Re: What must the Democrats do to win?

Description: Democrats have understood that they have gotten their butts kicked on national security, and some of the mistakes in the war in Iraq allow for them to seize that issue, says Kuhn.

Transcript: It’s hard to answer that simply.  What must the Democrats do to win in 2008?  They can’t make the mistakes of the last few decades.  And they have made . . . They have learned their lesson to some extent.  They must talk about their values.  They must talk about . . . If they are religious they must talk about that.  They have understood that they have gotten their butts kicked on national security, and some of the mistakes in the war in Iraq allow for them to seize that issue.  They have understood that people sometimes don’t oppose illegal immigration . . . some of them.  And sometimes people don’t oppose affirmative action simply because they’re racist.  Sometimes it’s for very real reasons of economic instability.  And so I would . . . What the Democrats have to do without going into specific positions is they have to read the last chapter of my book.  And they should consider the various interests that at times annoy them on the left . . . annoy the leftist base and consider some of their points; while not being ashamed to be Democrats; and not being unabashed to put forward progressive slash liberal policies.  But they mustn’t run as the . . . against George W. Bush.  Again elections are prospective.  They mustn’t run to, you know, end the war in Iraq in the general election.  They should . . . They should talk about Iraq in the sense of dishonoring American . . . the soldiers who went there and dishonoring, like, American senses of duty and purpose in national security.  Because if you talk about the war in Iraq in terms of the mistakes made, that’s one thing.  But if you talk about the war in Iraq in terms of its failures and your capacity to offer clear solutions, you know I do think that it’s possible the Democratic candidate could at least neutralize the national security issue enough that they could make it a domestic appeal.  That said, they are sure making mistakes on illegal immigration that are not just important to men, but also many women in middle America.  And that mistake . . . Those mistakes on illegal immigration . . . I only bring up as an example of historic mistakes being made in the Democratic party on issues like crime.  Many Democrats in the late 1960s said that these white families in the suburbs and the cities were concerned about crime and the urban upheaval simple because they were racist and against the civil rights movement.  And the Democrats struggled to champion civil rights while not taking . . . by not talking about crime seriously.  And the murder rates dramatically rose, and the robbery rates dramatically rose.  And the Democrats mistakenly looked in the 1960s at those issues and so demeaned them as issues.  But people have a right to care about crime surging.  And they have a . . . You know what?  There are principle reasons that some people have concerns about illegal immigration.  And so Democrats should seriously consider the mistakes that they made while also remembering the Democrats and not putting forth an intolerant message.  But they won’t do that.  That’s not gonna happen either with Clinton or Obama.

Recorded on: 2/5/08