We are the Boston Red Sox and we just beat the better funded NY Yankees!

[roseBudd]

[Olney Blue]

1. We are Democrats, and we just beat the better funded Republicans.

I can relate!

[roseBudd]

3. I offer it up as a metaphor to draw in the apolitical. Like fans of a sports team, our voters...

can help the team by rooting (voting) and the fans (voters) share in the victory (electoral success) when we beat the other team (Republicans)

I had several epiphanies while canvassing for Kerry in low income urban neighborhoods. I canvassed at the 3Bs: barber shops, beauty parlors and bus stops. I also canvassed on street corners. I came up with the idea of crafting a narrative of the common man (Boston Red Sox fans) that struggles under insurmountable odds (a better financed NY Yankees) yet due to the patience and support of the fans (democratic voters) the team (Red Sox) have emerged victorious over the greedy NY Yankees who have the highest payroll (campaign contributions).

Daily KOS says we need a story. This could be it.

[Olney Blue]

4. The metaphor works!

[roseBudd]

5. We can't just be policy wonks and reality based, we have to tell a story about

who we are and why we stick by our guns. It is because we are not the party that has the highest payroll in baseball. We are not corrupt. We have heart and we play to win and we never lose hope because we know we are playing for the fans, and that are fans represent real America, not the corportae fat cats who are the New York Yankees.

[alcibiades_mystery]

8. Wow!

That manages to be both condescending AND stupid. Oh, if only those low income people had a simple narrative by which they could understand all that complex political stuff! Oh, woe! You know why low income people feign ignorance of politics when people like you are around? Because they know that you're condescending clueless assholes, that's why. As soon as you leave the room, they hook their thumb at you and laugh: "Oh, she gone tell us how shit works, now. Boston motherfuckin' Red Sox. Like we're stupid. There go the poor folk, too dumb to know! Better tell 'em about some baseball now, maybe they understand." They're in the barber shops LAUGHING AT YOU, and it's a damn good thing, too.

Shit, you're even condescending in your response, explaining your asinine metaphor parenthetically as if everyone in the room doesn't already get it. Yes, we understand teacher. Thank you teacher, for enlightening the poor folk.

Jesus Christ, it just doesn't get any better than this, does it?

[roseBudd]

10. It is a narrative. What's yours? Did you actually do any canvassing of unlikely voters?

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/3368

But is it really the inability to zero in on a particular issue that undermines Democrats? As Paul Waldman said in the Boston Globe a couple of weeks back:

If there's one thing Republicans have understood and Democrats haven't, it is that politics is not about issues. Politics is about identity. The candidates and parties that win are not those aligning their positions most precisely with a majority of the electorate. The winners are those who form a positive image in the public mind of who they are (and a negative image of who their opponents are). Issues are a vehicle to create that identity, one that combines with symbolism and narrative to shape what the public thinks about when they think about Democrats and Republicans.

Think about what happens in campaign after campaign. The Democrat comes before the public and says, ``If you read my 10-point policy plan, I'm sure you'll vote for me. Let's go over it point by point." The Republican then comes before the public, points to the Democrat, and says, ``That guy is a weak, elitist liberal who hates you and everything you stand for. I'm one of you and he's not." And guess who wins.

. . . voters don't read policy papers, and they don't make decisions with a checklist of issues in their hands. That's why Republican campaigns operate on a different level: Whom do you identify with? Whom can you trust? Who is strong, and who is weak? These questions transcend issues, which is why Republicans -- who know they are at a disadvantage on the issues -- spend so much time talking about them.

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. Yes, I did

I also grew up in the very kind of neighborhoods you're "canvassing," and I've heard plenty of half-assed, condescending "narratives" from people who think that poor folks don't get it. Your source is as condescending as you are, by the way. He sets up a silly choice between dry policy discussion and condescending "identity" narrative. The Civil Rights movement didn't get folks to register in rural Mississippi by making up asinine narratives. They got people to register by discussing (rather than "explaining") the issues and how everyday life was related to political decisions. Not in stupid metaphors that condescend to people, but in straightforward analysis spoken in straightforward ways. The simple fact is that you have no respect at all for the people you are canvassing. You think that you are enlightened and they are not, so you're sitting there trying to figure out a way to enlighten them. They sniff it out a mile away, trust me. We all do. It's an embarrassment. These people lknow more about the day-to-day political struggle than you probably ever will, with your so-called fucking narratives. Please.

[bluedigger]

2. For the clueless...

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/

How many days til spring training?

Thanks for the tip rosebud57!

[against all enemies]

6. Which Democrat is Manny being Manny?

[Ferret Annica]

7. Considering 9 - 11 was an inside job and a Yankee smashed his plane

against an East River condo building, you are right, there are parallels.

[roseBudd]

9. Fill in the details Bo Sox fans, can you say Yankees owner is like

Exxon, Mobile, BP, Ken Lay?

[Ferret Annica]

11. The Yankee owner? that's easy, Star War's Jabba the Hut

George Steinbrenner

I am never say die Bosox fan by the way. I was born and raised in Connecticut, and one of the first thing I'm doing when I go back East next spring/summer is a pilgrimage to Fenway Park for a few games.

As someone who is a pro taunter of die hard (headed) Yankee fans, all these idiots who just wear the hat for style out here in Oregon and look blankly at you when you go into rival modus have me very frustrated. I mean, I am dying for real, honest to goodness Yankee fans to make cry. ;-)