what I would like the remants of my party to do

[KanigawaCards7]

1) Fire Terry Macauliffe- this guy is bad in every respect except raising money.We need someone who actually wants to lead, not raise money.
2.) have a conference to decide what our party stands for. at the monet the only thing it stands for is beating George Bush, which even I find funnny at this point. If it doesnt actually come up with a real goal, a philosophy, then It should just be disbanded.
3. DO NOT nominate Hilllary Clinton. democrats should have nominated Howard Dean, because he actually believes in everything he says. He is just not a good politician, but a good governer, john kerry bieng the complete opposite. we should nominate someone who actually stands for something, otherwise we will continue to fall for anything.I actually believe, considering the shocking defeat of Tom Daschle and my dislike of hillary( I would love to see Bill run again though) that Barak obama is the best guy left.He really should be nominated in 2008. I believe he is a powerful proactive speaker who could save the party.

Thats just my opinion. How would you go about the discontinuation of burying our own grave?

[dana33]

[ QUOTE ]
Thats just my opinion. How would you go about the discontinuation of burying our own grave?

[/ QUOTE ]
Dump the pacifist, "America is imperialist" wing and embrace more candidates such as Lieberman. (And the Republicans should dump the "what government needs is more religion" wing, but that's a topic for a different post.)

Regarding Kerry and what he stands for, I think he does stand for something. But he couldn't admit it (perhaps not even to himself), which is why he continued to tie himself in rhetorical knots. What he stands for, since Vietnam, is suspicion of American power and self-assertion in the world. He just doesn't believe in his heart that we're the good guys. Apart from being incorrect, this is not something the American people want to hear.

[TomCollins]

You may be the only intelligent Democrat (at least in terms of political strategy) besides Carville. Maybe you joined the wrong party.

[lorinda]

Your man got the second highest number of votes ever for a Presidential candidate.

Lori

[LaggyLou]

Two things:

1) Take a deep breath, look at all the numbers and decide what went wrong that is correctable.

2) Plan a long-term strategy to regain the majority.

As a litigator, I fight for a living against people who are trying to undermine everything I do. Sometimes they win. Sometimes I win. It is a very hard blow when you have poured yourself into a fight and you lose. But life goes on and winners go forward. Things are very seldom as bad as you think they are after a loss, and are also very seldom as good as you think they are when you win.

Come January, and the new Congress, there will be other fights to have with this President and his party. By engaging in those fights we can, in some cases, force them to be more moderate, and to make better choices. Thus those fights are worth having, and worth preparing for. After a time to absorb this loss.

Don't get sucked into the "sports fan" view of politics. There are serious, well meaning people on both sides. The Repblican Party is not made entirely of people like W00lygimp or TomCollins, no more than our party is made entirely of people like Al Sharpton and Cynthia McKinney.

[daveymck]

If you think getting 47/48% of the vote when they are talking about 60-70% voter turnout is both a failure and means your party is dead then I am surprised.

[Utah]

Hi LaggyLou,

How can you fight if you don't have a basis to fight from? I don't believe fighting just to win is enough. There needs to be some ideals behind the fight. Otherwise, the party is doomed. Look at the trends over the last 4 years. The Democratic party is getting slaughtered. it can't even beat a pretty lousy president.

Without real ideals, leaders who aren't corrupt, and a true seriousness about the issues facing the U.S., the democratic party will stand zero chance of regaining control.

"The Repblican Party is not made entirely of people like W00lygimp or TomCollins, no more than our party is made entirely of people like Al Sharpton and Cynthia McKinney."

Unfortunately, IMHO the Democratic party has been hijacked by exactly these type of people. I simply can't understand how the party can embrace someone like Michael Moore. When they do this they have no chance of getting the independant voters such as myself.

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
If you think getting 47/48% of the vote when they are talking about 60-70% voter turnout is both a failure and means your party is dead then I am surprised.

[/ QUOTE ]

The party lost grounds in the Senate, the House, and the Oval Office. The republicans have control of all three of those places, and you can soon add the Judiciary branch as well. As far as power goes, I think your the Democratic party has been crippled on a national level. They still have much power on a state to state level though.

[daveymck]

I dont see that its so bad that they would not be able to turn it around next time. Although I am unsure all these new first time voters will be as easily motivated next time round.

We see it all the time in the UK 2-3 terms of one party, big majoritys then the swing areas swing back and you get 10-15 years of the other lot. It generally take a couple of defeats then a new broom comes in to "modernise" the out of power party and move them forward, I suspect thats what the democrats will do over the coming years.

[GWB]

[ QUOTE ]
1) Fire Terry Macauliffe- this guy is bad in every respect except raising money.We need someone who actually wants to lead, not raise money.


[/ QUOTE ]

No, keep him. The Democrats had 50 Senators when he took over in 2001, now they will have 44 (plus a Democrat leaning Independent). I like his results! /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[cepstrum]

Hi Kanigawa -

Agreed on all points, except for Dean. Like McCain in 2000, Dean looked a little like a nutjob. The base might have turned out better for Dean, but he would have gotten creamed in the swing states.

The guy to win the election for the Dems was Joe Lieberman. Unfortunately, the left wing of the party, which seems to be wagging the dog, hates Joe Lieberman. I was pretty annoyed that Joe L's name was off the ballot by the time the PA democratic primary was held. Hey, there's another suggestion --- forget the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire and all that --- move the PA primary up in the schedule. There are lots of moderate democrats here who simply could not stomach Kerry.

At this point, if the Democrats want to be relevant beyond local politics in the coming years, they definitely need to kick the left wing to the curb and embrace free markets, low taxes, and restrained spending. You can win a lot of votes this way, even if you do maintain a socially liberal stance. As a bonus this might force the Republicans to distance themselves from the religious right and big-government conservatism. If that happens, we get _two_ good candidates (in addition to the Libertarian!) per election instead of the usual zero, and then we can all be happy.

Cepstrum

[MMMMMM]

^

[texaspimp]

Cep,

A well thought out and rational plan for the dems. If they follow that model, they can certainly win.

I hope they don't!

[ilya]

In 2008, we must do what we should have done this time around -- nominate Edwards.

[ilya]

I'm a very liberal democrat and I would have voted for Bush over Lieberman.

[Chris Alger]

[ QUOTE ]
"if the Democrats want to be relevant beyond local politics in the coming years, they definitely need to kick the left wing to the curb and embrace free markets, low taxes, and restrained spending."

[/ QUOTE ]
In other words, the Democrats become a "relevant" alternative by embracing an unpopular GOP-led war, adopting GOP economic slogans and generally trying to persuading people to vote for them for the same reason they already vote for the GOP. This, you contend, is the solution to the Democrats hair-breadth inability to defeat probably the most despised President, by Democrats, in more than a century. This after an election where the choices were so poorly defined and removed from actual concerns that 40% of the electorate didn't bother to vote, and where huge percentages, according to the polls, vote randomly, often against their professed concerns and interests.

This is just the glib TV commentator view that can't acknowledge or even imagine that there is, much less why there is, any serious political divisions within the U.S., apart from a sensible disain for anti-war and Christian crazies. It's a precription for a smiley-faced one-party fascism that disenfrachises more than 2/3's of the electorate. Brought to you by the people committed to "building democracy" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

One of your allusions is apt. As heralded by the Lieberman candidacy (as well as DLC cheerleading for low taxes, "free trade" and the rest of the corporate agenda) we're nearly there already.

[jcx]

Terry Mac works for the Clintons. The Clintons are still the head of the Dem party even though Bill's been gone 2 elections now. They did not want Kerry to win. Hillary has her eye on 2008, don't doubt it for a minute.

Lieberman had no chance because there is no way America is going to elect a Jew President. This is not meant to be racist, it is just something I believe to be true.

Ditto for Mr. Obama (Substitute Jew for Black). Also, his name hurts him. If it was more normal sounding he'd have a better chance. I don't see enough people pulling the lever for a dude named Barrack Obama. Might as well be named Kwiese Mfume.

I don't know if the Dem Party can be saved. How do you keep the party base (working class but socially conservative people) under the same tent as a bunch of loonies who are screaming for gay marriage, radical environmental restrictions and any other nutcase cause du jour? The Dem party made a huge error by letting the fringe elements take control of the party platform, when they probably constitute 10% or less of the total party membership.

As a result of these recent electoral spankings, I expect the aforementioned fringe groups to splinter and start defecting to political parties that truly reflect their beliefs, like the Greens. I predict the Green party will pick up many new members in the coming months as current far-left Dems defect in disgust.

[MMMMMM]

The Dems have moved quite a bit to the Left recently. The Deaniacs and Pelosis and Moore's versions--these are more "wing" than most of the Dem party used to be not so very long ago.

Of course, they still probably haven't moved far enough Left to suit you.

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
yes I'm a moderate( I vote both ways although I do lean Democratic)

[/ QUOTE ]
So now the Dems are your party. Funny how you swing both ways to suit your latest point. Another flip flopper...

[jakethebake]

[ QUOTE ]
1) Fire Terry Macauliffe- this guy is bad in every respect except raising money.We need someone who actually wants to lead, not raise money.
2.) have a conference to decide what our party stands for. at the monet the only thing it stands for is beating George Bush, which even I find funnny at this point. If it doesnt actually come up with a real goal, a philosophy, then It should just be disbanded.
3. DO NOT nominate Hilllary Clinton. democrats should have nominated Howard Dean, because he actually believes in everything he says. He is just not a good politician, but a good governer, john kerry bieng the complete opposite. we should nominate someone who actually stands for something, otherwise we will continue to fall for anything.I actually believe, considering the shocking defeat of Tom Daschle and my dislike of hillary( I would love to see Bill run again though) that Barak obama is the best guy left.He really should be nominated in 2008. I believe he is a powerful proactive speaker who could save the party.

Thats just my opinion. How would you go about the discontinuation of burying our own grave?

[/ QUOTE ]
Long-term political strategy for the Dems: Stop trying to turn us into a collectivist state. Long-term political strategy for the Reps: Stop trying to turn us into a religious state. Let's all live free the way it this country was meant. Libertarianism rules!

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
yes I'm a moderate( I vote both ways although I do lean Democratic)

[/ QUOTE ]
So now the Dems are your party. Funny how you swing both ways to suit your latest point. Another flip flopper...

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe he is just independent minded.

[Philuva]

Run a born again Christian in 2008.