Mission Impossible? Advice to us from a German Social Democrat: don't do as we did.

[DFW]

Endless purity tests, ego trips, circular firing squads and an adamant refusal to see the bigger picture.

This behavior rewarded the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) with going from being the strongest party in the country to a status flirting with single digits.

She advises the Democratic Party: don't do it. She's my wife, and as usual, she's right.
Being European, she's pessimistic and fears that we will do the opposite of what she advises.

Our mission, should we decide to accept it, is to prove her wrong.

This message will never self-destruct. Good luck, Democrats!

[johnp3907]

1. Judean People's Front? We're the People's Front of Judea!

The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front!

[brush]

2. Don't do what?

[kentuck]

3. I think a big danger at this time is the partitioning of the Party.

It's hard to prevent when there are so many candidates. It is very easy to divide the Party into factions if we are not very careful.

[el_bryanto]

5. It is indeed possible

The structural advantage of the Republican Party is that they have a few big ideas that that, while wrong headed, don't lead to lot of interparty conflict (the biggest fault line is probably between interventionists and isolationists). We don't have that advantage - each part of the Democratic party has things they strongly and passionately believe in that don't line up as easily. There's also more of a sense that focusing on one part of the "platform" will take focus away from another part.

Bryant

[Act_of_Reparation]

4. Not sure the analogy fits.

While the GOP has been narrowing their appeal by moving further and further to the right, the CDU has been broadening theirs by moving to the center-left. So, the SDP losing votes from both ends. The centrists can vote CDU without feeling dirty about it, while the liberals, thanks to austerity, etc., no longer see the SDP as distinguishable from the CDU.

You know that saying, "You can't please everyone?". It's true. You can't. But you sure as hell can piss everyone off. That's what the SDP managed to do.