Step one in becoming Democrats again: studying who we used to be

[jmowreader]

In LBN I found a thread on the Democratic Party reaching out to evangelicals. Apparently, the leadership has decided that becoming more Republican is the way to win elections.

I'm paraphrasing, but a famous politician--I think it was Taft--said that if two Republicans were on the ballot, people would vote for the one who called himself a Republican. Makes perfect sense.

This means that instead of running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to figure out how to become Republicans ourselves, we have to stop all this nonsense and go back to being Democrats. Real Democrats, not this weird creature Rush Limbaugh has gotten rich by inventing then demonizing.

Step one in our transition to being real Democrats is remembering what real Democrats were like. Here's where we start. In a few moments I will make five lists. One each for presidents, senators, congressmen, state-level officials and local officials. Each list will have five names on it. What I want you folks to do is submit names of great and real Democrats to fill in the list.

Incidentally, don't put Bill Clinton down on the presidents list. Clinton was one of the five best presidents we have ever had--maybe THE best president we have ever had--but he wasn't a real Democrat. He was what the Republican Party once was before the fundamentalists and the Disciples of Arthur Laffer hijacked it. Real Republicans, Clintonesque Republicans, make good presidents. Even the outright criminals like Nixon make halfway decent presidents so long as they remain true to classical Republicanism, but ever since Carter left office all that party has sent up are zealots who want to destroy America and remake it in Jerry Falwell's own image. (And no, I never thought in a million years I'd be praising the presidency of Richard Nixon...but compared to the chimp, his father and Ronald Reagan he was a saint. It's getting pretty bad when you can honestly make a list of the five worst crooks ever to live in the White House and not be able to put Nixon on it.)

I have tomorrow off. This will give me some time to work on bios for these folks, so we can start to study them.

Also, can we get some of the Dems with ties to the inside to help here?

Herewith is the list. Enjoy!

Presidents:
1. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
2.
3.
4.
5.

Senators:
1. Frank Church
2. Robert Byrd
3. Paul Wellstone
4.
5.

Congressmen:
1. Tip O'Neill
2. Tom Foley
3.
4.
5.

State-level officials:
1. Edward Rendell
2.
3.
4.
5.

Local-level officials
1. Ed Koch
2. Richard J. Daley? He was a powerful Democrat but should we study him?
3.
4.
5.

[shaolinmonkey]

1. Senator Russ Feingold

He defeated a wingnut handily, while Kerry squeaked by Bush. His ads were simple and he appeared in all of them (that I saw). Mostly just him speaking to the camera about his policies and beliefs.

Unlike McCain, he has integrity.

[Rockerdem]

7. Need more elaboration

I mean, was JFK a Dem or Pubbie under your criteria? And Truman?

[jmowreader]

8. I think JFK was a Democrat

Truman also.

What we need to filter out are DLC Democrats--Republicans in sheep's clothing, all of them.

[tabasco]

2. Dennis Kucinich n/t

[joelogan]

3. ha! you won't find many takers here for this sort of discussion!

MOSTLY what you have as democratic activists on the internet and working in the party is a lot of yuppies, trust fund babies, and retirees. For the MOST part, they have money, and they aint about to support REAL democrats. THey MOSTLY prefer the NEW kind of democrats who like regressive taxation and free trade. The New Democrats give lip service to progressive taxation and trade, but their main concern is wedge issues--gay rights, gender rights, racial issues; also, the war and the environment.

They adore Clinton, even though in many ways Nixon was a better Democrat than Clinton.

Take away the war issue and most of them would go back to sipping their lattes. Hopefully the party that caters to them will dry up, wither and blow away. We saw some evidence of this starting to happen on Nov 2.

Now someone will find this comment and post angrily saying "I favor progressive taxation and fair trade", as if their personal preferences somehow refute my opinion. To those people, I ask, what does it mean when I wrote the word "MOSTLY" above?

[pnutchuck]

4. Ed Koch forfeited his rights

When he came out in support of Bush based on the threat of more terror attacks.

[pnutchuck]

5. Senators: Ted Kennedy

[pnutchuck]

6. Can we make a place for Howard Dean?

[MisterP]

9. Sen. Ribicoff