FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: HOW ARE THE DEMOCRATS DIFFERENT?

That Dreaded Question
It can happen in an informal setting, such as a dinner or a car ride, or it can happen in the most public forums, such as a TV interview or a community meeting. It is the inevitable question: "What makes Democrats different from Republicans?"

Can we answer this question? More specifically: does this question make us tremble, stammer, loose control of the debate? It doesn't have to. The question about Democratic difference is often an earnest one, but it is also a question designed to stump. Answering it may not be as difficult as it seems once you've taken a minute to unpack what comes with it.

It's A Challenge, So Meet It!
This is the nightmare scenario: You've just spent thirty minutes pouring your heart out to a mixed group of voters, telling them everything your candidate has to offer, when someone in the back room stands up and asks, "I just don't see it. What makes Democrats different?"

Instantly you deflate. Oh, no! I've just spent a half hour pouring my heart out to this room and it's all be wasted. Nobody gets it.

This thought is often our first mistake. Rather than seeing this question as a challenge, we give into our own fears. What are we afraid of? In these situations we are afraid of being caught unprepared, of not persuading the room, of being unfocused the way the GOP and the media describes the Democrats. But none of it is true. The speaker who asks this question is using the oldest trick in the book of manipulation: play on the fears of the person you want to control.

In fact, there's nothing to fear. We should all welcome anyone with the courage and the energy to stand up and challenge us in a room. Nine times out of ten it means they have heard us and they want to hear more. So give them more, respond to their challenge with even more enthusiasm: "I am so glad you asked that question because that is really why we are here, tonight. The different between Democrats and Republicans is vast. We all know it. We can see it all around us. And the future of this country depends on it."

That's the first step: Meet the challenge and in so doing, you take back the room.

The second step is also crucial: Take control of the exchange again. "Absolutely there's a difference and our work is not done here tonight until every one of you understands how I see that difference. Thank you for the question."

We must embrace this question not run from it. Expect it, be ready for it and when it comes jump on it like it's the most important topic of the evening.

6 Possible Answers for 6 Kinds of Democrats
The next step is to immediately and passionately answer the question in a manner that's memorable. The trap that many elected officials or candidates seeking office fall into is to immediately discard the personal elements in their response to the question and reach for some objective, universal answer. That's the big trap. In reality, there are as many differences between Republicans and Democrats as there are Republicans and Democrats. The general rule is not what the person who asks this question is seeking. What they want is inspiration, persuasion, personal experience.

To be able to answer this question in a way that is truly inspiring, it needs to come from our own experiences, and so we need to prepare. That's right--you need to prepare this answer in advance in much the same way that you would prepare for questions at a job interview. And here's the question you need to be ready to answer, even though it is not explicitly asked: What experience in your life made it clear to you that you were a Democrat and not a Republican? In a few sentences, what happened in that experience?

At this point it is helpful to return to Lakoff's six different types of progressives or Democrats:

1. Socioeconomic
2. Identity Politics
3. Environmentalists
4. Civil Liberties
5. Spiritual
6. antiauthoritarian

While everyone's personal story will be slightly different, chances are they will fit into one of these categories.

So, here are six possible ways to tell people how you first learned the clear difference between Republicans and Democrats:

Identity Politics: When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, insuring greater protection under The Constitution for African-Americans, Strom Thurmond switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party. It was at that point that I realized: Republicans block the doorway of opportunity for other Americans, while Democrats work hard to make sure that door opens wider and wider.

Socioeconomic: When the Enron corporation collapsed, my grandparents lost a substantial portion of their retirement savings. In those days when my grandparents feared the worst--an old age of poverty as a result of the greed of powerful corporate executives--I saw the clear difference between the two parties: Republicans all seemed to be friends with the executives at Enron and worked to protect them, whereas Democrats were concerned about people like my grandparents, and worked hard to find ways to recover their retirement savings and to protect Americans from future Enrons.

Environmentalists: As a child, my family used to vacation to the shores of Michigan where we would eat the best fish in the world fresh from the lake. Slowly over the years, Republicans in Congress have gutted environmental policy and deregulated industry to such an extent, that it is no longer safe to eat too much fish from those lakes. And that is the difference between the two parties: Republicans fight to make it easier for big industry to pollute our Great Lakes, while Democrats fight to prevent big industry from destroying them.

Civil Liberties: After 9/11 I noticed that the muslim students in the courses I teach slowly disappeared from the classroom. When I notified my Dean, she told me that many parents of Muslim students had pulled their students for the semester, afraid that the new laws made it unsafe for their children. In those moments when the country was in shock, the difference between the two parties became clear: Republicans worked to find ways to invade the lives of Muslim Americans, while Democrats refused to take shortcuts to national security that would violate the civil rights of American citizens.

Antiauthoritarian: During the difficult time when Michael Schiavo was making difficult decisions about the well-being of his wife, Republican leadership in Florida, the United States Congress and the White House worked to use their power to come between a husband and a wife. Along with so many other Americans, my deep grief for the pain of the Schiavo family was matched by my clear realization of the difference between Republicans and Democrats: Republicans are constantly working to change our Constitution so that government can control more and more of our private lives, while Democrats are constantly working to strengthen our Constitution so that government can protects our privacy.

Spiritual: In college I was deeply inspired by President Carter. His program, Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for poor people in America, taught me a fundamental difference between the two parties in this country: While Republicans use religion as a pretense for discrimination, Democrats draw on the American belief in a greater good to bring people together to rebuild communities.

Boil it Down
Not all of these answers are going to work for everyone. I am not a spiritual person, but I am so inspired by Jimmy Carter that I tend to lean to a spiritual answer, using Habitat for Humanity to explain the difference between Democratic and Republican spirituality. And even though I was not yet born when George Wallace stood in that doorway, the idea of Republicans "blocking the door of opportunity" and Democrats "opening them up" is a solid answer.

What will your personal story be? It depends on your experiences and your convictions, on how you understand the core values of the party, and on where you are in your life.

At this stage in my life, I tend to think in terms of my core values being instilled in childhood experiences. But that will probably change, and we all need to be prepared to express ourselves in terms that are current and real to us in the given moment.

Now, having risen to the challenge of the question and responded with a short personal story that explains how Democrats are different, the final step is to boil it down.

"Boiling it down" means restating your story in a few words that someone can repeat easily to someone else. Sure, your story is great. But the when someone else answers the question, you want them to use their own story, not yours. The key to them doing that is boiling down your story.

Boiling it down sounds like this:

"Republicans only work for the wealthy, Democrats fight for the rest of us."

"Republicans block the door, Democrats open it up for all of us."

"Republicans use religion to divide, Democrats learn from it to build communities."

"Republicans help industry pollute, Democrats protect our land for everyone."

"Republicans work against The Constitution, Democrats protect it."

"Republicans are suspicious of difference, Democrats are passionate about equality."

Three Easy Steps
Being prepared for this big question about the difference between the two parties is half the battle. Being able to deliver a personal story and boil it down requires homework and practice. Sometimes our stories will work better than other times.

But if we speak from what we know and seize the opportunity to tell people about our experiences as Democrats--then we can move past the dry, uninspirint trap of trying to produce a universal rule. After all, the GOP has become very good at clouding those rules with a relentless spin machine designed to convince Americans that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans.

The best antidote to propoganda is always to reach inside our own experience, and then reach out to the people seeking to engage us.