It was, by most measures, one of the more striking moments of the 1992 campaign. A rap artist named Sister Souljah had said, “If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?” Shortly thereafter, then-Gov. Bill Clinton spoke to Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and denounced the rapper, saying, “[I]f you took the words white and black and reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech.”
The move was seen as one of great political courage, with Clinton proving himself to be a “new” kind of Democrat, willing to tell a Jesse Jackson-led group what they probably didn’t want to hear. Before long, the “Sister Souljah moment” entered the political lexicon.
Today, Michael Cohen makes the case that John McCain should borrow a page from Clinton’s playbook.
Today, polls suggest that the American electorate prefers the Democratic Party on virtually every major domestic issue. If Barack Obama wanted to slap down a politically unhelpful liberal interest group he’d be hard pressed to find one. The same, however, cannot be said of the Republican Party and John McCain, and here is where Republicans could learn a great deal from Bill Clinton. […]
In the short-term Mr. McCain’s moves [to the right] may seem like smart politics; lock up the conservative base and spend the summer and fall reaching out to moderate voters. But as a generation of Democrats can testify, once the party gets into bed with its special interest groups it’s not easy to end the relationship.
As loathe as it might be for John McCain, taking a page from Bill Clinton and delivering the type of speech he gave 16 years ago cannot come soon enough.
I think Cohen’s advice is sound. I also think there’s no way in the world McCain will follow the suggestion.
The truth is, as Cohen reminds us, that McCain already tried his “Sister Souljah moment,” back when he ran for president the first time. In fact, from 1999 to 2001, McCain was Sister-Souljahing all the time — denouncing the religious right, denouncing the NRA’s role in the Republican Party, denouncing Bush’s tax cuts as a giveaway to the rich, etc.
But McCain feels like he learned a valuable lesson when he lost the GOP nomination eight years ago — Republicans do not reward rebels, they reward those who stick to the script. Those interest groups that make up the Republican coalition demand fealty, and dissenters do not fare well. Ever.
So, we get the John McCain we see today, who tends to disagree with the up-until-recently John McCain on almost everything. He could try another “Sister Souljah moment” and score points with independents and moderates, but I’d argue it’s too late — McCain has made his far-right bed and now he has to lie in it.
If he were to try to reinvent himself again, and go back to the persona that had no use for Republican orthodoxy, McCain would probably be in even worse shape than he is now — the right would be livid, and everyone else would see through the transparency of his pandering.
Cohen noted, “[I]f McCain were the true descendant of Roosevelt, he would be running against the modern Republican Party and its special interests.” Well, sure, but McCain doesn’t want to be the true descendant of Roosevelt anymore, he just wants to be president.
If that means becoming a party hack, so be it.