Blue Moon Aurora

The Democratic Party needs to take some lessons from James Cameron’s Avatar if they want to make sure that what happened in Massachusetts stays in Massachusetts.  Avatar has pulled in $1.6 billion with more on the way, won the Golden Globe’s Best Picture award, and is considered a cinematography phenomenon.  Sequels are in the works and James Cameron is once again “King of the World”.  It's 3-D CGI change we can believe in. 

The Democratic Party on the other hand, has lost a special election in Massachusetts over the late Ted Kennedy’s seat and with that its filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, healthcare reform is in the balance (possibly dead), and public opinion towards the Democratic Party is plummeting.  The irony is that at the 2008 election it was Senator Barak Obama and the Democratic Party that were “King of the World” and what a difference two years makes.   

Now the Republicans are claiming that Americans are fed up with the Democrat’s liberal agenda centered on a watered-down healthcare reform bill that is neither liberal nor probably that significant of a reform.  It represented change we can accomplish – which isn’t a catchy slogan.  It’s not liberalism that is bringing down the Democratic Party, but something more insidious – a lack of a message.  The only good news for the democrats is that the Republican Party doesn’t have a message either besides the typical oppositional rhetoric.  However, “the party of no” will always beat the “the party of whatever” and that is why the democrats are going down. 

Avatar had a liberal bent.  No let me rephrase that – Avatar was an angry call for revolution.  The military is evil, capitalism is heartless, scientists are well-meaning but politically ineffectual, and it would all be better if we loved mother earth and ran through the jungles naked.  I’m fairly progressive, some might call me liberal, but Avatar was way out there – it made the Green Party look mainstream.  However, it’s popular and everyone is watching the movie, the only haters are those of us who are picky about our science fiction movies and that transcends politics.  If climate change legislation happens this year it won’t be because of the Democratic Party.  No, it will be because of Avatar and its glow-in-the-dark-computer-like trees.   

Avatar does touch on healthcare - if it wasn't for our horrible healthcare system then Jake Sully wouldn't have had to go to Pandora to earn new legs and the blue-skinned aliens would never have been saved by the white guy.

The Democratic Party has no message and this is why they are struggling.  The message has to come from President Obama and he just hasn’t delivered it to either the American people or the Democratic Party.  It doesn’t matter what the message is as long as it is sparkly and simple enough to resonate.  For Avatar the message was nature good and Republican values bad.  That’s not a bad message.  Healthcare, welfare, and all that stuff deals with people.  When you deal with people you have value judgments.  A homeless person is something unclean and contemptible, but the stray cat or dog evokes pity.  Nature is free of value judgments, we are more generous to other species than we are to our own.  That however is a political reality, but it can be overcome and you can tackle real issues like healthcare IF you have a message, a strong narrative, something to communicate a vision to people.  If you don’t have that then the opposition controls the narrative and all you are doing is trying to hold on to power, which you will definitely lose. 

The only thing that matters in politics is that you stand for something.  Okay it helps if you are good looking and eloquent, but if you don’t stand for something then people can’t pin their hopes to you.  The Democratic Party needs to stop talking about all the problems created by President Bush and tell us what their vision for the United States really is.  Honestly, anything will do as long as there is true commitment to the vision.  If Americans can accept blue-skinned aliens with USB ports in their ass then they will accept anything as long as it represents the Democratic Party standing up for something besides winning more elections.