FUCK "ELECTABILITY"

FUCK "CONVENTIONAL WISDOM"

Time to play a new game.

The Dems have been trying that shit the last four years. Since Dukakis, really, but we just got really LUCKY with Clinton. It doesn't work. "Electability" to Democrats means Republican-lite. If people want Republican-lite, they'll vote Republican. Why don't they get it! Howard Dean is one of the only Dems who gets it.

One has to look moderate while implementing a liberal agenda. Howard Dean was a moderate who unfortunately came off as very liberal, which is backwards.

Look, we played fairer and LOST. Who is in the White House? Not us.

I swear I'm on the verge of grouping young Dems who actually have balls and will win for this party!

You don't know all that went on behind the scenes. Kerry's pretty ruthless. Maybe we were fair. Maybe we weren't.

rolling over and being unrealistic. Do what it takes to win and then fix the system once we have power.

How do you figure? Don't tell me, let me guess. It was the civil union bill. As for everyone's expertise on "looking moderate while implementing a liberal agenda" let me just ask. How's that worked out for you so far?

Does George W. Bush "look moderate"?

since his early forties and has seen the light after having a couple of women he knows have abortions, it's amazing how people fall for this garbage...and oh, yeah, he quit drinking too, I guess because he was getting too many dwi's...

A lot of you folks are too young to remember, but we tried that with Humphrey and Mondale. Political purity. Didn't work. The rest of the country doesn't trust NE liberal progressive democrats. Probably a vestige of the Civil War in the south, and the wide openness and sparse population density in the west (excepting the coast.)

Clinton was different, a southerner with a unique political ability to "connect". Hell, I know dozens of conservative republicans (I work on a military base) that voted for Clinton. They wouldn't even go for Bush 41, 'cuz he was a northeasterner.

As much as it hurts to admit, we can't run a NE liberal and expect to win. The rest of the country is too big.

And Mondale and Humphrey were candidates with their own unique flaws. They both had gray hair too; does that mean we can't run candidates with gray hair?

And in neither of those races have "cultural issues" been as key as they are now -- at least, that's what it seems like (we'll need a few more months to be able to figure out exactly what the fuck happened).

I'm not saying that cultural issues alone can make us win. I am saying the only way to neutralize the cultural issue is to take it head on, not to treat it as an unwelcome weight.

When each snake-handling vote is canceled by a hippie vote, then we can start talking the economy, war, etc.

"When each snake-handling vote is canceled by a hippie vote, then we can start talking the economy, war, etc."

Even with this year's humongus effort, we ain't got the votes. Gotta get some more votes from the red counties.

They are red because more people in them came out for the Republican candidate. In some of them, it's simply because more people are incurably conservative; but in others, it's because more conservatives were fired up to vote than liberals. This is especially true in swing-states.

There are 40% of people in this country who could vote, but didn't. Considering that Bush's message definitely resonated well with the conservatives, I can't but conclude that a clear liberal message would have inspired many of those 40% to vote. We did not have that message.

Kerry ran a tough campaign against a war time incumbent and almost pulled it off.

only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades.

I don't know how many states. Maybe 1, maybe 10, maybe none. Maybe the "youth vote" in OH and FL would have turned up in higher proportions if they had heard something from Kerry that resonated with their hearts.

It isn't about "not being liberal enough" or anything like that. It is about using our muscle -- and though we feel powerless these days, which is understandable, we do have tremendous muscle -- to frame the debate ON OUR TERMS, not just play on theirs. Because, the truth is, the bosses of GOP don't give a shit if gays can get married, if women can have abortions, or if there is prayer in schools. They only care about giving more money to the ownership classes. The reason why "cultural" issues have been such a powerful tool is because the GOP took advantage of the opening that the Dems gave them; it is the one turf where they could be on offense and the Dems constantly on the defense.

The better question is: how many elections will the Democrats have to lose before they realize that it's counter-productive to play defense? A majority of this country supports reproductive choice. A majority of this country supports minority rights. A majority of this country is not the fucking Taliban. And for each snake-handling redneck, there is a passionate idealistic liberal. We either give them a reason to come out and vote for us, or we can play this "moderate" game until we have 2 seats left in the Congress.

And those 2 will be Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer.