The Unity Campaign

By now, we've all heard of Nixon's "Southern Strategy" and the politics of "divide and conquer". It is time now for a "Campaign of Unity". It's a winning philosophy, a way to heal our country and appeal to our better nature rather than our baser instincts. It's also one that's rarely tried.

Those of us who were involved saw the unity approach in the Dean campaign, in which he appealed to "all Americans regardless of party to join this movement to take our country back." The result was thousands of devoted Republicans who crossed lines to join the Dean movement. In fact, I know of a gentleman from here in Alabama who jumped ship to support Dean after more than 20 years of voting Republican, from Reagan to George W. Bush in 2000. To this day, the gentleman remains one of the most zealous supporters of Dean. So, the 'open hand' approach is a winning approach, but the same people who still think it's smart for Democrats to run an 18-state strategy ignore it.

As a Democrat since I first registered to vote in 1984, I honestly think that it's time that candidates stopped emphasizing party labels and run as Dean did, as an American. Talk to the American people about how certain political, religious and monied interests have made it part of their strategy to exploit differences in ethnicity, wealth, gender and sexuality for their own gain, then put policies in place that undermine us all, and our country. Talk about how that strategy has prevented us from making progress in a whole range of areas, and how much better we are as a country when there is true spirit of unity. Speak about this to Christian conservatives. Let them know how their faith has been exploited in the divisive strategy and present them the better course.

We may win some elections here and there by running simply as Democrats, or on other matters, but we will really win as a country when the American people are presented with an alternate vision to '"divide and conquer", one which bring us together. And isn't that we really want in the long run?

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