"So Goes The Nation"

That's the title of a new film that opens this weekend, and is supposed to give viewers insight into the pitch battle the Democrats waged in Ohio in 2004. The film is made by Democrats, and the goal is pretty straight forward. "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it" (for accuracy: What George Santayana actually wrote in Reason in Common Sense was, "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it".)

Seems reasonable enough.
Check the box office on Monday and see if Democrats run to face the facts of 2004. My money says the film will flop, and not because it should.

Sitting in the IFC Theatre last Thursday - the film offered a remarkably honest portrayal of what went wrong. And not just with Ohio, but with the Demcrats nationwide. It's easy to blame Bob Shrum, but his name isn't mentioned in the film. In fact Tad Devine and Maryann Cahill get much of the democratic camera time - and Paul Begala... cast as the Loyal opposition gets the starring role. Begala's harshest criticism is directed - strangely enough - at Paris Hilton, who he called "a skinny, slutty bag of bones".

But the stars of Adam Del Deo's film aren't the Democrats - they are the Republicans. Mark McKinnon, chief media advisor to Bush, is perhaps the most candid and disarming. He as much as admits that Popularity and Fear were the two most powerful tools of the campaign.

But in comparing the tenor of the two camps, the organization and focus of the Republicans come through time and time again. In perhaps the most revealing and damning scene in the movie, Del Deo shows both the Democrats' and the Republicans' attempts to convert voters in the so-called 'ground war' in Ohio. It's tempting to think that Del Deo edited the scenes with some agenda, since the Democrats seem so inept and the Republicans so focused and 'on message.' But understanding where the Director comes from, the terrible reality is that Del Deo didn't want to make the Democrats look bad, he had no choice.

This is how the documentary begins to suggest that the last presidential election basically came down to a matter of popularity, an impression validated by none other than Mark McKinnon, chief media advisor to Bush, and Ken Mehlman, chair of the Republican National Committee. You will never again hear this many Republicans admit to Bush using fear to regain control of the White House: running on the only two issues he could, Iraq and gay marriage; appealing to the "primitive" instincts of the heartland (via fear-mongering ad campaigns, including commercials that likened Republicans to wolves); and ingeniously turning everything Kerry said or did against him. From McKinnon's own mouth we are told that the majority of Americans agree with Democrats on many issues, but that the elitism of the party is off-putting to the heartland.

So how broken is the Democratic Party? Well, litteraly 'broke' if you note that the liberal radio network "Air America" filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday. What happend in Ohio, what happend to Air America, and what will happen in November? For the 11 people who saw the HBO film "Left of the Dial" (as i did) or the 15 people who saw "So Goes The Nation" (me again) the future is pretty bleak.

Is it fair to compare the Chapter 11 filing of Air America Radio with the events in Ohio? I think so. Not because any one commerical endeavor's success or failure is a indicator of anything. But because both events (and both films that chronicle them) drive home the same point. The Democrats are so convinced that they're fighting a battle of ideas that they allow their message to be mangled, often shrill, and in the end simply no fun to listen to. Air America isn't fun for Democrats and it isn't fun for Republicans. It's the political equivalent of nails on a blackboard. Meanwhile, Fox News is snarky, overblown, funny, and mean in that college frat boy kind of way. It's often thrilling to watch, as Rush Limbaugh was, in his prime, a wonderfully overblown radio experience. This is theatre, and for a party that claims to be made up of creative types - we sure don't do it well.

We're three weeks away from an election, and the buzz outside of Hollywood and New York is - in my mind - almost imperceptible. At the screening of "So Goes The Nation" last week, one of the lead characters who was a key Democratic field worker was asked if anything has changed since 2004. His answer, "I hope so, but I don't think so." Ouch.