Wampum

In his playbook (link to zip file here), Frank Luntz reports on some of his polling:

Now I’m going to list some of the most fundamental principles of America. All of these are very important, but which is the SINGLE MOST important principle? (Combined First and Second Choices)

52% Democracy

40% Justice

31% Equality

29% Opportunity

22% Security

21% Fairness

4% Don’t Know/Refused

It seems that Democrats could benefit from being the party of reform and standing for justice, equality, and fairness.

In order to benefit, Democrats need to use examples of unfairness and injustice that actually touche the lives of many ordinary Americans. The need real world examples of how the deck is stacked in favor of the rich, political connected powerful interests and against the ordinary American. It should not be too hard to find such examples.

For instance, although it is now reasonably clear that Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra have injured quite a few Americans, the FDA is considering allowing those drugs to continue to be sold. It is possible that it is appropriate to do so if the people who take the drug are not at risk for heart problems and if those people have few or any other options to relieve their pain.

What should not be acceptable is for the drug companies to stack the deck when the FDA is making the decision:

Ten of the 32 government drug advisers who last week endorsed continued marketing of the huge-selling pain pills Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx have consulted in recent years for the drugs' makers, according to disclosures in medical journals and other public records.

If the 10 advisers had not cast their votes, the committee would have voted 12 to 8 that Bextra should be withdrawn and 14 to 8 that Vioxx should not return to the market. The 10 advisers with company ties voted 9 to 1 to keep Bextra on the market and 9 to 1 for Vioxx's return.

The votes of the 10 did not substantially influence the committee's decision on Celebrex because only one committee member voted that Celebrex should be withdrawn.

Or take the example of the ChoicePoint identity theft case. At some point last fall, ChoicePoint became aware that its data had been compromised and that identity thieves had improperly acquired personal consumer data. ChoicePoint is sending out letters to 145,000 people informing them that they are at risk for identity theft. A Los Angeles detective testified that ChoicePoint employees told him that as many as four million people have been exposed.

ChoicePoint has been sued over the theft and the scandal could take a financial toll on the company.

While much of the information about ChoicePoint is just now being reported, what have ChoicePoint executives been doing since last fall? Why selling $21 million of ChoicePoint shares, of course:

Thirteen days after the arrest of a suspect in the ChoicePoint identity theft case — and more than three months before the problem surfaced publicly — the company's top two executives began selling their stock.

Since the sales began in November, ChoicePoint CEO Derek Smith and President Douglas Curling have sold 472,000 ChoicePoint shares worth nearly $21 million, according to the executives' Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Smith said Thursday that he did not know about the security breach at the Alpharetta-based company until well after he began selling the stock. Curling was not available for comment Thursday.

The stock sales — for what the executives described as estate planning and asset diversification — continued this week, even as ChoicePoint's shares began to tumble nearly 10 percent. The identity theft was disclosed publicly only last week.

Justice, equality, fairness are important and fundamental American principles. If the Democrats cannot make some hay out of stories like those, they deserve to lose.