How to start winning the red states

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Will Saletan is on a roll:

Hey, Democrats!

One silver lining in last night's debacle is that for another 24 hours or so, you might be open to rethinking what your party stands for. So, while I have your attention, here's an idea.

Go back to being the party of responsibility.

I'm not talking about scolding people. I'm talking about rewarding them. Be the party that rewards ordinary people who do what they're supposed to do—and protects them from those who don't.

Of course, Saletan suggests that the Democrat best-suited to carry this message is John Edwards:

Pres. Bush [says Edwards] has shown a pattern of striving "to eliminate the taxation on wealth and the income on wealth...

"He wants to see the estate tax gone; he wants to see the tax on capital gains gone; he wants to see the tax on dividends gone...

"The president wants to shift the tax burden in America from wealth and income on wealth —- people who sit at home and get their statements every month from their investments and see how much money they've made —- to people like my father...

"He wants working people to carry the tax burden..."

Edwards instinctively understands how to frame an argument in terms favorable to his own value system. George Lakoff has written a book about this called Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives. Check it out.