Posted on 11/08/2004 6:55:26 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
A week before I left Odessa, Texas to begin my first year at Stanford, I was walking down my street when a sweet, elderly neighbor and family friend noticed me and gave me this parting, final piece of advice, “I know Stanford’s up around San Francisco, but remember your values and don’t become like one of them.” I know many of you might be surprised, but this is the way millions of Americans think. They are not bad people; the people in my hometown are actually as nice as they come. But they’ve been exposed to different things, and Republicans have molded their view of liberals as flag-burning, God-blaspheming, peace-flag-waving hippies.
That’s why red state Democrats need to speak up. Many of us campaigned and poured our hearts out into the last few months, and we now wake up feeling like hell.
So as a Southerner, this is what Democrats have to do to win back America.
1) Have joy. Sounds simple, but in other words, cheer up. Don’t walk around bitter that conservatives are running this country.
History is on our side. From race issues to feminism to gay rights, liberals have always stood on the forefront of social and moral advance. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.”
2) Fight for every race. The next presidential election might be four years away, but we have our work cut out for us before then. Each race helps frame political attitudes nationwide and affects the whole landscape.
If the Democrats lose four more Senate seats in the 2006 elections, they’ll lose their ability to filibuster Bush’s judicial nominations, and we can all say good-bye to affirmative action, a woman’s right to choose and the separation between church and state.
3) Define God and “moral values.” Red-state voters want to be able to identify with candidates by knowing how religion calculate into their thinking. Liberals win on the issues, but we have serious PR problems. We just have to connect the Democratic agenda to notions of morality, family and God, as shameless as that might feel.
4) Get over yourself. I’ve been so annoyed by those who critique Tom Daschle, say Michael Moore’s a radical and try to sound smart by saying they’re fiscal conservatives. Republicans have something we need: party discipline. Ronald Reagan’s famous 11th amendment was, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” It’s time we quit criticizing our own in public.
5) Dumb it down and get dirty. That means running negative campaign ads that parallel the type of vicious demagoguery launched against patriots like Max Cleland, Bill Clinton and John Edwards.
The Kerry campaign missed its chance to tear at Bush’s character and honor, and instead ran Brady Bunch ads that had less resonance in voters’ minds. Run campaigns as much on character as on the issues.
6) Play offense. The Republicans took our legitimate disdain for Bush and convinced the American public that we were all just hateful people.
As a result, Kerry never made direct criticisms of the incumbent president during his nomination acceptance speech, and he never nipped the “flip-flopper” charges at the bud.
Democrats need to stand up early and passionately, as well as stake out issues before the Republicans beat them to it.
7) Be proud of being a liberal. I’ll never forget listening to an audience member at a Democratic National Convention event choking back tears and asking former Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile, “When did being liberal become so bad?”
Brazile explained how we lost the word years ago during the Great Society reforms, when conservatives appealed to voters’ most sinister hatreds toward the poor and minorities. Don’t run away from the liberal title like Kerry did; be unapologetic and flaunt it.
8) Become more hawkish. Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy were more hawkish than their opponents. Liberals will continue to lose if they look weak on defense and have members that keep sporting those silly “war is not the answer” bumper stickers.
“If you punch me, I’ll punch you harder.” That’s the saying posted in Terry McAuliffe’s office. And it applies to our generation more than anything. For America to progress, it needs us to fight, fight, and fight. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
This is our generation’s cause. Let’s make sure it outlasts us.
Amit Patel is a senior majoring in international relations with a secondary major in history. E-mail him at ... [snip]
"Being a liberal" became bad when U. S. liberals started
following the Communist Pary of America agenda word for word!
9) Here's some koolaid.
Exactly!!
"So as a Southerner"
So as a Southern Indian, that is.
"We just have to connect the Democratic agenda to notions of morality, family and God"
In your case, Amit, that would be Gods, would it not?
YUP. Feminism and gay rights.
....ability to filibuster Bush’s judicial nominations, and we can all say good-bye to affirmative action, a woman’s right to choose and the separation between church and state.
A woman’s right to choose kill an unborn child. (say what it is, and don't hide this with the "chose" word.)
Liberals win on the issues
There is that "L" word.
I’ve been so annoyed by those who critique Tom Daschle, say Michael Moore’s a radical and try to sound smart by saying they’re fiscal conservatives.....It’s time we quit criticizing our own in public.
That's it. Eat your own.
Dumb it down and get dirty. That means running negative campaign ads
Like you haven't done that for the past few elections against the Republicans.
The Republicans took our legitimate disdain for Bush and convinced the American public that we were all just hateful people.
DUH!!!!! I haven't seen the likes of hate in any election before this one.
Be proud of being a liberal. .... “When did being liberal become so bad?”....Don’t run away from the liberal title like Kerry did; be unapologetic and flaunt it.
YUP... That is the ticket you need to run on for every election.
Liberals will continue to lose if they look weak on defense and have members that keep sporting those silly “war is not the answer” bumper stickers.
With all the crybabies on the left, you will never be able to quit the anti-war, anti-Republican, global warming, EV whacko, Pro tree/anti-Bush, etc., bumper stickers.
Let's stop calling them liberals. They are lots of things, but liberal is not one of them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amit Patel
Position: Columnist
Email Address: induz@stanford.edu
The author manages to get all the way through an article on being a liberal without once mentioning what liberal principles really are.
I think there are not any.
If lefties take all that advice, we're sure to win another election.
Hmmm... Seems to me "gay rights" and other forms of hedonism stood the Greek and Roman empires well, now didn't it?
For those DEMOCRATS who feel their party is being mis-identified, let me ask this.
Just exactly what would you say is a defining principle of DEMOCRATS? WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?
I have yet to see or hear anyone list out the basic principles that one should support in being a DEMOCRAT.
All I ever heard was that the poor, the blacks, the average blue collar worker were all DEMOCRATS from BIRTH, without any choice. Democrats don't ask "WHY AM I A DEMOCRAT".
THe real WHY is that the blacks, the poor, women,blue collar workers were considered VERY LARGE VOTING BLOCKS, so ORGANIZED CRIME infiltrated the DEM party and the MEDIA to use them politically for evil ends. It's really all that simple.
Most of the whiners were complaining that they lost DEMOCRACY in this country.
"This country is no longer a DEMOCRACY."
Well, my friends, IT NEVER WAS. These people ignored history, ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, except when they can find an interpretation that allows them to bend the law.
The prove it by their discussion of their 'rights'.
They have no clue, only what some news article tells them, or some chump down the street.
For those DEMOCRATS who feel their party is being mis-identified, let me ask this.
Just exactly what would you say is a defining principle of DEMOCRATS? WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?
I have yet to see or hear anyone list out the basic principles that one should support in being a DEMOCRAT.
All I ever heard was that the poor, the blacks, the average blue collar worker were all DEMOCRATS from BIRTH, without any choice. Democrats don't ask "WHY AM I A DEMOCRAT".
THe real WHY is that the blacks, the poor, women,blue collar workers were considered VERY LARGE VOTING BLOCKS, so ORGANIZED CRIME infiltrated the DEM party and the MEDIA to use them politically for evil ends. It's really all that simple.
Most of the whiners were complaining that they lost DEMOCRACY in this country.
"This country is no longer a DEMOCRACY."
Well, my friends, IT NEVER WAS. These people ignored history, ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, except when they can find an interpretation that allows them to bend the law.
The prove it by their discussion of their 'rights'.
They have no clue, only what some news article tells them, or some chump down the street.
For those DEMOCRATS who feel their party is being mis-identified, let me ask this.
Just exactly what would you say is a defining principle of DEMOCRATS? WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR?
I have yet to see or hear anyone list out the basic principles that one should support in being a DEMOCRAT.
All I ever heard was that the poor, the blacks, the average blue collar worker were all DEMOCRATS from BIRTH, without any choice. Democrats don't ask "WHY AM I A DEMOCRAT".
THe real WHY is that the blacks, the poor, women,blue collar workers were considered VERY LARGE VOTING BLOCKS, so ORGANIZED CRIME infiltrated the DEM party and the MEDIA to use them politically for evil ends. It's really all that simple.
Most of the whiners were complaining that they lost DEMOCRACY in this country.
"This country is no longer a DEMOCRACY."
Well, my friends, IT NEVER WAS. These people ignored history, ignore the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, except when they can find an interpretation that allows them to bend the law.
The prove it by their discussion of their 'rights'.
They have no clue, only what some news article tells them, or some chump down the street.
Can't answer that one, nor could John Kerry which is why he lost.
But I believe the democrat party of today is radically different than the democrat party of the 50's and 60's. The DNC has been corrupted by hardcore single-issue liberal special interest groups that when "defined" as a set of principals cannot win national elections.
If the democrats don't start putting our nations interest ahead of their political interests, they will become nothing more than a regional political afterthought.
No, No, that IS the definition. What's the RE-definition?
Maybe the Dem's are too busy REDEFINING other words, like MARRIAGE and IS!!
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