How a Little Hip Hop Could Help Democrats Win Next Time

by Jonathan Clarke
Democrats wandered aimlessly through election season searching for a message that stuck. As it turns out, Hip Hop had all the messaging they needed.
 
 
If Democrats listened to Hip Hop more , they could’ve avoided the Election Day beatdown they suffered at the hands of Republicans Tuesday. Sure, Barack Obama famously has Jay-Z and Lil Wayne programmed into his Presidential I-Pod. But he and DNC strategists might’ve learned something if also they’d sampled The Black Sheep.
 
In 1991, the Queens, New York duo released a catchy rap ditty called “The Choice Is Yours” which featured an entrancing little hook:
 
You can get with this or you can get with that,  
You can get with this or you can get with that,
You can get with this or you can get with that,
I think you'll get with this, for this is where it's at.
 
Music critique aside, that simple refrain should have been the message blueprint for the Democrats approaching Election Day: The choice was (and is) between “this” and “that.” Instead, Democrats played defense and did a woefully inadequate job of making their case – if they made one at all.
 
From the outset, Republicans framed the political conversation. They convinced Americans that Democrats’ crowning accomplishment – the passage of transformational health care reform – was wrong for the country, that their economic policies were dead on arrival and that spending was out of control.
 
What more would you expect from the Party of No?
 
In response, however, I naively anticipated that Democrats would properly refocus the debate as a clear choice between this and that.
 
This believes targeted federal stimulus makes sense while the private sector hoards cash. That champions tax cuts as the one-size-fits-all remedy that opens the flood gates and gets big business spending again.
 
This understands targeted tax cuts for middle income earners (i.e. most of us) infuse average households with spending money and stimulates the economy. That believes tax breaks for the wealthiest two percent of Americans cause a trickledown effect in the economy.
 
Why didn’t any of the This crowd underscore the blunt absurdity of stressing the urgency of jobs growth while all along promoting a jobs fix which gradually “trickles” down? That just doesn’t make sense.
 
This rightly understands how tackling and reforming health care ultimately paints a more promising (and just) economic portrait. That labels health care socialism and argues free market competition would control costs, even though health care’s price tag steadily has risen since the last time That Party blocked health care reform.
 
This stands up for consumers moving the toughest financial regulation in recent memory. That argues on behalf of the same Wall Street personalities who set the table for the current economic crisis.
 
This Party firmly supports a woman’s right to make decisions which impact her future. The most extreme among That Party say government should compel pregnant women to carry their children to term, even in cases of rape and incest.
 
How do you like THAT?
 

You can get with this or you can get with that,
I think you'll get with this, for this is where it's at.
 

Unfortunately, the Democrats never said THIS. They never ran on their broad swath of accomplishments – reformed health care so big insurance no longer could  block people with pre-existing conditions; rescued the nation from the brink of the next Great Depression; insured 4 million previously uninsured children; cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans.
 
Those of us who knew better never seemed to hear enough of THIS.
 
“My problem is that Obama and the Democratic Party didn't ‘brag’ about their accomplishments to counteract the [BS],” says Kip Jackson, a New Jersey videographer and producer. “When are these guys gonna grow some cojones?”
 
In the absence of a ballsy attack, Republicans rushed to fill the void. They did so by using consistent simple messages. Constantly, they branded Democratic proposals “job-killing” legislation. Virtually unchecked, they lumped all the President’s achievements under the heading “failed policies of the Obama Administration.”
 
Now, you might think (or perhaps Democrats gambled) voters clearly wouldn’t expect an economy that spent years tanking to suddenly reverse course in a matter of a few months. Wouldn’t most reasonable people find that a tad unrealistic?
 
But that’s precisely what the American electorate expected. Egged on by the Republican echo chamber, the Tea Party, and a desperate jobs outlook, they declared Obama a failure because he brought a defective magic wand into the Oval Office.
 
And those were his supporters.
 
Remember Velma Hart? She’s the Obama supporter at that town hall meeting who confronted the President with her impatience telling him, “I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now."
 
Granted the jobs picture is dreadfully bleak and many of us hurt in ways we never imagined. That’s reality. But is our collective memory so short and our detachment from reality so distinct that we genuinely expect an immediate deluge of millions of jobs simply because Obama says so?
 
That kind of disillusionment among Democrats and independents is what “exhausts” my friend Wanda Wyatt, a real estate professional from St. Louis. “My fatigue is with you,” she says of Obama supporters who’ve abandoned him and the Democrats.
 
Indeed, it’s frustrating to see desperation set in among voters. However, losing your base and the middle happens when you leave a message vacuum for your opponents to fill. When you run scared you lose.
 
Conversely, losing may prove the Democrats’ best friend.
 
As the GOP advances its agenda, the line between this and that will become more pronounced. Dems will have an opportunity to let Republicans demonstrate how they’ll pay for extending tax cuts for the wealthy. Let them explain to 1 out of every 2 Americans who supports health care reform why turning back the clock is their prescription to move the country forward.
 
It’s not necessarily too late to make a strong case. After all, the choice is clear. You think the Democrats can see THAT? 
 
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Jonathan Clarke is a two-time Emmy Award nominee and Owner & Chief Consultant of The Clarke Groupe, a St. Louis, Missouri media and communications company specializing in corporate video production, media training and strategic message development. Mr. Clarke has more than 20 years of communications experience on and off air in television news, TV & Radio broadcasting, production and public relations.  Follow Jonathan's blog at couldntkeepit.wordpress.com. You can write to him at: jonclarkewrites@gmail.com