Let's face it -- the Republicans have worked harder than the Democrats

In the midwest and the south, the Republicans have offices and make their presence known to local communities year-round; the Democrats typically set up shop two weeks in advance of an election. This isn't 100% always the case, but 90% of the time that seems to be the case.

I include myself as one who's failed the party. True, I live in NJ, and there's no real need to create and maintain a local Democratic affiliation in a state that's already loaded with them.

But it's clear that the Democratic party at large -- rank-and-file members-- should do whatever it can to encourage and build back up "red state" Democratic offices.

It's long past time that there be a "missionary" movement within the Democratic party.

I am becoming a commiteeman in my county.

RIGGING elections, making the Daley machine in Chicago look like a walk in the park

Building the party will.

will not help you win jack either

Here is a free clue, LONG, and I mean LONG article on how this election was stolen in a Mexican Paper... there is irony for you.

the media. The mass media is propaganda. They pushed for Bush. Their is no real journalism that would have harped on the Bush mistakes, failures and lies.

How can we blame ourselves and our party for that?

Faux news watchers are quickly placed in a delusional bubble. It is a sin of both omission AND commission. You don't hear half of what is salient and what you do hear has a sanctioned slant.

Am I the only one who thinks that was a major factor as well?

Simultaneously build back our red state base and dismantle the media monopoly that the Republicans hold.

Gotta, gotta, gotta. There is always a way.

But how to dismantle it is the problem. It is a catch-22 if you don't have access to the media to tell the people that the media is biased, self-serving, etc.

Also, we need to rescind a package of corporate rights that are detrimental to those of The People.

Seriously. A long time ago they set up institutions to do just that. They give a lot of money to people to come up with ideas and to get those ideas into the heads of Americans by using the media. They know how to do it and they've been doing it for a long time. We have to do it too but we have a lot of ground to make up.

We need to ally ourselves with liberal churches, get more liberal media on the air, and maintain a year round presence. The Republicans have been doing that for more than a decade and look where it's gotten them.

I live in a slave state and the gop doesn't have to do much to keep the ignorant, poor white trash voting for them here. However, they do work hard at tainting their opponent as "liberals" and hedonists and taxers and spenders. Not much effort telling us about themselves. I'd rather be a liberal democrat attempting to put forth ideas and issues good for all of us. Conservatives can't do that. They have to work hard tearing down rather than building up.

In summation, I think there was a lot of hard work put forth by both sides. But, it is so much easier to dupe a rube than to convince a rube what his/her best interests are.

That's the problem.

we need to get rid of those machines and then we have a chance

...and then the media...

I too am in NJ and before the election I wanted some signs so I went looking for the Democratic Headquaters in my town... I know where the Repuke one is without even asking because it's highly visible every day...

Long story short, there IS NO Democratic headquaters in my town or surrounding area either... I had to drive 20 minutes to find one... Not good...

We sit back and say well the statistics and facts speak for themselves and what more do we need than that to win.

Do we have to become the manipulative pricks that they are.

and democrats do not. That is the problem.

but can some of you come here and help us?

We worked our ASSES off here for years and hardly netted any offices in the last election.

Sheesh.

Come ON.

Of course if you have the media on your side, that helps too.

We need friendly Hispanic preachers to go around the Hispanic Catholic churches around the country - everywhere, not just the South & Midwest. There is no excuse for a Democrat to lose Catholics and to have lost ground on the Hispanic vote. Tell them how Catholics have a long tradition of charity & helping the poor and how practicing the tenets of the Bible is more important than issues like abortion & gay marriage.

We need to do the same in black churches as well. Bush only went from 9% to 11%, but that was a big difference in some areas. Rev. Al, get out there & tell them how it really is!

Same thing with the white evangelicals. Maybe Bush got 90% of them this time around... but, if we get out there & tell people about how the Democrats stand up the good things in God's world, we can hopefully put a small dent in that number.

We still have to have something appealing to say on the national level. As close as this election was, we could have still won - and by a good margin - had our national party had something more appealing (and consistent) to say.