The Future of the Democratic Party

My utter disappointment in what happened can't be described. It's not just we were defeated, but that we were defeated so badly and after so much hard work. We've all devoted more time and effort to this than ever before and were beaten. We were more united and passionate than Democrats have been in a long time, and this happened.
How can we go on? Well, for one, with the knowledge we're still in the right and because parties have survived worse and gone on to be stronger. We will come back, it's just a matter of time, be it it two years, four years, or longer. The Democratic Party isn't dead, it's just what it was is, and now begins a new era for us.

I'm gonna miss John Kerry and John Edwards being out there every day fighting for us. I can to admire them both greatly, but at least Kerry will still be fighting for us in the Senate and Edwards may have a future in the party yet. But all is not lost of this campaign. Together we created a movement that is the building blocks for our future.

First, let's focus on the good news. We picked up most of the governerships up for grabs, and increased our numbers in state legislatures across the country (including here in Texas!), bringing control of the states nearly even. Republicans started here after all.

John Kerry and us inspired millions of new and younger voters to go to the polls as well as the base. It's just there were more new evangelical, rural voters that turned out for Bush. More people voted for Kerry than any Democrat ever, in fact, more people voted for him than any other candidate ever, except, of course, for George Bush, but he won by the smallest margin of victory of any sitting president since Woodrow Wilson. There certainly wasn't a problem with the candidate or our efforts, this is the cultural war that I mentioned a few posts ago and it is clear we could not win it with one election. Conservatives have been building towards this for decades, and it will take us awhile to get back on track.

Even the bad news isn't so bad looked at properly. Yes, just about everything that could go wrong did, as Republicans picked up 4 seats in both the House and Senate. But they won those House seats due to redistricing here in Texas, and giving an unfair advantage to the Republican opponents of four of our Democratic incumbents. As for the Senate, well they won in the South (where there was a slew of Democratic retirements) and SD, all red states which have been getting redder for years. This is just finishing the political realignment. We, however, took Republican seats in the more moderate states of Colorado and Illinois and are sending a new champion in Barack Obama to the Senate.

And whatever people say about "mandate" (there is none as I pointed out) and all that, it was damn close, and we are hardly finished. The 49% of Americans who didn't vote for Bush can't seriously be ignored (though they will try). Though since 9/11 history hasn't been a good indicator, things do suggest Dem pick-ups in the midterms, especially if this still divided nation becomes more disenchanted with Bush and the Republican policies towards the economy and domestic programs.

For now, the Dems are still reeling from their heavy losses. With Daschle having been ousted, party whip Harry Reid of Nevada is set to become the new Senate Minority Leader. He faces no challenges in the spirit of unity and already has majority support from fellow Democrats. Hopefully over the next two years they will be able to stop the most extreme parts of the Bush agenda.

The problem for Democrats is they really do face an electoral deficit right now. Bush completely dominated the South, Southwest, Midwest, and Great Plains (and Republicans are dominating their congressional delegations). It was a conservative dream map. I can hear the conservative pundits now saying "Democrats can't win states that aren't near water!" We lost Iowa and New Mexico to him, which Gore won, and failed to pick up Nevada or Colorado. Hispanics are, unfortunately, becoming evenly split between Democrats and Republicans than they were just a few years ago. This is particularly disappointing because the Southwest is supposed to be where we were increasing our numbers.

Ohio is a red state for sure now. It usually is, and we couldn't win it with what they've been through, we aren't going to. Florida is worrisome as well, since it is getting more Republican it seems, though it could just be the Bush brothers. That leaves Democrats with a hold on the Northeast (cemented with the New Hampshire pick-up), the Great Lakes and Pacific Coast states. Unfortunately, this puts us at the 286-252 loss we just experienced. Trying to win Florida each time just isn't a very good winning strategy. We must find a way to retake some states in the South, Southwest, and Midwest.

How do we do so?

DLC/Centrist Democrats will say we must move to the right. The problem is we did that under Clinton. If we do it again, then Ralph Nader really will be right when he says we will be indistinguishable with the Republicans, and people vote for the real Republican over the Democrat pretending to be a Republican every single time.

The liberal wing will say we need to move to the left then. Well, there's just no political reality in that. Liberals can't win in red areas, and it makes it harder to win swing states.

Well, we need to find new voters then. We did that. But so did the Republicans. It's clear we need to bring traditional Democratic voters back.

So what can we do?

See, it's not about moving to the right or left. It's about having a clear, consistent message that Democrats are passionate about. It's about not being wishy-washy and not being insincere anymore. People don't trust Democrats when they try to act like what they are not (conservative). They must know what we stand for. To me, this means social and economic justice and freedom with responsibility. Now why can't we just say that?

Also, the most important thing to voters here is "values." We must find a way to connect our policies with their values. If we fail to do so again, we will not win. Finding out how to do this is gonna take a lot of hard work and and political skill, but it can be done. We just need new people, new leadership, and new ideas. We also need to show these things come from the same place as these voters, be it region or background.

And we need to bring the rightful Democratic voting base back - the poor. Lower income people vote for us, but they don't vote anywhere near proportionally to their number. We must inspire them instead of going for the wealthy base of the Republican party. Speaking of, as the Republicans become increasingly conservative it may give us the oppurtunity to start peeling more liberal and moderate Republicans out of the base, as we did in NH, like conservatives started doing with the New Deal coalition a few decades ago.

Finally, the truth is - there's truth in all the arguments above, it's just that neither one is completely and alone the truth. We must find the right formula. Anyway, we certainly have plenty of time to consider it all and work it out. Several people over the past couple of days have said they feel they have be more active now, take things into their own hands in necesarry to win. Maybe it had to get worse before it could get better?