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Dems Out of Touch with Own Party
by AntiChimp
Thursday, Jun. 16, 2005 at 10:50 AM
antichimp2005@yahoo.com
It's time for Democrats to find their message, and communicate it plainly.
Another new Pew report (http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=247) suggests an interesting idea, tucked in along with some predictable data. The report analyzes the public image of the Supreme Court, Congress, and the two mainstream political parties.
Not surprisingly, all have suffered an erosion of confidence. What I find most interesting is this passage about perceptions of party ideology:
"Significantly, more Republicans are in tune ideologically with the GOP than Democrats are with their party. A plurality of Republicans (43%) rate their party the same as they rate themselves. By contrast, only about a third of Democrats (34%) give the Democratic Party the same rating they give themselves."
This certainly has to be a disturbing note to Dem party diehards, and it shows clearly that the Democrats have some work to do if they expect to make gains, including the White House, in future elections. If the last national election taught us anything (other than how easy it is for corporate-controlled voting machines to manipulate vote counts), it is that being anti-Bush is not enough. Democrats have to begin to sharply define themselves and bring their ideology into focus. And that ideology should not be a watered-down version of Republicanism, but rather a determinate, goal-oriented, practical, and workable vision. Hopefully that will take the place of the pandering and reactionary poll-watching that characterized the Kerry campaign in 2004.
The "offend no one" policy, evident in the old-school Dems' shrill denunciations of DNC Chairman Howard Dean for his various blunt commentaries, has to go. Just speak the truth, dammit.
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