What has happened to the Democratic Party?
Why is the Democratic Party split, leaderless, and ignoring the future?
The actions of the more outspoken democrats are well known, and need only reference, rather than explanation: raise suspicions about the Ohio vote, disrupt Bush's confirmation despite their inability to hold Bush back, have two congress members vote against Condi Rice, and complain about Bush's confirmation. These actions are fitting for a campaign season, and could be expected in the month or two before the election, but they look incredibly different today. These actions can easily be called obstructionist, and makes the Democratic Party look like it exists only to oppose the Republican Party, rather than to try to do something better for the nation.
It seems like the entire democrat party is determined to attack Bush, and do little else. The absence of any democrat admitting "damn, we lost. We'll try to make the best of it" on November 3rd tells more about the party than any press release. The Democratic Party is as active and loud as it's ever been, but it has stopped thinking. No matter how many times they were explained to me, I simply couldn't understand or remember Kerry's plans for the nation, and I believe this is due to a lack of a coherent, reliable, and logical underlying belief or morality.
The Democratic Party will not have a proper leader until the party has beliefs that its members can, more or less, agree on. Further, the party will receive little popular support by opposing Bush's plans, yet presenting no alternative. (scroll to the bottom of this post if you want to skip some of the details – which are insignificant – and read about the broad, overall situation)
What should the democrats do?
First, they need to find a moral base which they can plant an agenda on. They will probably have to steal some of this from republicans, whom have developed some excellent, malleable ideologies.
Then, they need to get an agenda in order, and scrap parts of the platform that are opposed by most of the nation and losing their remaining popularity. One such item is abortion; democrats have been adamant about allowing abortion, even though most of the nation opposes it (except in cases of rape or severe physical harm to the mother). The democrats can easily select adoption as a great alternative, and can point out the lack of people willing to allow their child to be adopted compared to those who wish to adopt, the incredibly painful process that adopters and those who give up their child go through, and the incredible and unwarranted cost of adoption. It's hard for anyone to oppose adoption, and yet both parties have ignored the subject, preferring to argue over abortion.
Another compelling issue is immigration, which democrats should support more of (according to their philosophical beliefs). The party can easily argue that we need to enforce the border with Mexico, but allow many more immigrants to come to the US legally (thus reducing the number who resort to illegal methods). The quotas on immigration are outdated, illogical, and somewhat immoral, and democrats would do well to make them an issue - with a bit of caution.
A third issue may be corporate abuse. It's easy to say, and compelling to believe, that a company cannot get away with something that is illegal for an individual. And, they could do a lot more to encourage competition in a few sectors or industry, such as oil – especially considering the high gas prices.
The democrats must scrap their environmentalist factions, which have done more harm to the party than they have done to save the environment. The EPA should not shrink, but it's policies changed so it can act reasonably to each situation as it appears. For example, if there is an endangered species of mouse or bug, the EPA will impose crushing regulations on whatever area that creature happens to live in, even though the creature is of no importance to anything. In this case, the EPA could do far better by supplying funds for a zoo to house some of that species, and increase its population. This would improve the zoo, and the area where the species happens to live will not waste tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to follow environmental regulations. Additionally, the democrats must choose between keeping ANWR desolate and claiming that the US must be independent of mid-east oil.
These few issues are really just details to show that the democrats must get their party back in order. The only way to restore the party is by doing what republicans have done: build a moral foundation, announce the philosophies that guide the party to its position on issues, and draw up attractive plans – based on the party philosophy – that offer logical solutions to the nation's problems.
The actions of the more outspoken democrats are well known, and need only reference, rather than explanation: raise suspicions about the Ohio vote, disrupt Bush's confirmation despite their inability to hold Bush back, have two congress members vote against Condi Rice, and complain about Bush's confirmation. These actions are fitting for a campaign season, and could be expected in the month or two before the election, but they look incredibly different today. These actions can easily be called obstructionist, and makes the Democratic Party look like it exists only to oppose the Republican Party, rather than to try to do something better for the nation.
It seems like the entire democrat party is determined to attack Bush, and do little else. The absence of any democrat admitting "damn, we lost. We'll try to make the best of it" on November 3rd tells more about the party than any press release. The Democratic Party is as active and loud as it's ever been, but it has stopped thinking. No matter how many times they were explained to me, I simply couldn't understand or remember Kerry's plans for the nation, and I believe this is due to a lack of a coherent, reliable, and logical underlying belief or morality.
The Democratic Party will not have a proper leader until the party has beliefs that its members can, more or less, agree on. Further, the party will receive little popular support by opposing Bush's plans, yet presenting no alternative. (scroll to the bottom of this post if you want to skip some of the details – which are insignificant – and read about the broad, overall situation)
What should the democrats do?
First, they need to find a moral base which they can plant an agenda on. They will probably have to steal some of this from republicans, whom have developed some excellent, malleable ideologies.
Then, they need to get an agenda in order, and scrap parts of the platform that are opposed by most of the nation and losing their remaining popularity. One such item is abortion; democrats have been adamant about allowing abortion, even though most of the nation opposes it (except in cases of rape or severe physical harm to the mother). The democrats can easily select adoption as a great alternative, and can point out the lack of people willing to allow their child to be adopted compared to those who wish to adopt, the incredibly painful process that adopters and those who give up their child go through, and the incredible and unwarranted cost of adoption. It's hard for anyone to oppose adoption, and yet both parties have ignored the subject, preferring to argue over abortion.
Another compelling issue is immigration, which democrats should support more of (according to their philosophical beliefs). The party can easily argue that we need to enforce the border with Mexico, but allow many more immigrants to come to the US legally (thus reducing the number who resort to illegal methods). The quotas on immigration are outdated, illogical, and somewhat immoral, and democrats would do well to make them an issue - with a bit of caution.
A third issue may be corporate abuse. It's easy to say, and compelling to believe, that a company cannot get away with something that is illegal for an individual. And, they could do a lot more to encourage competition in a few sectors or industry, such as oil – especially considering the high gas prices.
The democrats must scrap their environmentalist factions, which have done more harm to the party than they have done to save the environment. The EPA should not shrink, but it's policies changed so it can act reasonably to each situation as it appears. For example, if there is an endangered species of mouse or bug, the EPA will impose crushing regulations on whatever area that creature happens to live in, even though the creature is of no importance to anything. In this case, the EPA could do far better by supplying funds for a zoo to house some of that species, and increase its population. This would improve the zoo, and the area where the species happens to live will not waste tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to follow environmental regulations. Additionally, the democrats must choose between keeping ANWR desolate and claiming that the US must be independent of mid-east oil.
These few issues are really just details to show that the democrats must get their party back in order. The only way to restore the party is by doing what republicans have done: build a moral foundation, announce the philosophies that guide the party to its position on issues, and draw up attractive plans – based on the party philosophy – that offer logical solutions to the nation's problems.
posted by Chris at
5:55 PM
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