke of Hillary's virtues, he didn't dismiss me; he stood there and listened and even nodded in agreement. Others came in and spoke glowingly of Edwards, of Obama, of Richardson; we had a couple of evangelicals drop by and quietly seethe about Iraq, and asking us to "tell the Democrats to DO something!"
I met about a half-dozen people whose lives had been demolished by outsourcing. Next to Iraq, this was the biggest issue visitors wanted to talk about. One middle-aged lady came in for her husband, who's disabled, and confessed that she hadn't had much time to follow the campaigns, and could I please guide her to the candidate who was going to "fix the economy". I nudged her towards some Edwards literature, but put in a good word for the others as well.
I met a slew of young people who wanted to register to vote because it was a cool thing to do. And they thought registering as a Democrat, specifically, was an even cooler thing to do. Several Republicans ducked in and asked if they could change their affiliations on their registrations.
But mostly people wanted to talk, talk, talk. Our booth is conveniently located right across from the ice-cream stand, so many visitors would just walk over holding big heaping cups of chocolate mint chip, and engage us in political conversation. And the common theme was anger.
These visitors -- black, white, affluent, working-class, young, old, male, female -- all had their own specific concerns. But they all projected a deep sense of betrayal and isolation from our current government in Washington. The District is only forty miles down the road from here, but it might as well be on the moon to hear the talk. Jobs, Iraq, health care, education, infrastructure -- whatever their issue, our guests invariably came back to the same refrain -- why doesn't our government DO anything about these things? And why haven't the Democrats been trying to? More than a few times the frustration came through -- we thought the Democrats were going to stop the insanity. What's the problem?
I came away from that experience with the conclusion that the Democrats have a GOLDEN opportunity to clean up in 2008. Despite their anger and frustration, these voters have given up on the Republicans -- the party's name brand has become pure poison among everybody but the flat-earth crowd. But they're looking at the Democrats to LEAD, to DO SOMETHING, to articulate some sort of VISION. And the national party leadership has failed miserably at that effort, choosing instead to serve the beltway crowd. And a historic opportunity to carve out a rock-solid majority is slipping through our fingers as a result.
Americans are not stupid. Despite the pervasiveness of the Republican Noise Machine, there's little evidence it retains much effectiveness outside the 30% dead-enders; too many Americans just can't reconcile the Iraq and economic happy talk with their own personal realities. The Democrats in Washington need to stop succumbing to the Republican gasbag media; the public's way ahead of them on that count, as it is on most major issues. Jack Murtha was right.
The voters are there. They're ready to listen. The ball is squarely in the Democrats' court to take the initiative.
But believe me, "We don't have the votes" is not going to work as an inspirational rallying cry for 2008. Trust me on this.