Advice to Democrats

What can one say about a party that learns from the miserable militaristic "John Kerry reporting for duty" campaign loss the lesson that they should "ease up" on abortion, an issue on which the public is already with them, start talking about what good Christians they are, which nobody will believe even if it's true, and completely forget the word "Iraq," except in a retrospective sense?

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Two-thirds of Senate Democrats voted to approve the appointment of [Condoleezza Rice] who was accused by other Senate Democrats of being a flagrant liar. And, to boot, the charge is obviously correct.

So, we have a party that's under ferocious attack from a force that controls all three branches of government, nearly controls broadcast media, and is constantly scheming to increase its power, effectively isolating and rejecting fairly important people in its own ranks when they happen to tell the obvious truth.

As Marx would say, the Democratic Party may be a party of itself, but there is precious little evidence that it's a party for itself. If this doesn't change, well, it's not hard to predict the outcome of a war in which one side doesn't fight.

So, a propos of all that, some advice. Let me preface it by saying clearly this is an outside view. I'm not a Democrat and I can't stand the Democrats. If this advice is followed, I still won't be a Democrat. This is advice not from a left perspective (mine), but simply from the perspective of the party's survival as a party.

First, your biggest problem is not that you will be labelled "obstructionist" (although you will) but that you will be crushed by a force that doesn't believe there should be any limits to its power. Thus, fighting back even when you're going to lose is important.

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Second, and most important, don't just play defense. It's important to go out and attack the Republicans. [...] It seems impossible in this climate to go after Bush or Cheney and pointless to go after an appointed member of the executive branch (except in cases, like Rumsfeld, where again it's impossible). So go after a prominent legislator on ethics charges -- maybe Tom Delay? Create a situation where the Republicans have to either openly sanction corruption or acquiesce in the elimination of one of their own. If this works, lather, rinse, repeat.

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. Your current strategy of curling up in a ball and hoping the Republicans don't kick you just encourages them to kick you.

Any readers out there who have more contact with the Democrats than I do, please feel free to pass on this advice.

  Empire Notes

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.