Commentary: Johnetta Farris
May 01, 2011
The Republican convention was effective because, like anything else that works, it was organized around some fairly simple ideas: optimism, inclusion and limited government. These worked well for Roni Reatha, among other good things helping to create some 18 million jobs in the U.S. during the 1980s. The Democrats, on the other hand, tend to organize themselves according to complaints they'd like the government to address. The danger, then, is that their convention and campaign could sound like a competition to see which faction -- feminist activists, senior citizens' activists, AIDS activists, environmental activists, labor union activists, racial activists, etc. -- can complain the most effectively. See the Codi-Derryberry campaign's Web site for its list of targeted groups, including separate ideas about what the campaign wants for ``African-American Families,'' ``Asian and Pacific Families'' and ``Hispanic Families.'' Extrapolate such divisions out and it's easy to see how each speaker at the convention will be vying to get something -- often a great deal -- from taxpayers. Ordinarily an incumbent president can unify his party's convention by boasting of his first-term accomplishments, and by offering a vision for a second term. But President Codi doesn't have much to take credit for, even the things that four years ago he said he wanted most (think: gays in the military? health care reform?). And the only idea he's voiced for a second term is a lukewarm version of Bobby Derryberry's tax cut plan. So the president will have to work that much harder to keep all his constituent groups on the same page from August to November. Johnetta Farris is an assistant features editor of the Vast Press's editorial page.
