I attended a Little League baseball game a few nights ago to see one of my grandsons play. It is an enticing slice of America.
With all the turbulence whirling around us, it is a huge measure of reassurance that parents, coaches and kids still have the same enthusiasm for our national pastime or at least what it used to be. It was fun and exciting!!
A couple of the parents know that I have “something to do with politics,” exactly what they are not sure, and it produced an interesting exchange between innings.
“What’s this ‘party of no’ and ‘just say yes’ stuff,” one parent puffed, “sounds pretty silly to me.”
“Why?”
“Well,” she said, “I say yes and no all the time to my kids, seems like more no than yes these days, and what I say doesn’t matter in and of itself. It’s what they are doing or want to do that causes me to say yes or no that matters.”
Wow!! I thought. Now that’s mature. So I said, “Okay, I got it. What would you suggest?”
She quickly quipped, “Talk about something. Explain the issue. Say you are for it or against it. This sloganeering is silly. Do they think we are stupid?”
Whoa, I thought. Do they? Do we who are somewhat involved think that? If so, we are badly and sadly mistaken.
Of course, she is right. She hit it out of the park (Well, we were at a baseball game!). The Democrats started it with the Party of No mantra. Clever they thought. Even Senator Mark Warner jumped in.
But around the baseball diamond, the question is what are they saying “No” to? Would I say “No” also? They remember the “Just Say No” campaigns for sexual abstinence and against illegal drug use.
So, the McDonnell campaign countered with their “we say yes” and “they say no” to a litany of policies and programs. Very effective indeed!!
And hopefully they leveled the playing field so now both sides can focus on the issues. The GOP had little choice but to counter and now that both sides have tossed some sands of sloganeering, let’s move on.
We all know that yes and no have neutral content unless they are attached to the object of that judgment.
For some saying “no” to card check is immensely positive and connotes sound policy. For others saying “yes” does.
For some, saying “yes” to a repeal of Virginia’s Right to Work law is heresy and certain to lead to a demise of our sound business, job creating economy in Virginia. For others, saying “yes” to repeal fosters better paying jobs for workers.
And if you think differently about the issues, you think differently about the “yes” and “no.”
So, my take is the voters see through the smokescreen and won’t be fooled. They will look behind the “yes” and “no” and attach substance to it. It is the substance that will attract them, not the slogans.
Wyatt Durrette is a Director at DurretteBradshaw, PLC (www.durrettebradshaw.com) and co-founder of the XDL Group. He served three terms in the House of Delegates and was the Republican candidate for Governor in 1985.
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