WP, Dionne: Democrats must learn to operate as a party

A Gap In Their Armor
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006; Page A13

The Democratic Party has a self-image problem....While Republicans believe in their party and in the cause of building its organization from bottom to top, Democratic sympathizers tend to focus on favorite causes and favorite candidates, notably in presidential years.

If you understand this, you can understand the polemics over the past few months between Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the leader of the party's campaign committee for this fall's House elections....

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Dean argues, correctly, that Democrats will not be truly competitive if they are strong in only 18 or 20 "blue" states. Emanuel argues, also correctly, that this year offers Democrats their best chance in 12 at winning one or both houses of Congress. The party, he says, can't afford to fritter money away on long-term dreams....Dean and Emanuel are both struggling against the same overlapping realities: Democrats have chronically underinvested in building state parties. Wealthy donors who bankrolled grass-roots organizing in the 2004 presidential campaign have largely gone to the sidelines this year. And Republican-oriented interest groups are, on the whole, better financed and disciplined than their Democratic counterparts.

Emanuel is especially frustrated with large donors such as billionaire George Soros, who donated heavily to such organizing efforts as America Coming Together (ACT) two years ago. "These guys -- where are they?" a frustrated Emanuel asked in an interview. After John Kerry's loss, Emanuel said, "they walked off the field."...

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There is a lesson here about campaign finance reform and those who pretend that Democrats can rely on a handful of wealthy donors when crunch time comes. There is also a lesson about how a political party needs to see itself -- and be seen by those who support it -- as a long-term operation, not simply as a label of convenience at election time....Republicans -- from President Bush on down -- have long dismissed the fashionable claptrap about political parties becoming meaningless. If Democrats are to shed their self-image problem and create a durable majority, they, too, will have to learn to operate as a party.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401162.html

We do need to learn to operate as a party.

We also desperately need to put a stop to litmus tests and purity tests. We need to act as one party advancing forwards, afterall, whether we're Centrist, Liberal or on the Left of the Democratic Party we ALL want the SAME thing, and thats our party returning to power and a Democratic President in the WH in 2008.

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If the Democratic Party refused corporate money, how exactly do you think that we'd be able to possibly compete in elections? Where and whom would we be able to raise up to $1 billion dollars from? There's no way we could raise up to $1 billion dollars simply from say grassroots organizations....and I don't think that the people would support a public funded election campaign system, they'd see it as some form of variation on a tax increase.


"Send Cheney and Wolfowitz and Feith to the gallows."


I appreciate your sarcasm....'um, I hope it's sarcasm?


"Same with Big Oil. Send them the bill for Iraq, and give them 48 hours to pay it, or else their boards of directors get to say their final goodbyes to a small group of sharpshooters."


Well of course, this isn't exactly a feasible option I don't think somewhow.

It needs to stop being a propaganda organ for the Nazi Party!