Posted on 12/08/2004 5:38:14 AM PST by OESY
The blood-red electoral map Democrats have been staring at since election night makes one thing clear: If we want to be a majority party again, the only road back runs through the heartland.
...In the red states, it was a bloodbath....
We need a decade-long Heartland Project that will put those states back in play....
• Come to terms with the main reason we lost the red states: Too many Americans doubt whether Democrats will be tough enough in the war on terror.... We need to be the party of... Truman and... Kennedy, not Michael Moore.
• Put forward our own values agenda. Too often, Democrats in blue states look down on the red states. That's wrong....
• Let Republicans be the party of Washington. Now that Republicans control the government, we're the outsiders, and we should take up the reform mantle that elected Bill Clinton....
• Put the same muscle into persuasion that we put into turnout....
• Finally, and most important, find new means to promote the Democratic Party's great enduring purpose....
Some Democrats want to write off the red states, or pretend that the same old formula will make them turn blue. Joe Trippi wrote... Democrats' top priority should be to play to our base because only the grass roots can save the Democratic Party. To be a grass-roots national party again, we have to realize that grass won't grow in the desert....
While Democrats can't erase old stereotypes overnight, a party determined to change its fortunes can change them. In just 30 years, the Southern strategy that Republicans began under Nixon has turned that region from solid blue into a crimson tide.... If we want a better result, "Get the red out" had better be our motto in the next one.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
They can talk the talk, but Americans know they WON'T walk the walk......
And Larry Flynt? Jimmy Carter? Hanoi John Kerry? John Edwards? Whoopi Goldberg? Bill Clinton? Dan Rather? Hillary Clinton? Michael Dukakis? Teddy Kennedy? Nancy Pelosi? Howard Dean? Crazy Al Gore? Madeleine Albright? Janet Reno? Katie Couric? (One hardly knows where to stop.)
"Finally, and most important, find new means to promote the Democratic Party's great enduring purpose.... "
That's your problem. Everybody already knows what the Democrat Party's great enduring purpose is. That's why you went down in a landslide defeat--and will continue to do so.
You're right, Ray. The best friendly advice anyone could give the Democrats is either get out of politics altogether (the preferred) or become Republicans (if they can, which is doubtful).
Hmmm...
Anti God
Anti Christian
Pro Choice
Anti Gun
Anti Free Speech (unless we agree with them)
Anti Democracy... refusal to accept outcome of elections
Values like these?
"If we want to be a majority party again, the only road back..."
Is to stop being the party of abortion and sodomy. Chuck the raving moonbats from Planet Commie Nutbar, and get some adult leadership.
In other words, become someone other than who you are.
Good luck. Not that luck will do you any good so long as everything you stand for is either stupid or evil or both. There's just no way to sell that to the American people except to lie, and with the MSM swirling down the toilet bowl, you can't get away with that any more.
You forgot anti-family
anti-baby
anti-choice (for anything not involving killing a baby)
Start by trying to become the Party of America, not the Party of France. Be the Party of Producers, not the Party of Free Stuff for Couch Spuds. Be the Party of Liberty, not the Party of "For Your Own Good You Can't . . ." Stop hating the Heartland, start disempowering the rabble which clings to the coasts.
But wait, this would turn you into Republicans wouldn't it?
LETTERS to the Editor, December 15, 2004
Democrats: The Party of JFK?
Al From and Bruce Reed say the "Democrats need to prove once again that we are the one party that rewards hard work" ("Get the Red Out," editorial page, Dec. 8). Yes, and pigs can fly.
I was raised in a middle-class Democratic household, and once believed the Democrats represented average Americans. However, after entering the work force, I soon learned that I was evil and greedy for questioning ever-increasing taxes and regulations, working for "big business" and ignoring the environment, the poor, education, etc. By being successful, I had suddenly become persona non grata in the purview of the party.
Peter Doty
Midland, Mich.
The authors' were close to being on track until they got to this paragraph: "Finally, and most important, find new means to promote the Democratic Party's great enduring purpose: to expand opportunity for all who are willing to work for it. . . . This election, Democrats lost 26 of the 28 states with the lowest per-capita income to a president with an unabashed agenda to protect privilege." (Read: Tax cuts for the rich.)
This is not the party of JFK. They are going to continue to play the class-warfare card.
Andy Bloom
Minneapolis
In arguing correctly that "Democrats need to prove once again that we are the one party that rewards hard work" and "the party that helped build the middle class needs to earn its support again," Messrs. From and Reed also make clear that neither of them understand the extent to which the Democratic Party has subverted this mandate.
Since at least the 1960s, the Democratic Party has favored policies rewarding people as members of a group, whether they be "disadvantaged" in some manner or a special-interest constituency such as extreme environmentalists, the natural response to which has been a vast multiplication of such groups and the programs that support them.
The Republican Party, on the other hand, has long promoted policies that reward Americans for hard work, such as tax relief for the middle class and smaller government, policies that the authors characterize as an "unabashed agenda to protect privilege." As long as Democrats see middle-class-friendly polcies that reward hard work as an agenda for the protection of privilege, they will continue failing to win the hearts and minds of middle-class America.
James A. Gorton
Pasadena, Calif.
Many people in red states probably cannot put their finger on why they do not entrust their future to a party aptly colored in blue on electoral maps, but one reason is that you just get the sense that they are running a marketing campaign that has little to do with what they believe. You just get a feeling they will say anything to gain power, and that is why they are losing the trust of Americans.
Messrs. From and Reed do little to create a different impression. They borrow directly from conservative rhetoric and yet still cannot resist the impulse to engage in a bit of class warfare. And, once again, they seem only to make the statement that they have values too, without proposing anything of substance to back it up. Indeed, they state the need for Democrats to put their hearts into it, then cite Bill Clinton's success. If they mean acting with sincerity, well, I think it goes without saying that they might have used a better example. Show us some policy, then maybe we can talk.
Chris Oler
Indianapolis
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