1992, 1996, 2000, 2004

[DemWitch]

In 1992, we did something unthinkable. We won. Those on the right went ballistic. They couldn't believe that American's would be so stupid as to vote in Clinton. Sitting around scratching thier heads wonder "what the fuck", and "how in God's name" they got to work.

In '94 the Repugs took over Congress with "The Contract With America" that the leadership alone created.

In '96, not only did the unthinkable happen again, the unspeakable did. Clinton won again. Repugs went into overdrive.

This was a watershed year. Repugs quit thier infighting. They swallowed thier individual pride and instead of having 1/4 of the party fighting for thier individual causes, the entire party consolidated behind a general agenda. Every Repug was on the air with their talking points, staying on topic, and in lockstep with each other. They almost overthrew a government.

In 2000, the unthinkable happened. The village idiot was elected tot he highest office in the land. The Repugs, now in power, and while still on topic with thier issues began to get their own personal pet projects through. Quietly. But in public remained in lockstep. They had the power.

In 2004, we sit here scratching our heads. Wonder "what the fuck" and "how in God's name". If we truly want a progressive country, it's time we realize we need to get our shit together, forget for now some of the more progressive legislation we want, and deal with regaining power so we can do it at a later date.

I'm gay, but fuck gay marriage for now. Stress enforcing the gun laws we have now, instead of trying to pass new restrictions. Remain Pro-Choice, and then use the Pro-Life against the repugs. (How can one be pro-life and pro death penalty? Stem cell research.) Drive home the economic facts of the New Repuglicans... tax cut for the wealthy and crumbs for the rest of us. In two years, that economic chicken will come home to roost and lay an egg just as in the Reagan years.

We need our own contract with America. We need to reach out to the guys in pickups with gun racks working for 6 bucks an hour. We need to let Xtians know we don't want to ban God, or the Bible. Mostly, we need to take a deep breath, suck up our own individual causes and work together as a united front. There will be plenty of time later to get the more progressive stuff done once we regain power. But if we keep driving a far left agenda, which face it, isn't flying, we will NEVER be able to get anything done.

The more progressive people around here probably have thier heads spinning with flames shooting out of their ears at the thought of moving to a little to the center, but reality is, it's the only way for us to get back in power. Scream all you want. But it's the ugly truth, and if we aren't all willing to suck up, shut up, and unite, we might as well forget about ever seeing more blue states than what we had this past Tuesday.

In addition on edit... I think we need to do to them what they did o us... hound the shit out of them and try to make every single issue a conspiracy and impeachable offense.

[qanda]

1. I totally agree with you

And about stem cell research, it needs to be equated to fertility treatment and ask them if they're against that too.

[jpgray]

2. I think that's a rather subjective take in one sense

One can make the argument that at least since the time of Reagan the Republicans were remarkably on message and solidly working towards their eventual goals. But probably you could trace it from Powell's manifesto and Goldwater's campaign. The think tanks and policy groups have shifted our discourse so far right that the Democrats can't even take a side for themselves because no such side is allowed to exist in the political debate of this country. We need to work not on simply winning, we need to work on moving the debate back to our territory.

[elperromagico]

3. Simple fact: You don't get anything done on the outside looking in.

If we want even a shred of progressive legislation getting through, we've got to get back in. And that means stepping back for a moment and reassessing our priorities.

Do we want something, or do we want nothing? That's the choice now. Everything is no longer an option.

[DemWitch]

4. elperromagico...

Very well put, and alot less wordy... When I run for Congress, you're hired as my speech writer!!!

:headbang:

[kick-ass-bob]

5. This is exactly what I was thinking...

Someone was talking about how there was only one party now - and I remember in '92 how the pugs were destroyed and everyone was talking about how there was only one party left.

Well, they rebounded, and so will we. We will have to adjust to the scenery, or will become only part of history.

Do you see what the Right did? They appealed to the center to regain control, and then fervently moved to the right - while the centrists were (and still are) napping.

We have to wake them up, appeal to their 'values' if you will, and woo them away from the Right. If we only wake them up to the Right, then the right will again move back to the center to recapture them.

So the left must appeal to those and let them know that we aren't taking their Guns and Bibles away (lord knows I don't want them) and then we can accomplish the mission that we are all out to achieve.

[demnan]

6. This is a very good post

and I agree with you. Another thing we need to do is to concentrate on the local elections more. Kerry would not have had much power had he been elected, not with the Senate and Congresssional numbers we're seeing. Also much is passed on the state and local levels.

[DemWitch]

9. On that issue we need to get the DNC involved...

My congressman is vulnerable, but the DNC hasn't so much as given any of his Democratic opponents a stamp. There has to be other congresspeople in other states that are like that, and if we beg, push, shove, cajole, bribe, threaten, whatever the DNC to cough up some cash we could concievably take back the House. Miller ran against Boehlert, he has about 10 TV spots the last two days of the election cycle and pulled a 39% vote, with ALL volunteer staff. Can you imagine if he had TV spots wall to wall for a few months?

There's got to be some others out there that can be brought down with little help.

[Magrittes Pipe]

7. I disagree on the "moving to the center" thing.

You want to make the Dems the big-tent party? We need to move to the LEFT. Here's what the Republicans do: they talk up their popular issues, and keep quiet about the ones people don't like. "Traditional Values(tm)" -- they talk about that, but NOT about corporate control of the government.

We need to move to the left, predominantly on economic issues. Free health care for everybody. Free education. A good national pension system for retirees. THAT is what will win over some of the Southern white men.

[DemWitch]

11. I like those issues, I believe in them...

No explain to me how we are going to pay for them and get Rupublican voters to come over to our tent. Not gonna happen. BUT... if we are back in power and we can get small parts of those issues passed, and they can gradually see that they're not going to be paying through the nose, then, they will eventually see that it's in thier best interest. Until then, the "tax and spend liberal" moniker will be superglued to out asses, and they won't budge.

Think about it... Has anyone you know suddenly thought, jeez, the Republicans are so sure of themselves, maybe I should think about switching. Not. Republicans didn't take control overnight, it was in small baby steps, and we need to look at thier modelf or doing the same.

[CO Liberal]

13. I Think That Would Backfire - BIG Time

If we start talking about things like free health care, we'll be branded communists. Going left has backfired - we need to be more centrist in order to attract votes from the middle, especially disenfranchised Republicans.

[Magrittes Pipe]

14. Going left has backfired? When have we done that?

The Democratic Party hasn't moved left since '72. That was a disastrous election, yes, but it was 32 years ago.

The Soviet Union collapsed over a decade ago. "Them dimmycrats is commanissss" doesn't have the same resonance it once did.

[CO Liberal]

16. You Don't Live in Colorado Springs

I work with rabid Republicans who still view Democrats as Stalinists, and consider the John Birch Society a group of right-thinkers.

And after Tuesday's vote, I'm convinced this is not an isolated phenomenon.

[Magrittes Pipe]

18. But remember the results from Tuesday?

It's not "communism" that scares people, it's "values."

We wimp out when it comes to values, we don't stand up and call hatred what it fucking is. We need to reclaim our right (after all, our policies are FAR more morally correct than the GOP's) and make a stand.

People starving is a MORAL wrong. People choosing between food and medicine is a MORAL wrong. Hatred based upon race, faith, sexual orientation, or any other non-germane factor is a MORAL wrong.

We need to stand against the moral failings in our society, and take the vlaues language back from those hypocritical shitholes on the right.

[CO Liberal]

19. But...

...as long as there are millions of people out there who equate Democrats with communists, we'll get nowhere.

[LisaLynne]

15. When has the Dem party gone left?

And why did I mess it? We've been inching towards the right for a long time. We need to get a handle on what the real left is. That's where a LOT of the people in this country are, when they aren't stuck in label mode.

We've been trying to get those "disenfranchised Republicans" for a long time. It's never worked. We need to get all the people who really need something to believe in and have a hard time seeing a difference between the parties. We need to give those people something to be excited about. Compromising our values will only hurt us. We've been there, done that. Time to try something new -- like being who we really are.

Edited to add -- Eatatree (below)-- excellent post.

[CO Liberal]

17. It's Not "Compromising" Our Values....

It's expanding our values to attract more voters.

[eataTREE]

8. No more moving to the center.

Every time we move to the right, the Republican Party also moves to the right, so they can go right on carrying on about the Democrats' leftist extremism.

Theoretically, there should be a point when the Republicans are so far to the right, no one will vote for them. But, in practice, that point never seems to be reached.

I'll say this for the Republicans: They know what they're about. They have bad, horrible, ridiculous ideas, but by God, they have ideas. You know where they stand. They don't compromise. In the past 20 years, pretty much the only issue the Democrats haven't compromised on is abortion, and now people are saying we need to compromise on that one too. Then, I guess, we can finally complete the transition from the Party that Stands for the People to the Party that Stands for Nothing.

We have become the Party that Stands for Nothing because we're scared to actually articulate an honest, self-consistent set of liberal beliefs. We think we'd lose the election if we did. Well, guess what: we lost the election anyway. People say they'd rather win than be right, but what we're doing now is neither being right nor winning. If we're not going to win, we should at least have the consolation of being right.

I think that a large part of the Republican party's appeal is not their ideals, but their commitment to their ideals. People admire passion and consistency, and for the past 20 years we've been anything but. Paul Wellstone and Russ Feingold have (or had) huge support in states that are not nearly as liberal as they are. Why is that? Because they aren't afraid to stand up for what they really believe.

We moved to the center. It didn't work. How ow about we put forward candidates who think and feel as we do and aren't afraid to admit it?

[FunBobbyMucha]

10. Completely agree. Where do we start?

I think we're going to have to mirror their consolidating bullshit right back at them. As I've told countless twenty-something/Naderite/ultra-lefties over the last two years, we can't club Red America over the head with shit that terrifies them, at least not right out of the gate. It's mildly nauseating to me to resort to their playbook, but if we don't get our shit together, quit the kind of in-fighting that goes on hourly here at DU and elsewhere in LeftWorld, we're gonna be Ida Mae to their Ike Turner for a generation.

My thoughts:

Let me anger much of DU by saying NO FUCKING WAY DO WE RUN HILLARY IN 2008. To do so is to assure the victory of whatever third-string Stormtrooper they prop up. Hillary does not have the brand-name appeal of her husband, especially not in Red America, which reviles her.

Also, the notion of being the generation that gets to elect a female President (or black, etc etc)? We need to get the fuck over that. This is end game, folks--we're either gonna prevail by playing by the "rules" or lose our country while we rail against how unfair said rules are. We can't reinvent the game if we're locked out of the gym.

A Democratic agenda has to reclaim the Constitution. Look, Reddies, here's what the Patriot Act really does! Here's why the separation of church and state is important! We need to pour over that document like the Shroud of Turin and show the Reddies where *'s wiped his ass with it.

On the local level, we've got to consolidate, communicate with the Biggies in the Party, and start working overtime to get the message out. We've got to run for every office. I had no democratic candidate to choose in over half of my local elections! From dog catcher to Prez, they cannot be allowed to run unopposed.

Find the least Fundy church in your district and look for the moderates. "Hi, I'm not a Godless heathen!" Christian and Repug are not synonymous--we need to remind ourselves and them of that fact.

I'm in, DemWitch. It's a day later than I had hoped, but the revolution starts...now.

[DemWitch]

12. Actually, I'm hoping Hillary runs for Governor of NY...

If she ran for Prez... it'd be a disaster, and I love her, and I'd love to see her in the White House... but there's no way she'd pull it off.

We need to start now looking for Mr. Clean to run in 2008... Evan Bayh comes to mind. Bill Richardson might be do-able. They can'tmake to much hay out of his penchant for speeding in state cars up I-40 :)