the 51% solution is no solution at all.

I'm not that interested in Democratic party leadership that mirrors W's leadership style.

Win by the thinnest of margins and use that as justification to shove one version of priorities down the countries throat.
We need to build wide-spread consensus.
We need to unify the people of this country through ideas.
We need to be the party of results, not posturing.
We need to be adults and reach across the aisle in the name of national unity.
Looked at this way its a political opportunity of a lifetime.

The party that unites the people of this nation with a sensible, results oriented, way forward that can be agreed upon by the largest slice of the citizenry will be in power for a generation.
That is far better than the short term but popular with the base desire to punish the GOP for bringing us to such a horrible dead-end.

These are serious times that call for serious statesmanship for the good of our nation.
This far outweighs any desire get even with those GOP assholes.

We need to bring every person from every party on board to sensible achievable public policy.
We must guard against falling into the trap of over reaching due to the power that comes from winning one election, holding one office, espousing one point of view.

Its time for serious people to do some seriously selfless work for the good of our nation.
This supersedes party in a way never before seen in my lifetime.
The pay-off is if we get it right, if we strike the right tone and don't descend into rancor and vindictive one upsmanship... we will be winning elections for a long time.


... And we all know thats far better than just sticking it to these bastards who have screwed us all so badly these last few years.

accountable. I don't care about punishing anybody, but holding people accountable is good for the nation. Like getting to the bottom of all the Iraq reconstruction money that was ripped off.

But also, be wary. Statesmanship is always viewed as weakness by Republicans. Reaching over to the other side almost always ends up in a screw job. Conviction is what achieves sensible public policy, not bringing in every person from every party. That will only get you shit like the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, or what we saw with the domestic wiretapping recently.

Just hot air

Even worse. I'd rather have hot air than a bunch of disastrous legislation. Like those Dems who gave Bush everything he wanted on domestic wiretapping. Would you rather have them reach across the aisle like that, or show some conviction and protect our civil liberties? Because if that's the kind of weak and dangerous statesmanship you advocate then good luck with that.

You look at the Clinton economic plan, when they passed that legislation in 1993, not a single Republican voted for that bill. It was all Dems, barely squeaking by what turned out to be the cornerstone of what resulted in 8 years of record breaking job and economic growth, plus a balanced budget. Now, if in the name of bipartisanship and reaching across the aisle, as you suggest, a few Dems decided to switch sides and work something out with the Republicans, then we would have never had that. The bottom line is, Dems don't need to reach across the aisle and sacrifice towards the Republican way. Republicans need to reach across and stop radicalizing every issue according to failed ideology. Dems need to unite and come up with good policy, they don't need to sacrifice sound policy just to make nice with Republicans. That doesn't work, and never has worked.

when I refer to reaching across, I am thinking more to wards accepting support from all corners of the nation, even the GOP.

the nub of this is; don't go for revenge, keep our eyes on the horizon and don't reach for short sighted solutions. Take the time and do the work required to craft sensible workable legislation.


conviction is a funny thing; it alludes to an unbending rigid tone that I think is not our best avenue at this moment in time.

Democracy requires compromise and it always did.
I don't want to make the same mistakes that the GOP has by forgetting that, just because we won the White House.

Another post on DU warned of the code word "serious". What I immediately think of when I hear 51% are all the winning margins President Gore, President Kerry and numerous House and Senate members, inexplicably not serving their terms achieved using just this very mindset and strategy. The cautious path, the conciliatory, accountability must be mute and invisible, the appeal to the "swing voters" has been all of a piece.

There are a lot of contradictory sentiments in this post based on past results and current footdragging, retreat and likelihood of shuffling on as dutiful victims of Pres. Muck and VP Mire whenever we humbly take over the reins of abused, shamed and crippled government. Most of the rancor indeed seems reserved for inner wranglings as the center seeks to dominate and relegate anything remotely progressive or simply just by somehow, this one time, pulling off a 51% victory upset over unconfronted fraud, by promising nothing but shadowy ideas. The shadow government? That could be us.

Punish the GOP? We can't tell the truth and say we are running against a crime organization, not a party. The GOP made no bones about trying to project their horrors upon the very name Democrat or liberal. Upon saying the people's vote is not important compared to the judgment of people already in power(2000 TV arguments why the GOP House might pick the president). We can't with a straight face say our leaders adequately, fairly represent the membership, duty and democracy? Key word: adequately.

In others we have to lie or believe the lies, swallow truth and responsibility and the fiction of transition from one legitimate administration to a slightly improved one. So that, the hint sends a shiver down the spine, that long term, fixed power can be won for the Party to softly replace the GOP dominance with kinder gentler something or other. of course we will better. Of course the long healing the truce between renegade cannibal capitalism and rational order, rational concerns for survival will be better under such long regime. Anything would be better, but this would be a guarantee of another fall to an even more vicious recurrence of a cancer simply denied. And what meekly acceded to corporate MSM will present this meek accountability process to the people? Another filter, another twist to create a doomed future.

Forgive this serious worry. That paving the way to hell with good intentions being better than what is happening now just might not attract a hell of a lot of votes.