Thanks for the thoughts. I agree. We need some action items though. If you have specific ways individuals can help build the infrastructure, I would like to hear them.

Thanks for the post, Tom, I was trying to construct something along these lines as well but lacked the strength this morning. Inspiring words -- an extraordinarily difficult task, given where the country is now, and given how far I think we have to go, but inspiring words. I'm proud to be working with you here.

I read a story years ago about an incident that took place during the Vietnam War. American soldiers inoculated all the children in a village against some disease or another and then left. They returned several days later to find a pile of little arms in the center of the village. The Americans knew, at that moment, they could never win against an enemy capable of such an atrocity. The Viet Cong said, in effect, ”You will never prevail.”

The Republican political machine has the same single-mindedness of purpose. They will go to any lengths to win and hold power. That is not to say that the voters who believe the Rove/Bush rhetoric are absolved of responsibility. These voters are not to blame for it. They are victims of it. They are the one-armed children who, traumatized by fear into believing their captors, grew up to be good party members.

The problem is twofold; people don’t hear the questions being asked of their leaders and they don’t ask their own questions. They only hear the answers and the answers have nothing to do with the questions and usually have only a fleeting relationship with the truth.

So I ask you “Do you love your country?” If you do, raise the hand you have left. If you have to drop the machete before raising both hands, rest assured that your resolve is admired – if reviled – and that you will get what’s coming to you.

The Democrats will lose elections in this climate of fear as long as they believe that inoculation, not amputation, is a viable battle plan and how you should fight a civilized war to win it. They always have and always will. It is what makes them the party of the people. Their enemy is too fierce, too evil, to be defeated by altruism alone. So they have to be content with healing this country one heart and one soul at a time. The minds, apparently, have been lost.

If this makes me, a progressive-liberal-Democrat, a loser, I proudly sacrifice myself for the good of my country.

I just wanted to thank you for this site. I am allowing myself one day of mourning then I get right back to the fight tomorrow. I hope that we can come together and demand accountability from this administration and not fall apart as I am seeing from alot of comments on blogs this morning.

After hearing Ira Glass interview a perfectly intelligent sounding "undecided" over the course of the last few months, before and after conventions and debates, the only thing I could figure is that this man—like so many others—chose to remain in a state of purposeful and sustained ignorance.

He claimed to be informed but managed to only pick up bumper sticker length thoughts like, "most liberal member of the senate" despite the fact that he could not verbalize one thing about Kerry's actual voting record. He "just didn't believe" things Kerry said during the debates even when given facts and supporting evidence afterward which validated the truth of Kerry's statements.

Perhaps he—like our brilliant leader—goes with his first gut feeling. Maybe he just 'liked the guy' (Bush), regardless of Bush's abysmal lack of qualifications on all fronts and his subsequent horrific record.

There's a special place in Hell for the stubborn-gut-instinct-undecided morons who are a big reason why we are where we are today. Maybe the "Get Out the Vote" effort was a big mistake. I hope these people will stay home and watch reality shows next time.

Surely what's been born in the last 4 years -- awareness, passion, participation -- is the solid foundation for what you describe. As a longtime voter who's never gotten really politically active til this year, I can tell you I'm in it to stay.

There needs to be a clearly defined plan for this next stage, as one would write a business plan -- product definition, target audience, marketing plan, implementation plan with accountable goals and targets. In the language of marketing, how can we frame our "product" so that the average person can see how it will help satisfy their wants, overcome their problems, and achieve their objectives?

After a day to sleep/grieve I'll be ready to start again on Thursday. Thank you for inspiring me.

You are correct, in that 'they', ie. the main stream of small-state America do not think like us.
Democrats believe is betterment for the nation, and for its people at large. We promoted ideas that freed the salves, created Social Security and put a man on the moon.
Republicans dwell on single issues and ignore the rest. These politicians pander for massive personal gain, and say whats needed to win, and then do what they want.
Since people by and large are simple lemmings, too stupid not to drown in their own excriment, they will always follow their leader right over a cliff, and into the sea. and never wonder until its to late why they swam so far.
I'm bitter and wish the little states with thier closed minds would form their own little private nation where inbreeding and lack of education are preffered and leave the rest of us alone.
God I hate republicans.
They'll lead us all to the wolves in time. And well go.

I feel so tired today. 3.5 million is such an overwhelming number. I always knew that, as a progressive, I was in a minority (even within the democratic party). But I guess I always thought of myself as part of a larger majority of people in this country who were willing to look at any issue on its merits and make an honest appraisal base on those facts. Clearly I was deluding myself.

I agree with you that we need to start looking at this from the long-term prospective. If we take the long view, the next time we have a chance to win, we'll have to ability to sustain and build on that advantage. We may get another Bill Clinton who can cross lines and draw an electorate together, but the danger is that it is unsustainable because we don't have any depth on the bench. In fact, as we saw in the 1990s, it's actually counterproductive to our overall success because the star by himself becomes an easy target whose fall takes the whole party with him.

I am not convinced that we can educate or persuade or inspire this majority to see the values of progressives simply by rephrasing our platform. It feels like we tried that and failed. And maybe we should have failed, carpet bagging as we were.

The end goal is definitely to solidify a progressive mentality in the general populace. To accomplish this, however, we need to find a way to communicate without coming across as snake-oil salesmen. The only way I can see to get that done is to start looking for something on the conservative platform that we can embrace--or at least carve out an issue were we can meet halfway.

You can't communicate unless someone wants to listen nor educate when they won't accept your facts. We need to get involved in their issues. I don't think we should try to glom onto their organizations. I would propose finding an issue, creating a place of compromise, and launching an independent campaign to get it enacted. We need something analogous to "street cred" to get our foot in the door.

But we can't rush it. Because this needs to be part of a larger plan to build up a new base of dem politicos, to inspire a whole new stripe of leadership within the party, to build on the burgeoning institutional infrastructure created in the past year, and, most importantly, to create a strong and loyal base, dedicated enough to lie down on tracks when asked.

argh. now i feel even more tired.

Maybe *we* are the ones who need to change.

"Billionaires!" If Soros can do it,everyone reading this can "too!" Not discounting those who have built fortunes...I say to all reading this...the information is out there and the means is inside you. "Believe in yourself" and try every book's get rich theory,until you eliminate "what does not work for you", until you find the way that does make you rich. It's out there. Want to know! First,"want" to know. Go get that book and another. Take action. Take small steps. Test the book out, small. When it works,do more of the same. Then hire help. Plod forward,step by step. Narrow down the junk that isn't "you". You won't follow those plans. Mostly, "Begin". Make a mistake. Change your way of working the plan,until,you win. The "life's blood of a campaign" is $$$$ money. If we went together and buy CBS,and told "the truth",nothing could stop us.

The DLC should be fired. Terry McCauliffe, Bill and Hill, et al are LOSING elections for Dems across the board. If Hill believes bush will falter and she will be able to clean up in 2008, she is DREAMING. Guiliani and McCain are already getting ready for a 2008 win. Diebold promised to deliver "Ohio" to repubs and they did and FLA was a done deal for bush.
god knows what that maniac bush will do next-the second term is the real drunk with power term.

Well....I am tired. But only one day is allowed for that. Funny, just this morning - after coffee, a friend said to me:"Now, we need to keep moving; and we need to look at what got Bush back in and then learn from that...same thinking and perhaps if we all do this thinking, push the Party into making such visionary progressive changes - BUT TEACH ONE BY ONE TO OUR NEIGHBOR, FAMILY, FRIEND, COWORKER, ETC.....Democrats finally will take back our country and place us in more respect in the world.

"Maybe *we* are the ones who need to change."

Absolutely not.

Read:
"Don't Think of an Elephant" by George Lakoff

...and you will know why.

If it truly wants to make inroads into the Republican domination of the American political scene, the Democratic party must recognize where the American public is, develop a realistic party platform, and find candidates with charisma as well as intelligence to run for office, especially the presidency. (Charisma does not often flow from membership in the U.S. Congress.) A republican form of government must (by definition) truly represent the prevailing attitudes, morals, and mores of the people it governs.

The Democratic Party as a creature of government and mechanism for advancing an agenda must first modify its attitudes on "god, guns, and gays," as they say, to more truly represent the nation's constituency. This country is apparently not ready for abortion without some parameters. It's not ready for a strong statement on gun control. It's not ready for hunting down Christian icons and references to purge them from government-owned property. And, it's not ready for civil unions or gay marriage. Those are just realities. Democrats need to parse their rhetoric about such things while promoting an agenda that includes .... the nurturing of the environment; promotion of stem cell research; abortion only to protect health or life of the mother or to terminate a hopelessly flawed fetus'; and a push for an increase in penalties for crimes committed with firearm as opposed to outright control of guns;

Election analysts have determined that where the candidates stood on moral values made the biggest difference in the 2004 election. We must recognize this to get Democrats into office and then work little by little to increase the dialogue on such subjects with the aim of moving people to more enlightened attitudes. We can't do that if we keep getting pummelled at the polls.

Mike Brown
Waco, TX

I agree that there are some models in the republican party that can be successful for the left. But we can't just use their "strategery." I'd rather lose another 10 times than appeal to base emotions like fear and hate to clinch the vote.

We should shop for what will fit with our goals; though I agree with John Pibb that this may/should mean revising our goals. Hell, I'm not even sure we shouldn't scrap the word Democrat. How about the Unelite-Rural-Not-New-England-God-Fearing-Terrorist-Killers?

I would never propose that we discard the basic tenents of the Democratic Party or change our ideas on multi-lateralism, pre-emptive war, or advancing the cause of the middle class and less fortunate among us. But, right now, the Democratic Party is in deep shit and is in danger of becoming so marginalized that it ceases to be a vehicle for speaking on behalf of the things we hold so dear. We either move more toward the mainstream of the electorate while keeping our basic goals intact, or we lose the war of ideas altogether. There are enlightened moderates within the Republican party as of today plotting ways to kick out the neocons and ultra-conservatives to regain control of their party. If they move their party left while ours moves a little toward the center, maybe we can depolarize American government and come up with a compromise health plan, an intelligent foreign policy, and become one nation again.

Mike Brown

I am here ready to go ready to do what is necessary! What will it take? What can I give? We start today! We start now!
We start strong!

Tom, I totally agree with you! One thing that I'm going to do right away is to investigate the demographics of non-voters. It appears that there are many millions of non-voters in this country. If we can find a way to appeal to these folks, it could make a huge difference. I am a research psychologist and I am interested in finding out what makes these people tick so we can find a way to get through to them. My hypothesis is that they are very depressed and have given up hope. I'm going to check my university's database of journal articles and see what I come up with. I'll report back.

Paula,
Begin by getting out the old phone book and looking up your democratic party headquarters. Call or go by. Find out how you can start now to work on voter registration and become a certified registration clerk. See if they need help pulling up campaign signs on street corners or at polling places. See if they need shift workers to man the office telephone during certain hours of the week. Get involved with your local democratic organizations like the League of Women Voters, Latino Democratic Women, or some other appropriate organization. The ACLU chapter near you would probably love to hear from you. Although non-partisan, their goals are often ones shared by the Democratic Party. Find out how to become a precinct chairperson, a delegate to your county and state party conventions. and become a block captain. Go to work for your local democratic congressman or state legislator the next time he or she comes up for re-election. Then...seek election at your state convention as a national convention delegate. Before you know it, you will be a real force.

I'm just stunned. Thanks for your column here. I have had some very base, angry, petty thoughts about my fellow Americans too.
I was listening to Disturbed this AM on the way to work.
One line from a song:
"The world is a scary place, now that you've woken up the demon..." The song is called "Get down with the sickness".
I guess Bush could have used it as his voter recruitment song. perhaps he used it subliminally. I can't even fathom this. We are worse off than I thought.

Lesson for next time: Make up some stupid soundbites; They don't have to be true, then repeat them constantly. We the sheeple will believe and obey.
Sigh...
Sorry, not ready to move on yet. I have invested so much of myself into this election, as have so many others. It is truly a day of huge loss for us all.

I agree that we have to frame the issue but there is a little more to it. We must look our Republican neighbors in the eyes and say" Your man won. Whatever happens n the next four years is your responsibility." The deficit is about to explode and interest rates will rise. The number of people in poverty will go higher and quality of life will decrease and every time that happens just shrug your shoulders and say" Not my fault. I didn't vote for him. The ones who did are responsible."We must hold those who voted for him accountable. If we can each reach one person this way, by breaking down their walls of deniability we could create a shift. We could make it possible for them to hear our message. It is up to us ,the educated ,to teach the ignorant how to listen. I know this sounds arrogant but it is true. If they knew how to listen they would not have voted for Bush. Give the idea to your friends also. The more people we have out there holding them to their decision to back the man, the better.

Tom, couldn't agree with you more and come to the same conclusion this morning as I asked myself "What now?".

I searched for some concrete help in learning the new language we progressives need to learn and ran across the Rockridge Institute web site (www.rockridge.org) and want to mention it again for those who may not have run across it. Rather than only tell us about the problem, they offer real examples for us to take away and start using.

It is imperitive we find the language that conotes all the good things progressive liberals stand for and stop allowing the 'conservatives' to frame the discussion before we've even opened our mouths.

I think it is important to understand that much of the Bush majority was manufactured by a cynical manipulation of the demos. This lead to a situation where many people voted for Bush "because of values."

But the Bush agenda is not about values that it sells to voters. It is about money: oil, cheap 3rd world labor, and bigger budgets spent toward the military-industrial complex. The "values" issue is nothing but a cynical manipulation of large population segments who are susceptible to such simplistic and absurd demagoguery.

We should not mistake the beliefs of the manipulated for the beliefs of the manipulators. The manipulators of the demos are motivated by the traditional values of greed and power.

So, if we wish to understand the cynical manipulators, we shouldn't be distracted by their political pronouncements about "values". Rather, we should keep our eyes on the flow of public money into private hands, the sale into private hands of what we hold in common, and the disassembly of systems of public regulation in order to enable the exploits of private capital.

Right wing positions on stem-cell research, gun control, abortion, same-sex marriage, and so on, are simply diversionary issues thrown to the body politic to keep it distracted. Do we really think any of the leadership really cares about this stuff?

How do you get people to hear? I've had dozens of people ask that I not send them emails..and others who said they would block me. I've had some say that I was smart, but none would accept research that I did.
A local T V Anchorwoman did not say what party she favored. but said that I had done extensive meaningful research. I am reminded of cliche "I have ears, but cannot hear" Margie
cc: Personal copy

Spot On!!! Can we reinvigorate traditionally liberal think tanks, e.g. Brookings, Carnegie, etc. while providing a framework for progressive alignment that is not stuck in the 60's? The end is the beginning.

jdj

Lets not forget this all started way back with
"NEWT'S CONTRACT WITH AMERICA"" At that time
he made the remark and I quote, "WE WILL DESTROY
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SO WE CAN HAVE A ONE PARTY SYSTEM"" That was a wakeup call, and no one
paid attention.
I wish George Soros would buy a cable station. the DEMOCRATS HAVE NO CHANCE IN HELL in todays
media. Does anyone know what happened to Gore's
station he bought??

I believe that Democracy as we know it is dead. This administration is going to take us back to the beginning of the last century with its corporate giveaways, tax relief for the wealthy, a military draft,more warfare, rescinding labor gains, and the population will be waving the flags and sacrificing their children for the " good of the the country". There will be no dissent and you haven't seen anything yet. Wait til congress sits again and see what happens. The democrats will be locked out of committees, appointments, and the republicans will enforce their agendas with no opposition. With control of Washington , from the white house, the Supreme Court, Senate and Congress, the republicans own the government and will not leave until they have bankrupted this country.

Take heart. We almost won, even with all our "imperfections"as humans. Take stock. Regroup. Go out and execute: fundamentals win every time.

I just received a referral to this site, and it is exactly the medicine I needed. There's no question in my mind that conservative, right-wing talk radio shows have become the only voice and therefore the social, ecoomic and political authority on the airwaves. The lack of choice is depressing and the repercussions are now even more evident. I look forward to logging on to Rockridge and helping where I can to bring a progressive perspective into the mainstream.

Cost of War
Try clicking on them; you might be surprised to learn what a difference we could have made. The War in Iraq Cost ... xx ... 0. JavaScript must be.....
| costofwar.com/ Cynthia

One of the most painful lessons I have learned in life is that sometimes you do all you can and everything right and things STILL don't work out the way you want. But we must remember to keep our many amazing successes in mind and learn from those what we CAN do in the future. Changing our political culture is difficult, but far from impossible. A quick survey of history will confirm that we the people have made incredible progress against overwhelming tyranny in the past, and we will again in the future. Keep the faith.

Regarding specific strategies; lets take a page from Howard Dean's book and start discussing the founding principles of our country (in particular, balance of power and separation of church and state). These are the issues that have been driving many Libertarians and moderate conservatives away from the neocon Republicans. I recommend Judis and Teixeira's book "The Emerging Democratic Majority" for a great study of the changing political culture over the last 40 years or so. Lets work on building up a strong center grounded in shared values as a first step. This is absolutely doable; most Americans are heartily sick of the extremist politics on both ends of the spectrum and will be open to a "new patriotism" of a fair, common sense, forward looking, moderate center where both liberal and conservative (old school, not neocon) voices are heard and respected.

In terms of framing, here are some phrases that I have successfully deployed when debating with my conservative acquaintances, phrase that have gotten them to listen seriously to what I have to say and even come around to agreeing with me: "balance of power" (power and money naturally tend to accumulate at the top of the heap; a certain amount of intervention is need to redistribute and keep society dynamic and competitive); "responsibility to our fellow Americans" (a way to frame social justice); "rights as individuals" (a way to frame civil rights); "investment in our country's future" (borrowing from the Big Dog to argue for education and job training programs). It also works best to argue from the basis of enlightened self-interest rather than moral duty or guilt. I hope others will share what phrases have worked for them.

Democrats specifically need more people with long memories. Too much seems to be forgotten in the space of time between campaigns. Items such as (gasp!)moderation, since this is a country built on the concept of compromise. Such as resisting the urge to forcefully cram new concepts down conventional throats. (New concepts take time to be absorbed and accepted by traditional folks.) Such as blissfully, or willfully, ignoring the copiously-documented, sharply-honed anathema to a "liberal Massachusetts senator" by an entire swath of southern states. Why do we refuse to learn from experience? Unless we do learn, and choose less polarizing figures to represent us, we will never be able to persuade the majority of voters that liberal is not a dangerous label. And finally, we must reform our primary process that allows two or three unrepresentative states such as New Hampshire and Iowa, and the media, to choose our Democratic candidiate. I urge a national, one-day primary election.

I'd say one frame is fairness: this gets at rich tax cheats, offshoring, etc. The GOP wants to grab as much as it can and this would be an effective block.

I'd also say rule of law, which fits in with fairness. That means pursuing things in an orderly, non-Hobbesian fashion.

One minor thing--could you switch to nested comments? It would make conversations much easier here. DB

It's time to lobby your local radio/TV advertising sponsors, (and labor unions too)to fund Molly Ivins or Al Franken on your local radio that currently features Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, Liddy, Ingraham, Beck, Savage, rightwing pundits ad nauseum.

No one here has mentioned that Bush's grandfather, Prescott, supported the Nazi cause through his Union Banking Co, before and during WWII; as did his other grandfather, George Walker...all of this corporatism smacks of facism to me.
We have an extraordianarily dumb population in this US to be swayed by so called values issues of gay rights and abortion, while our entire way of life is being taken from us. I have tried pointing out to people repeatedly what total opportunists the Bushes have always been....and I get these glazed looks. I don't think we will be able to reach these truck driving 6-packers until they and their families have suffered a whole lot more....when their kids have NO SCHOOLs due to NCLB, when their public hospitals are totally underfunded, when most of their jobs are gone....and our unemployment soars...when gas is $10 a gallon....when they have to take care of parents as Medicare and Social Security are gone....maybe they will not be as deaf...but then, it will be TOO LATE....Just the rich and the poor, no middle class at all...and their kids, kids that survive, will be easily manipulated as they will be HUNGRY....I wish I did not see such a grim future....but I can not believe in my fellow American any more; he is just TOO STUPED, too LAZY to think, too ASLEEP, so sure that the GOVERNMENT is there to take care of him...what a myth. The average guy has never even heard of NORAD...I can state, NORAD could not possibly have missed all 4 of those planes; it should have done some intercepts...they don't get it....I don't know what Bush's plan for them all is when they finally lose all of their jobs...send them to another planet? Concentration camps? Mind control? Probably all 3....They are stupid. Only the stupid could continue to buy SUVs and huge TRUCKS when we only have enough oil in known reserves to get us thru the next 15-20 years at current rate of global consumption; we have areas in the ocean that are dead...a huge one in Gulf of Mexico...we are loosing animal and plant species on this planet at an alarming rate; duh...there is global warming occuring, within a decade we could lose our bread basket in the midwest....things would have been tough enough if Kerry had won; as it is now, we might as well party...we are going the way of the dinosaurs, faith or no faith.
Unless we have a mass awakening....problem is the evil who worship nothing but money would have to wake up too....they, especially, would need to awaken...the rich and the powerful...what are the chances?????