Its time ........

The primaries are happening already. We have decisions to make. We have candidates to back and candidates to defeat. That's Democrat work.

We're six months out from the midterms. The hottest part of the campaign season is what ...... ? A month off? Three months off? Again there are candidates to support and candidates to defeat. Name recognition plays a part, but party identification will play an even larger part ...... or will it?

We at the grassroots have some work to do. Some of us will be working for a candidate as a volunteer. Canvassing, phone banking, manning the booths at state fairs and county fairs, at firehouse breakfasts and at Fourth of July celebrations.

But even those of us who can't do that have work to do. We need to win over voters who we damned well *know* would be better served by the Democrat, but who, for whatever reason, represent pretty reliable Republican votes.

Talk to them. Let them know *why* they'll be better served by the Democrat. The best 'why' differs with the place and the voter. It might be jobs or it might be healh care. It might be taxes or it might be roads. It might be stopping suburban sprawl or it might be crime. It might be guns or god or gays.

Its time.

Its time to stop preaching. Its time to stop villifying. Its time to stop opposing. Its time to hide the hatred. Its time to stop highlighting the divide.

Its time to find common ground.

Our basic values are the right ones for 99% of the country. But 40% of the country doesn't see it that way. We've been painted as so many caricatures of what we really are, that some of *us* aren't even sure anymore.

We're the party of 'big government'? Oh really? Just look at what we have after 5 years of Republican totalitarianism. No, *they're* the big government party. We're the party of right sized government.

We're the tax and spenders? Oh really? Just look at what we have after 5 years of Republican totalitarianism. We're the party of fiscal responsibility. We're the last party with a surplus and a balanced budget. We're the party who want to elminate the debt now carried on the backs of our grandchildren. *They're* the credit card party.

We're the wimpy pacifist party? Oh really? Just look at what we have after 5 years of Republican totalitarianism. We have the nearly unprecedented accusations of more than a few retired military condemning *them* for what's going on in Iraq. We didn't overstretch the military. We didn't institute stop loss or send the same people back to a combat zone for two or three or four tours. We're the party who have the highest number of veterans holding high elective office. We're the party that supports the troops. We're the party that sees war as serious business, not a cudgel to used in place of intelligent foreign policy. We're the party that wants secure ports and borders, not the substitution of hatred of a class of people for real security.

You can make up a brazillian more contrasts.

It is time to show your neighbor or the guy you meet at the barber shop that the Democrat is the right candidate for this time. A totalitarian government with no checks, no balances, no opposition, no oversight is good for no one.

It is time to stop preaching. We get pretty good at that. That has to stop. We need to convince, not condemn. Yes, he's an idiot to vote against his best interest. Telling him that bluntly won't do anything but harden his view. Welcome him and convince him. On the weight of what *we* stand for, not by condemning what *they* stand for.

John and Jane Q are ready for a change.

Its time for us to convince them that we're the right people for this time.

This time .... its time.

It is six years past time.

Wonderful job, and this is what I want from DU. I don't want to sit here and read, which candidate has the best shoes.

BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO

.... and the dark operatives make it about perceptions.

Our job is to make it about issues.

Hide the hatred? HIDE the hatred? This is a most revealing statemnt.