Saturday, May 15, 2004

Attracting the centrists

Mark D Lew writes in from vacation:
I like the introduction much more than the manifesto itself. The manifesto is way way too long and needs to be edited back by 50 percent or more. If you're serious about this being an issue that should matter to all Americans and not just liberals, and I think you should be, then you need to cut out all of the partisan stuff. Factual examples of misinformation which happen to align with the left are OK, but there's a whole lot of "this is bad because it put an idiot Republican in office" kind of talk. If you want this to have centrist bipartisan legs, then that stuff has got to go.

Find some real centrists -- you know, people who honestly haven't decided whether to vote for or against Bush -- and have them read it and tell you which sentences turn them off. These people are great at spotting snarky partisan sniping which we tend to overlook because it just seems normal to us. I think the thoughtful center, including "grown-up" Republicans, is the natural engine for this movement. A large percentage of liberals would be perfectly happy with misinformation as long as it supports our side instead.

I might have more later, but that's my overwhelming reaction: that this movement be made non-partisan and as currently stated it is not.

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