Trust and culture in Election ‘04

If you scroll down below Al Franken loony ramblings, you’ll find some lucidity from author Tom Wolfe, from the most recent issue of Rolling Stone:

Not that many people in America who are registered to vote want to be lectured to by Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi and P. Diddy. If you're living in southern Ohio, and you're against gay marriage because you're religious, these guys make you feel like you're being treating like an idiot . . . worse, like a primitive. Bush, on the other hand, is very good at feeding the impression that "I'm one of you. I can hunker down with you anywhere you want." He's acquired a kind of rural accent. But Kerry is incapable of doing that.

This sentiment is shared by one of Andrew Sullivan’s readers:

Let me say it again - the Democrats lost because they are not liked and they are not trusted. That, and really nothing else, was the verdict of this election. And for what it's worth, [disparaging] the 61 million pitchfork-wielding imbeciles who didn't vote for them probably isn't their path back out of the wilderness, emotionally gratifying though it may be.

The Democrats have a long slog back to credibility as a national party – a path so arduous that there’s a grain of truth in Mark Noonan’s recent post about the death of the Democratic party.