By way of ISOU from TCF comes the Democratic Da Vinci Code. It makes more sense then the pre-election platform "Anybody but Bush," and the post election "no honor among thieves" and "blame everyone else." Ok, enough snarkiness. Will it fly?
I see several problems with the Manifesto. First, the class warfare thing hasn’t worked that well so far. I would suggest rather then class warfare, become friendly to the American People as a whole. You cannot run rich people for office and still claim you are for the "little people." It is condescending, and with the ability of even the little people to get the same news, the boat will be hulled. When it comes to North Carolina, Bowles lost because of his connections to Clinton and that he was a Liberal in a Conservative State. The author, David Sirota, missed the point that Edwards won in 1998 because he was a pretty boy, and would have lost badly had he run in 2004.
2nd, Cleaning up Government will not work when you have Democratic leaders blaming everyone but themselves. Fraud in Democratic precincts? Blame the GOP. Then you have the spendaholics and taxaholics. Yes, Republicans spend like drunken sailors, too. Nothing is going to change that anytime soon for either party. But, when it comes to raising taxes, the worst offenders are Democrats. You want to change something, change that mindset.
3rd, if they cannot even be honest among themselves, how will they convince swing voters and even folks who normally vote Republican to vote for them? The use of the word Progressive is a dodge. They are liberals. Is there really anything bad about being liberal? No. They just have different beliefs in running government. We may not like their ideas and ideals, but, this is America, and we should respect them. But they cannot be honest with themselves. Kerry and Edwards ran from the liberal label, rather then embracing what they stood for. Hillary is trying to portray herself as a conservative. She is a dyed in the wool liberal. Say what you are, and be proud of it. To thine own-self be true.
Good article, well written points. Honesty in politics? hummm. However, I think your point about taking responsibility for who we are and our actions is the only way out. How many of us are trying to find out how our own precincts managed the election? How many are writing letters and becoming involved? No one, who isn’t in one of the contested states, and that’s a problem. Changes occur because people demand them, not because the Good Fairy drops them on your head. OK, so, “My name is JulieB and I’m a Liberal”.
And you should be proud of who you are, Julie. I may not always agree with you, but you have your opinions and will fight for them, and vice versa.
I have these conversations about the recounts almost daily on a forum. No one there wants to take responisbility for actions that occur in, no offense intended, democratic precincts. Look at Fla in 2000: out of 28 precincts with issues, 27 were democratically run. Corrine Brown waited till this summer to go on a rant. Al Gore pissed away the capital he earned to help reform elections. Did fraud occur? I would have to say yes, and that both parties were involved. There is a really interesting article about, I think it is Conyers, and what has happened in Detroit. Will have to see if I can find it.