The road back starts here: The Contract with America, Version 2.0

When the Republicans got their ass handed to them in 1992, they regrouped. Frank Luntz got together focus groups and found what people wanted to hear from politicians about issues. From that was born the Contract with America.

The beauty of The Contract with America was not what was in it because they never lived up to it.

The beauty of the Contract was that it clearly laid out what the Republican Party stood for and it nationalized the 1994 congressional elections. That's why they won. They did not fight 435 separate fights. They fought one battle. It was simple and easy for voters to understand.

And that's what we need to do. We can call it something else, but we need to draw up a statement of principles -- what the Democratic Party stands for and what we will fight to accomplish if we are elected to Congress.

And with the help of Dean, MoveOn and others, we need to amass a large war chest and fund candidates willing to run under that banner. And we need to contest as many seats as possible -- not just a strategic few we think might be winnable.

So what do you think? What would you like to see in the Contract?

We have to work out tails off for the 06 election with the passion we just foight for this one. First, we need real leadership in the party.

So there is no time to waste.

Dems are seen as a party of various special interests. Reps are seen as having a couple core beliefs. Old fashioned on social issues and laissez faire economics. That's it. When you get down to it that is the message they sell.

We need to do the same. Dean tried that with "Jobs, education, and healthcare." But the message hasn't had time to resonate.

Where I disagree with you is that this didn't start in 1992. Rep hegemony started in the 1960s. They built think tanks. We didn't. They built an echo chamber in the media. They have Ann Colter, Novak, Shammity, Rush, etc. We need the same. All we have is Air America playing in a few stations.

We need an infrastructure that the Reps have built. The nice thing is that it took them 40 years. We can use their model and do it in 10. We need a message that is simple so that the simpletons can understand it. And we can't stop writing off the south. We must build a base from county commissioner all the way to the WH. The Rs have done that - over 2 generations. We need to use their model and do the same in one-half a generation.

A media infrastructure is essential. RW talk radio helped them a lot but it didn't take off until the 90s.

We need more Air Americas but we should also greatly expand our reach through the blogosphere.

the chicken hawks will like the name.

There are no wealthy powerful dem insiders.

across the board.

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...never mind.

I suggest a strong and specific plan to balance the federal budget (including cutting programs) with the primary objective of maintaining the solvency of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the new prescription drug program.

Within a few years, the retiring boomers and the costs associated with their retirements will be the single biggest issue in American politics.

Even in the GOP, many dislike Bush's pork-barrel spending. And offering pragmatic solutions as a party unified behind a workable policy would seem indispensable to appealing to the middle class, the boomers, and retirees.

People want a party that can make things work. And they think that the government should not run on red ink any more than they run their households into debt so vast that it is scarcely imaginable, let alone payable.

Ever since FDR, the programs for seniors have grown ever more vitally important to the middle class and their quality of life, their future. But the electorate no longer considers Democrats as the only possible trustworthy managers of this public trust. This was once the base staple of Democratic politics. But no more.

Recapturing the momentum on the issues of seniors is the single most important policy objective that the DNC should pursue.

I've been trying to post this all day but my post count it too low and I can't post. We need this, we need a simple unified message in all federal elections. My proposal a three part plan: affordable healthcare, higher education, and worker's rights (overtime, closing outsourcing loopholes, etc). Another thing, to counter morals we used ethics. We pound and pound and pound Delay, Bush, Cheney, the Senator from Oklahoma (name escapes me). We need progressive, charasmatic, possibly young people in every single red state to compete two years from now. Sign me up.