ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

by: Ryan Oddey

The article you are about to read is the final piece on an interesting intellectual journey that I had over the last twenty-four hours. When I wrote the first draft of this article I had every intent of calling out certain Democrats within the party who I felt would rather bash the donkey than attack the GOP on the issues. Tim Kaine, Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia, was to be one of my biggest targets in this article. I planned on attacking him for the things he has said about his beliefs, other Democrats, and certain issues.

However, the comments I received after I sent the first draft in for editing opened my eyes to something, and I feel that it is important to share my revelation with you.

One of the main reasons I wanted to go after Kaine was because I had been following the comments he’d made; a recent interview he’d given initially pushed me to respond. In that interview, Kaine said he felt John Kerry seemed more comfortable talking about hockey and such than he did talking about religion. Kaine went on to say that the Democrats have failed to reach out to religious voters in out country and that the Democrats needed to do so to succeed. Initially I was upset at Kaine’s approach, feeling that this was a case of if you can’t beat them, join them.

At the time what I failed to realize, and what I believe other Democrats may fail to realize, is that reaching out to the religious groups of American society is not the same thing
as becoming Republican-lite.

Many Democrats, including myself at one point, believe in a "one size fits all" approach to campaigns. As we have learned with the last two presidential elections, this does not work. The "one size fits all" approach fails to an even greater extent when you try and run a campaign like that in a statewide election like governor.

We have seen that "Blue State" candidates do not appeal to voters in certain parts of the country, and that is why we have terms such as "Southern Democrats." These Southern Democrats have developed a platform consistent with the Democratic Party while at the same time embracing the cultural values of the south, including families, religion, and other concerns that fall under moral values. This is nothing short of political Darwinism, as Southern Democrats expressed the values of their fellow citizens. This is something we non-southern Democrats need to learn - Jimmy Carter is any Democrat's vision of a true progressive, and he has never had any difficulty acting from his Baptist religion in the best sense of that.

Tim Kaine is a product of this. He is the classic Southern Democrat in the same way Jimmy Carter was and is. Yes, he may have been frustrated with the way John Kerry ran his campaign, but most Democrats were. Furthermore, Kaine observed the shortcomings of the Kerry campaign and has set himself up to not trip over the same mistakes.

Paul Waldman of the Gadflyer criticized Kaine for saying that he is a Christian who takes his marriage vows seriously. Waldman's point was that, given the public forum, any politician would make those same claims. While I agree with Waldman that any politician would say that, the problem is that Democrats have not been saying that. Kaine took the opportunity to voice what more Democratic politicians need to say - that they do share these moral values.

Democrats do not need to beat the Republicans when it comes to the political arena of morals and values, rather they need to let the public know that Democrats are as concerned with morals and values as the GOP. Simply put, we need to even the playing field. The best way to draw even when it comes to morals and values will be for candidates to say the things that Kaine has been saying, and following through with those claims.

I believe the Democratic Party has come a long way in the short time since John Kerry lost last November, but we are not finished evolving. We do not need to adopt Republican values in order to reach out to the religious base - rather we need to express that, as Democrats, we too have cultural values and we need to list what they are. Kaine is doing that, and others need to follow in his footsteps if we are to take back Congress and the White House.

Make no mistake, this is not the same thing as Joe Lieberman's ideas of Republican-Lite. Lieberman has gone out of his way to agree and promote everything proposed by President Bush, climaxing with a kiss at the State of the Union Address. That is Republican-Lite, and we do not need that.

What we do need is Tim Kaine and more people like him. The DNC realizes how important the Kaine approach is, because they have pledged 5 million dollars to his campaign. Terry McAuliffe made this pledge before his term ended, and Howard Dean followed through with the promise. Actions like that show that Dean is the right man for the DNC as he helps lead the Democratic Party into a new era, one that will see more candidates like Tim Kaine.

And the victories to match.