Republican Message-  Put Aside Poetry,  Govern in Prose

You campaign in poetry but govern in prose. The poetry of campaigning is lofty, gauzy, full of possibility, a world where problems are solved just because we want them to be and opposition melts away before us. The prose of governing is messy and maddening, full of compromises and half-victories that leave a sour taste in one's mouth. Governing is specific where campaigning is usually vague.

Paul Waldman, “ Campaign in Poetry, Govern in Prose,” American Prospect, November 10, 2010

August 29, 2010  - No doubt  you  have your  favorite line from last night’s Republican convention from speeches delivered  a host of GOP governors,  the bevy of female speakers,  Ann Romney, and Chris Christie, the tough-guy governor of New Jersey.

However, my favorite line came from Artur Davis (born 1967),  who served as a Democrat  in the House of Representatives from Alabama from 2003 to 2011. Davis converted to the Republican Party earlier  this year.  

His comment, which follows, is noteworthy because Davis  is black and seconded President Obama’s nomination  in 2008. 

Of his initial backing of  Obama,  Davis said,

“Do you know why so many of us believed? We led with our hearts and our dreams that we could be more inclusive than America had ever been, and no candidate had ever spoken so beautifully," said Davis, the Harvard-educated lawyer who has been mulling a run for office as a Republican from his new home in Virginia.

Then came his punch line,

"Let's put the poetry aside, let's suspend the hype, let's come down to earth and start creating jobs.”

This line struck me as emblematic of  the whole theme of the Convention.

Let’s put aside the gauzy poetry.

Let’s talk about the hard facts and tell the hard truths about.:

·         The $16 trillion dollar deficit.

·         The 23 million unemployed, underemployed, and those who have stopped looking for work.

·         America’s dismal future as we approach the fiscal cliff.

·         The replacement of physicians by bureaucrats bearing metrics, protocols, and algorithms.

·         The shrinkage of the middle class with its loss of income and hope.

·         The record low in small business startups and the record number of regulations strangling them.

·         The distrust of big government and fear of  losing personal freedoms to Big Brother.

My reaction may surprise you.   I occasionally write verse, and my son Spencer is a nationally known poet, who may someday become the poet laureate .

Perhaps in November,   President Obama’s poetic style of  campaigning will triumph.   Perhaps at next week’s Democratic convention in Charlotte,  speakers will deliver memorable lines that will resonate with poetry verse   that will  splat  “You didn’t built that” against the wall.  Perhaps government knows best for the rest of us.

Tweet:    Republicans say  they will govern in prose –telling the hard truths , making  the tough decisions, and putting the poetry aside.