wherein I do a bit of post-election musing
Nov. 9th, 2004 01:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smg01I've been thinking about some of the election aftermath discussions that I've seen going on and participated in marginally. I've made the observation in a couple of other LJs that I think over the last several years the Democratic Party has done a crappy job of defining their own message. Instead, they've let the opposition party do the defining and then run a defensive campaign. Meanwhile, the already-believers understand and approve the message while the yet-to-be-convinced somehow can't discern what the message actually is.
I've been thinking about this in terms of a couple of teachers that I had in high school--both good teachers but with a difference. I had a chemistry teacher who was good and patient. Always willing to take and answer questions from students and willing to spend time explaining something to you until you got it. But after awhile some of us began to notice that when he would re-explain something, he'd say almost exactly the same thing, but do it in a louder voice. Eventually you'd get it, but it usually required something clicking in your head rather than what the teacher said.
I also had a calculus teacher that I say without reservation is the best teacher I ever had on any level. And I don't even like math. He would spend as much time as he needed to in the afternoons for kids who came in for help (I know he was frequently there with students up to 5:00). He had multiple ways of explaining any concept you were struggling with. If he could tell one explanation wasn't working, he'd switch to another, and another. Eventually, he'd find the one that made everything make sense for you. Almost 20 years later, I look back with profound admiration and respect for his ability to help students learn what he was teaching them. When all was said and done, he taught the same concepts to every single student, but he found a way to tailor things in such a way that kids came to their understanding of the concept in different ways.
Sometimes I think the Democratic Party is kind of like my chemistry teacher. Good, well-meaning, patient. But there's a tendency to get louder and louder with the same message to every audience. I wonder if it would be more beneficial to get the message out in the same way my excellent calculus teacher taught math. The ultimate message and concepts remain the same, but I think perhaps we need to take a close look at how we're communicating them to different groups. My own perception is that there are many people out there that identify with the core values of the Democratic Party, but either can't discern what it is anymore or have been so turned off by the way the message is delivered that they turn away.
I really think we need some new blood in leadership positions at the DNC to reshape the message and help people identify with the Party again.
I've been thinking about this in terms of a couple of teachers that I had in high school--both good teachers but with a difference. I had a chemistry teacher who was good and patient. Always willing to take and answer questions from students and willing to spend time explaining something to you until you got it. But after awhile some of us began to notice that when he would re-explain something, he'd say almost exactly the same thing, but do it in a louder voice. Eventually you'd get it, but it usually required something clicking in your head rather than what the teacher said.
I also had a calculus teacher that I say without reservation is the best teacher I ever had on any level. And I don't even like math. He would spend as much time as he needed to in the afternoons for kids who came in for help (I know he was frequently there with students up to 5:00). He had multiple ways of explaining any concept you were struggling with. If he could tell one explanation wasn't working, he'd switch to another, and another. Eventually, he'd find the one that made everything make sense for you. Almost 20 years later, I look back with profound admiration and respect for his ability to help students learn what he was teaching them. When all was said and done, he taught the same concepts to every single student, but he found a way to tailor things in such a way that kids came to their understanding of the concept in different ways.
Sometimes I think the Democratic Party is kind of like my chemistry teacher. Good, well-meaning, patient. But there's a tendency to get louder and louder with the same message to every audience. I wonder if it would be more beneficial to get the message out in the same way my excellent calculus teacher taught math. The ultimate message and concepts remain the same, but I think perhaps we need to take a close look at how we're communicating them to different groups. My own perception is that there are many people out there that identify with the core values of the Democratic Party, but either can't discern what it is anymore or have been so turned off by the way the message is delivered that they turn away.
I really think we need some new blood in leadership positions at the DNC to reshape the message and help people identify with the Party again.
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no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 08:28 pm (UTC)I'd like to
fantasizethink that he could do all that.no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 08:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-09 10:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-11-10 05:08 am (UTC)Oh, and I wish I lived in Illinois so I could vote for Obama!