Commonwealth magazine has an online forum responding to last issue’s article on why the Democrats can’t win the governor’s office. The original article is quite good, and a number of the responses worth reading, but one in particular, by Central Connecticut State University professor Jerold Duquette, brings up a point that’s applicable not only to Massachusetts politics, but to the national political climate as well:
In the short run, offer the voters of Massachusetts a clear alternative to Republican governance. If effective management of government is moving the fastest growing part of the electorate, then the party should focus its message on the vital differences between public management and private management. Rather than cede the ground to the Republicans’ CEO candidates, Democrats should educate voters about the actual job description of the governor. If voters think management is management and efficiency is efficiency, then only CEOs will ever be elected. A record of effective public management can always be made to look bad if it is competing with a record of business success. In fact, however, this is an apples-and-oranges comparison and voters need to know that. Don’t just highlight the cruelty of private enterprise; highlight the virtues of political leadership and democratic administration.
I am not arguing that the nominee should move left, in order to offer “a choice, not an echo.” I fully accept Kamarck’s assertion that information-age voters want effective management of government. I am saying that the party needs to define public management in a way that conforms to its policy objectives, not simply say “me too” on questions of efficiency and managerial effectiveness.
Of course to highlight the virtues of political leadership and democratic administration, one has to have them to begin with. To that end, the Dems should take more seriously the problem of governance reform so that Republicans don’t look like heroes when they dismantle the civil service or starve the public sector.
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