Time to go low if we want democracy to survive

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“When they go low, we go high” Michelle Obama told the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Well, a fat lot of good that did the Democrats back then and in 2024 as well. The problem that the responsible left is facing in nearly every country where a democratic system purports to exist is a failure to recognise unfortunately that it’s bread and butter issues that a lot of people, many with a short memory, care about more and are frankly satisfied with the modern equivalent of what Roman poet, Juvenal, cynically termed “bread and circuses”. The ‘Glory of Rome’ favoured just a chosen few; just as would the ‘Greatness’ of America.

The late Mario Cuomo talked about campaigning “in poetry” but governing “in prose”. Perhaps that’s why the US Democrats lost, not forgetting also changing candidates too late and failing to recognise that, thanks to COVID and Republican mismanagement, the resulting higher prices and immigration figured higher on a majority of US voters’ list of priorities than the lowering of unemployment and inflation not forgetting measures to combat Climate Change that were the result of the Biden administration‘s returning a chaotic economy to better health. But isn’t that what Democrat administrations tend to have to do when they take over from Republicans?

So, #47 has four years to undo all the good that four years of #46 did. His honeymoon period might be very short. So come on, Democrats, find your new leader quickly and lower your sights when you start the fight back. The free world needs an engaged USA not a country looking in on itself and adopting expansionist policies which would deprive it of any moral authority when confronting countries like China or Russia.

Over here, it seems that only Sir Ed Davey, out of all our party leaders, appears to be sticking to his guns regarding the new regime in Washington. However, just as the Democrats need to learn lessons, so do those of us in many countries, who would consider ourselves left of centre if, indeed, such a classification is valid any more. A increasing proportion of the electorate in most countries feels disenfranchised for reasons that many of us supporting a radical platform find hard to conceive. So far, they have rejected extremes on both sides; but will this continue for ever? The emergence of populism either through actual and potential changes of government amongst our European neighbours, with the notable exception of Poland, and, over here, the use of an EU referendum to give the powers that be a good kicking, should be warning signs. It’s perhaps time we campaigned in prose as well.

* John Marriott is a former Liberal Democrat councillor from Lincolnshire.

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23 Comments

  • John, could you give some examples of what you mean by “going low” and “campaigning in prose”?

    Would the 2024 GE shift to campaigning on caring and health be examples of the latter?

  • Craig Levene 21st Jan '25 - 12:44pm

    There is a good chance the Dems could be up against JD Vance in 4 years time. Raised in a poor rural rust belt town , polished media performer, married to a daughter of Indian immigrants, and best selling author. So they’d better get someone who’s going to appeal to the crucial socially conservative vote.
    Biden had opportunities to shut down that border, in failing to act quickly enough, they paid a heavy price.

  • John Marriott 21st Jan '25 - 12:53pm

    @Chris Moore
    The following ‘suggestions’ do not specifically refer to the Lib Dems. They apply to those parties that occupy the centre left (and centre right for that matter), who really do care about fairness:

    *Less European political integration and more European economic cooperation
    *Recognition that the world doesn’t owe us a living
    *Stop trying to pretend that you can provide Scandinavian levels of public services on North American levels of taxation
    *Recognise that real enemy for the ordinary citizen is not elected government but oligarchy

    A few practical steps:

    Implement the findings of the Dilnot and Jay reports asap
    Raise basic Income Tax (by 2p?)
    Tell Musk et al to take a running jump

    How does that sound for starters?

  • Matthew Radmore 21st Jan '25 - 12:56pm

    I listened to various Trump supporters that were interviewed by the BBC.

    They were mainly focused on “bread’n’butter” issues, common sense, immigration of course, they want government to concentrate on the economy rather than getting directly involved in social issues (described as “liberal bu11cr*p”).

    There was no real mention of foreign policy, which has been alarming for the rest of the Western world.

    I think Ed Davey got it right this year, but it was only as beginning, we need to do more grassroots issues, and propose common sense solutions.

    We should become “populist” across a whole range of everyday issues, but that doesn’t mean scapegoating or overly simple solutions. Rather it should be about making it clear that we will “unblock” this issues that limit progress.

    It just so happens under complete balanced considered logic that to do this we need “to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.”

    And all the rest of it!!!

  • Alex Macfie 21st Jan '25 - 1:10pm

    The 1990s movie Bob Roberts now seems extraordinarily prescient.

  • Anthony Acton 21st Jan '25 - 1:49pm

    Sickening clips of Musk giving the Nazi salute at Trump’s rally. Does the UK have to keep quiet?

  • ………………..Over here, it seems that only Sir Ed Davey, out of all our party leaders, appears to be sticking to his guns regarding the new regime in Washington…………

    Very easy to do when you’ll have absolutely no interaction with the capricious man-child who controls the most powerful nation in the world..

  • @Craig Levene – “So they’d better get someone who’s going to appeal to the crucial socially conservative vote”

    This is surely the crux of the problem, in every democracy. Does a political party move it’s policies to meet the voters where they are now, or do they gradually try to move the voters to where you are by the next election.

    The former effectively accepting you can only win by being Republican-lite in the US, or Tory-lite in the UK, at a cost of alienating your core supporters and activists. The latter requiring considerably more airtime and balanced media attention than we typically expect to get between elections.

  • Chris Moore 21st Jan '25 - 7:48pm

    Hello, John, Dilnot and Gray definitely. 2p on income tax: agree. Tie it to repairing UK’s creaking infrastructure.

    Good article.

  • John Marriott 21st Jan '25 - 10:10pm

    @Chris Moore
    Yes. I’m a great fan of hypothecation. As the late great Paddy used to say; “No taxation without explanation”

    PS I think you meant ‘Jay’ not ‘Gray’ – or have I missed something?

  • This is a valid strategy. But it does take a toll on the activists who do it and they may not realise that until quite some time later…..

  • John Marriott 22nd Jan '25 - 7:13am

    @Hywel
    By “take a toll” I assume you mean that fighting fire with fire may put a lot of activists off campaigning., especially the younger ones. I was an ‘activist’ once. I thought I was single-handedly going to change the world. It hasn’t happened yet and maybe never will. However I have witnessed progress in my lifetime. What saddens me as I reach the end of mine is how, by insisting on rigid dogma, the so called ‘progressives’ are losing hard won support let alone failing to win over more hearts and minds. Being what I term a ‘pragmatic liberal’, I have always felt like running to stand still, if you get my drift – two steps forward and one set back, or, as in 2015, ten steps back! Not everyone is a radical and many people, when it comes to politics, have very short term memories. Most people want a quiet life and, in some way, who can blame them?

  • Maurice Leeke 22nd Jan '25 - 10:00am

    Can we also accept that, for the sake of the planet, duty on road and aviation fuel need to rise ?

  • @Matthew Radmore: it’s not just Trump supporters who wanted the party to focus less on “liberal bu11cr*p”.
    The Democrats may well have lost the election because swing voters – the ones who matter most of all in any election – were alienated by the Democrats’ policies on trans matters. Trump focussed on that in the last week of the campaign, presumably because his pollsters told him this was a massive vote loser for the Democrats.
    Those pollsters appear to have been right.
    A Democrat organisation, Blueprint, conducted a survey in November, to identify which negative statements about either Trump or Harris was most strongly agreed with by electors.
    Out of the 25 negative statements against Trump or Harris, the one that had the highest response among swing voters was: “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.” This was ahead of inflation and immigration.
    Among all voters, that question came just third.
    We should stop pretending that these sorts of issues are “not something the electorate care about”. They do, and that includes the swing voters without whom we can never win.
    There’s a reason why the party kept very quiet about its policies on sex and gender during the general election campaign.

  • Jenny Barnes 22nd Jan '25 - 1:58pm

    This is the age of the train, and the bicycle.

  • Peter Martin 22nd Jan '25 - 4:18pm

    @ Jenny,

    “This is the age of the train, and the bicycle.” ??

    Have you been on the M25 recently?

  • Chris Moore 22nd Jan '25 - 4:23pm

    @John Marriott: yes, Jay!!

  • Nonconformistradical 22nd Jan '25 - 7:59pm

    @Jenny

    I’m mobility impaired and elderly. I can’t ride a bicycle. I could just about get on to or off a train but I’d have to go out in my car to get to a station and struggle with crossing the bridge across the railway.

  • Toby Keynes 23rd Jan '25 - 3:58pm

    In my earlier post (above), I managed to miss out the link the the Blueprint poll from which I was quoting.
    The poll can be found at https://blueprint2024.com/polling/why-trump-reasons-11-8/
    And, for more information about Blueprint and why Democrats created it: https://blueprint2024.com/about/

  • John Marriott 24th Jan '25 - 8:49am

    Some interesting comments. Glad I contacted LDV* again. And FINALLY …. to borrow a phrase that George W Bush used after the 2017 inauguration, there’s “some weird sh*t” going on at the moment!

    * Weren’t they the initials of a now defunct vehicle manufacturer?

  • “By “take a toll” I assume you mean that fighting fire with fire may put a lot of activists off campaigning., especially the younger ones. I was an ‘activist’ once. ”

    Actually a bit of the opposite in that it can attract some of the activist base. To be blunt it completely f***s you up when you become overwhelmingly caught up in the fight.

    That may just be my personal journey but it wasn’t a particularly good one and largely why I’ve never stepped back into the party fray ‘do I really want to put myself back there’ is a question to which I ultimately say no and feel a lot better for it 🙂

  • John Marriott 1st Feb '25 - 10:23am

    @Hywel

    Yes!

  • Peter Hirst 3rd Feb '25 - 1:29pm

    Wise politicians know that to win elections you must address present grievances. So to solve many challenges they need to have a muti-faceted strategy that aims to do several things at the same time. Messaging then becomes nuanced though unless it prioritises what matters to the ordinary person, it is doomed to fail to result in crosses on ballot papers.

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