As the always perceptive Josh Marshall has observed on many occasions, the Republican Party employs “dominance politics” in its campaigns, a crude reliance on an alpha-dog pecking order view of American society in which you are either the dominator or the dominated. Yes, this politics may have reached a certain ugly plateau in the (small) hands of Donald Trump, but the GOP has been relying on dominating its opposition for nearly half a century. And it has employed dominance politics (DP) very effectively … with the exception of a single family of Democrats. That exception drives the Republicans kuh-razy!
In 1968, the Democratic nominee for president was the honorable Hubert Humphrey, a good liberal who had electrified the Democratic Convention twenty years earlier with his clarion call for civil rights. The ‘68 race, of course, was roiled by many external events, including the violent deaths earlier that year of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, the police riot during the Democratic convention in Chicago, and Humphrey’s unfortunate embrace of President Johnson’s Vietnam policies until tragically late in the campaign. But his downfall (in an extremely close race) was assisted by the GOP’s reliance on his full name — Hubert Horatio Humphrey — and their caricature of his resemblance to the Pillsbury Doughboy, while their nominee, Richard Nixon, was the tough guy with the jowls who would supply the needed Law & Order to a country that deserved it. Dominance 1, Dems 0.
Four years later, the Democratic nominee was George McGovern, another honorable liberal from the Great Midwest, a truly tough guy who’d flown combat missions over Germany in World War Two. But again, his earnest speaking style and his physical resemblance to a high school English teacher were easily mocked and caricatured by the Nixon squad, who rolled to a 49-state victory. Dominance 2, Dems 0.
Luckily for the nation, Nixon’s henchmen’s little adventure at the Watergate Hotel was exposed widely starting in the summer of 1973 and a year later Nixon was forced to resign. The fallout from Watergate resulted in a wave election for the Democrats in 1976. The crest of that wave was Georgia governor Jimmy Carter, elected our 39th president.
Four years later, though, Watergate was nearly forgotten in an election dominated by the Iran hostage crisis, long gas lines, and Republican-stoked fears that America was in decline. The ‘80 election was another expression of GOP dominance politics, as they endlessly replayed grainy video of President Carter fending off a “killer rabbit” in his canoe, and creating an image of a peanut farmer haplessly in over his head. Their candidate, Ronald Reagan, had spent WW2 on sound stages in Hollywood, while James Earl Carter had served in a nuclear submarine but no matter … Dominance 3, Dems 0.
The Democrats once more nominated a good upper-Midwest liberal in 1984. Again, though, Walter Mondale was easily turned into a caricature. If George McGovern was your high school English teacher, Walter Mondale was your high school assistant principal who also taught Drivers’ Ed on the side. Another electoral college wipeout was the inevitable result. Dominance 4, Dems 0.
1988 may have been the summit of Republicans’ use of DP. The Dem nominee, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, had a sterling record of economic strength and ethical cleanliness. He left his convention in July with a 17-point lead in the polls. But then the GOP hit-man Lee Atwater began his campaign to, in his words, “strip the bark” off Dukakis. There followed the infamous Willie Horton TV commercial that played on the racial fears of white America, nonsensical appeals to American patriotism by placing the GOP candidate, George H.W. Bush, in various flag factories, and — perhaps most damning of all — an endless loop of a video of Mike Dukakis wearing a helmet several sizes too large as he trundled along in a small tank, looking all the world like either Charlie Brown or Snoopy. Bush, no He-Man type himself, played the part by announcing his love of pork rinds and hatred of broccoli. Game over. Dominance 5, Dems 0.
But then, lo, out of the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas emerged, four years later, a Good Ol’ Boy by the name of William Jefferson Clinton, a man who had famously shaken the hand of our sainted martyred President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and had the photo to prove it. He also had a smooth yet eloquent speaking style and a vast intelligence (both intellectual and emotional) that drew friends to his side in the thousands. His Republican enemies called him Slick Willie, but there was an acknowledged envy and admiration in their voices when they uttered the phrase. And his rumored way with the ladies would lay to rest any hint that here was a man who would lose any alpha-dog contest. His other nickname, in fact, was The Big Dog. With his own political whiz, the Ragin’ Cajun James Carville, at his side, Bill Clinton was a street-fightin’ man in whom the Republicans had finally met their match. Dominance 5, Dems 1 … or 2, if you count his sweeping re-election in ‘96.
The next two elections reverted to the mean of the previous five. Al Gore was mocked as a man more moved by his reliance on “earth tones” than respected for his awareness of climate change, and hammered for his supposed superiority complex gained from his “invention” of the internet while his opponent, the dim-witted Son of Bush, was lauded for being a regular guy. Yes, the Supremes intervened but the campaign was another victory for the GOP’s DP. Dominance 6, Dems 2.
In 2004 the Democrats nominated a genuine war hero, John Kerry, to run against the “incumbent,” who’d managed to avoid service in Vietnam by hiding out in the Texas Air National Guard. Kerry may have won medals and Purple Heart citations in Vietnam, but they were mercilessly mocked at the Republican convention by delegates wearing purple Band-Aids and savaged in August by the dishonorable Swift Boat campaign. Dominance 7, Dems 2.
The next two elections confounded the Republicans, as the Democrats nominated a brilliant writer and orator who was also always the coolest guy in the room and who could sink a 3-point basket on cue. No amount of Dominance Politics had a prayer against Barack Obama. Dominance 7, Dems 4.
Which brings us to 2016. And again Republicans are faced with — gasp! — a Clinton, a Clinton who is every bit the intellectual equal of her predecessor, with the added gravitas of a resume that includes the title of Secretary of State. And to make matters worse for the GOP, Hillary Rodham Clinton is a woman who doesn’t seem to know her place and is every bit as good at throwing punches and slipping in a good shiv when necessary as is her opponent, who relies on DP as the sum of his campaign efforts.
Bill and Hillary Clinton are smart and capable and warm and caring and very, very good candidates. AND, they are better at the Republican game than the Republicans are. They won’t back down, they don’t flinch, they aren’t afraid of a little rough-house. They ain’t no Humphrey or McGovern, no Mondale or Dukakis, easily mocked and caricatured. They’re winners. And THAT’s why the Republicans hate them so.