NYT: Optimistic, Democrats Debate the Party's Vision

[Pirate Smile]

WASHINGTON, May 8 — With Democrats increasingly optimistic about this year's midterm elections and the landscape for 2008, intellectuals in the center and on the left are debating how to sharpen the party's identity and present a clear alternative to the conservatism that has dominated political thought for a generation.

Many of these analysts, both liberals and moderates, are convinced that the Democrats face a moment of historic opportunity. They say that the country is weary of war and division and ready — if given a compelling choice — to reject the Republicans and change the country's direction. They argue that the Democratic Party is showing signs of new health — intense party discipline on Capitol Hill, a host of policy proposals and an energized base.

But some of these analysts argue that the party needs something more than a pastiche of policy proposals. It needs a broader vision, a narrative, they say, to return to power and govern effectively — what some describe as an unapologetic appeal to the "common good," to big goals like expanding affordable health coverage and to occasional sacrifice for the sake of the nation as a whole.

This emerging critique reflects, for many, a hunger to move beyond the carefully calibrated centrism that marked the Clinton years, which was itself the product of the last big effort to redefine the Democratic Party.
This analysis is also, in large part, a rejection of the more tactical, consultant-driven politics that dominated the party's presidential and Congressional campaigns of the last six years — the emphasis on targeted issues like prescription drugs for retirees and careful, constituent-based appeals.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/09/washington/09dems.html?hp&ex=1147147200&en=37c6253f0c776610&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Can I get a Hallelujah?

[janx]

1. Carefully calibrated centrism isn't going to do it.

Face it, this country's in BAD SHAPE. Americans don't need carefully calibrated anything. They need the truth.

[Pirate Smile]

2. I know. That is why this is good news.

"This emerging critique reflects, for many, a hunger to move beyond the carefully calibrated centrism that marked the Clinton years, which was itself the product of the last big effort to redefine the Democratic Party.
This analysis is also, in large part, a rejection of the more tactical, consultant-driven politics that dominated the party's presidential and Congressional campaigns of the last six years — the emphasis on targeted issues like prescription drugs for retirees and careful, constituent-based appeals.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. And then...

They need to get the boot of government and big business off the necks of the middle class and the poor. They need to even the playing field. They need to get business to stand up straight and start creating the jobs that they said NAFTA would bring of get rid of NAFTA. They need to rein in law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

And they need to start investigations and issue supoenas as far and wide as possible.

Some people are gonna have to re-learn what America isn't, while we rebuild it to what it is and create what it can be.

[Pirate Smile]

4. kick

[GOTV]

5. "The Truth"

I think that's a seed that can grow a compelling message.