It Takes More Than A Villiage

Man, Firefly was a great show. And a salient one to the Democratic Presidential campaign, as it turns out.

Huffingtonpost.com's front story right now is about how the perceived split between "progressives" and "democrats" is deepening, or how Hilary Clinton is POd at the Daily Kos crowd, who quit endorsing her probably two months ago. The "progressives" flood her events, she says, and intimidate her supporters into either leaving, or inaction.

While I'm an Obama guy myself, Mrs. Clinton has a pretty good point, and that is that passion can lead to impractical behavior. When you get a group of people who are passionate about anything, that's when the real trouble begins. People often feel complete solidarity. They feel empowered. They feel mighty and that mightiness stems from the perception many many people feel the same way they do. And most of the time, that's not the case.

Take the long ago cancelled TV show Firefly. Very few people watched the show, but those who did took it almost religiously. They lobbied and spent money to buy ads and told their friends and bought the DVDs and were so loud, an executive thought this small, vocal group might constitute a wider audience. "Serenity" the feature film came out a few years later, and it tanked. No matter how passionate the enclave of supporters, a majority of people weren't paying attention. No matter how hard fans wanted it, they were not in the main stream (and believe me, they wanted it).

What neo-conservatives do so brilliantly when it comes to running campaigns is hiding their message. Instead of saying "we're for the complete dismantling of the government" or "we still believe in Trickle Down economics," they say, with a wink and a nod that we're pitching a guy who aint too bright, aint too experienced but is a lot more like you than that educated fancy pants over there. A majority of Americans feel threatened about how smart they are - it's a mainstream idea. W. gets 4 years. Then, they hid "we want unending war" with "you're going to die if you elect that elite fancy pants over there." Boom. 4 more years.

While I agree by and large with most of the Kos crowd, their message is not mainstream. They are part of an enclave who believe, deep in their hearts with religious fervor, that if the public could just hear their message, if they could just talk to people for an hour or so, the progressive voice would spread like a virus. There would be no stopping it if people would just listen and comprehend.

But to beat a political party who has cornered the market on mainstream ideas as of late, you cannot take a piece of the Democrat pie and expect the entire country to take a bite. You need big ideas appealing to big audiences in your big tent. This isn't to say progressives should not fight for what they believe, they should and often do. But they need to understand where they stand. They're not watching "American Idol." They're watching "Firefly." Which is why Obama is worrying me right now.

Even though the numbers are bear him out, the "cult of Obama" could be a problem. If his supporters feel they're in the mainstream because they're surrounded by a passionate enclave, they could blind themselves and accidentally hurt the chances of a truly inspiring man to make it into office. The message needs to be, over and over again, that Barack Obama represents mainstream ideas because every attack on him thus far is that he's not a mainstream guy. He needs to be straight and honest and inspiring and as simple as humanly possible to bring in the audiences that cannot or will not respect his deeper qualities.

Last thought - I think most Firefly fans can tell you it hurt when Serenity bombed. It hurt on a personal level. It was like we, too, had been rejected. If Obama loses and his supporters feel the same way, I sincerely hope they don't take the hurt personally and give up politics all together. It's one thing to shrug your shoulders and accept there won't be a TV show anymore. It's another to completely give up on the machine that makes your country work.