Reading Publius’ post on Republican priorities got me thinking about how the meta narrative for the Republican party is so much different than for the Democrats, and how the Democrats are failing to appreciate it. The gist of his post was that the stimulus is going to help millions of people, and the Republicans are obstructing it by objecting to pieces that are (largely) good on their own, even if they won’t be very stimulative. The fact that Republicans can get everyone arguing about little details instead of the big picture when the Democrats propose something is a long held Democratic complaint; especially during Presidential elections. The corollary is that the Republicans focus on big and simplistic messages that the Democrats argue with, while they slip in tons of little things below the radar that are highly controversial and no one talks about.

The common Democratic refrain to this is that Democrats need to start copying Republicans better by simplifying their message, driving home grand themes, and then filling in the details in a back room. I disagree with this strongly. The Republicans can get away with it because they have created a mythology that they are the party of small government and strong social values while the Democrats are big wasteful spenders that are immoral. This gives the Republicans moral authority to nitpick at the Democrats in the name of protecting against intrusive/wasteful government, while simultaneously assuring people that their little details are all necessary. Perhaps that was the case at some point (many Democrats would argue it isn’t, but just looking back historically I can see it did have a great deal of truth), but for the last couple of decades it has been demonstrably false. The Republicans have expanded government — both “defense” and social spending — far more than the Democrats, taking on massive amounts of debt. It came out a few years ago when David Kuo quit that Rove et. al viewed the entire social conservatism angle largely as a vote getter and little else. And don’t get me started on the social liberties angle. There are dozens upon dozens of formerly high ranking Republican officials that came out in the last eight years and denounced what the party had become. Democrats have recognized that the Republican reality doesn’t mesh with the myth and try to take it down. Heck, there are almost no Republicans that can even get behind the party anymore, they just view the Democrats as worse.

The idea that Democrats should retool like the Republicans is wrong. They need to lead by playing to their strength within the narrative, not complain about unfairness. If the Republicans are going to attack every single detail and argue that things aren’t defensible in context of the larger bill, then make the bills smaller and more targeted. Every economist agrees that expanding unemployment benefits, food stamps, and aiding the states is completely critical. Those things — and only those things — should have been in the first bill passed by Congress. The Republicans might have still objected, but then the Democrats could have hammered in the point that all the experts that are traditionally Republican oriented were for the bill as well. Then when that was done, have another bill that aims to “create jobs” and where every single proposed piece would be about getting the most jobs for the buck. And then another bill about shoring up our food supply that had the honey bee provision. Etc.

Not only would that be more effective politically but it would be better governance. The Democrats aren’t saints and put tons of waste and pet projects in bills, and breaking them down like this would limit that. It would also better focus debate on what is acceptable for the public to support and what is not. In essence, instead of being like Mike Tyson by coming out big and going for the one knockout punch, they need to be Ali and rope a dope.