Robert Reich has posted a long entry that's worth taking the time to read: "Obama vs. McCain, and the Four Stories of American Life."

Reich says we Americans have four essential stories: the Triumphant Individual, who conquers all and becomes successful; the Benevolent Community, neighbors who voluntarily work for the common good; the Mobs at the Gates, which must be defended against, and the Rot at the Top—the powerful elites.

"Speak to these four stories and you resonate with the tales Americans have been telling each other since our founding—the two hopeful stories rendered more vivid by contrast to the two fearful ones," Reich says. "These four mental boxes are always going to be filled somehow—if not by Democrats, then by Republicans—because people don't think in terms of isolated policies or issues." The party that's best at telling the stories is the one that gets to make the policies.

Still not sure what he means by stories and mental boxes? He uses the following examples for Franklin Roosevelt's time:

• Rot at the Top—Wall Street and big business.
• Benevolent Community—The federal government and its New Deal (Social Security, work projects).
• Mob at the Gates—Germans and Japanese in World War II.
  
• Triumphant Individual—Depended on government provisions.

Reich says the Democrats weren't very good at "storytelling" in the Vietnam era. For a contrast, he uses these example's for Ronald Reagan's administration:

• Mob at the Gates—Soviet Union.
• Rot at the Top—"Big government—Washington insiders and arrogant bureaucrats."
• Triumphant Individual—"The business entrepreneur who would spawn new companies and industries if unencumbered by government regulations and taxes."
• Benevolent Community—"Small, traditional neighborhoods in which people voluntarily helped one another, free from government interference" (or funding).

Where is Reich going with this? He says Democrats have never regained the ability to tell their versions of these stories that Americans have to hear, but he says that is changing with Barack Obama. He says Obama has at least reclaimed the hopeful stories—the ones about the Triumphant Individual and the Benevolent Community. He urges him to do the same with the other two.

Reich goes into much more detail and gives a lot more examples from the early 1900s through the current Bush administration. He concludes with suggestions for ways Democrats can "tell the story" of the Mob at the Gates and the Rot at the Top. (I think of the Democratic versions as the "true stories.") He doesn't come out and say it, but he plants the idea that if anyone can convincingly tell these stories to the American people—and win the presidency—Obama can.