just some thoughts....& not a blame game....

Fear of the black man for his presumed sexual prowess and alleged promiscuity.

Fear of gay men for their alleged promiscuity.

And, why not fear of "liberals" for their desire to take away our favorite penis substitutes: guns, large automobiles.

Fear of the French for their alleged effeminacy, (and presumed sexual prowess). What's worse than limp wristed men who are attractive to our women ?

Fear of women who seek abortions, for they must also be promiscuous, and a demand that they pay the price for their sexual activity: denial of the right to control their bodies.

This is the difference between the two groups in the US. One body of people thinks that they have every right to impose their prejudices on those they fear. The other wants to eliminate those fears altogether.

We're screwed. It took a civil war to eliminate slavery, and a near civil war to begin the process of giving civil rights to all Americans. Lyndon Johnson, was wrong. It wasn't the South he lost for two generations, it is the would be theocrats he lost for who knows how long.

Note, I don't for a moment think that a majority of Americans necessarily think this way, but I do think that this is at the core of today's conservatism.

-B

fuck that. Its between God and me an my actions.

To quote CS Lewis, "a whore maybe much closer to God than a churchgoing miser with a black heart".

these enlightened southerners would still believe that the earth is the center of the universe, the world is flat, that evolution is a myth...

how do we argue at all?

I would never even attempt to run for office here unless I could talk about my values in a way that resonates with that huge red state sea running up from the south, through the midwest, and the out to the west.

But we democrats seem to have put up a lot of candidates just like me- unable to talk about faith and values.

This evening I listened to Nanci Pelosi on NPR.  She tried to talk about how democrats need to talk more about morals and values- but she could hardly get it out, she stumbled around so much.  And then she said "GOP does not spell GOD!"  I winced.  She so obviously had no idea how to talk about this.  And until we figure out how to do that, I fear we'll never make headway into the red states and it will be a long time before we win again.

They've been convinced that we will take their guns, that quotas will apply, and that government regulation will end rural (resource based) jobs and all the rest.

They need to know that a healthy environment provides more jobs.  That education for all is just that, that we don't give a shit about hunting rifles.  And we need to communicate this.  

Kerry went directly after Bush on that as well as the Iraq war.  I think he was right to do so.  And let's keep hitting Bush on the economy - it worked in heavily Catholic states in the midwest, after all.  We are right on the big issues that really matter.  Now, what we have to do is talk about them so that our framing of them dominates the debate.  We need to win the security issue.  It's not going away for 2006.  Get us a tough leader with serious security/foreign policy credibility for the Senate.  I'd love if Kerry were made minority leader, in fact.  Perhaps this is politically impossible, I just personally like the idea, I think it would be a real show of confidence from our party and in any case, I think it's terribly important that we don't eat our own after this defeat, as we've done in the past.  We've got to stay unified, and be strong - let the GOP have bloody infighting over their own divisive issues, economically and socially.  (Stem cells, budget deficits, smaller government - New Hampshire went blue, after all.)

We don't have to take abortion off the table by ceding it - we take it off by talking about it differently (when forced to talk about it at all! don't try to make it an issue) so that it can't be used as a hot-button issue to drive a wedge through part of what should be our base.  For God's sake, when Bush tries to nominate a looney right-wing judge to the Supreme Court, let's make absolutely sure we block him on a different pretext than the abortion rights issue.  I don't want to hear about it any longer.  I don't think the GOP is really committed to overturning Roe v Wade anyhow, they just want to keep screwing us over with it.

Gay marriage may well be off the table, if enough states have passed their respective laws about it.  Let's keep it that way.

I also really want the progressive Catholics to get their act together & join with other people of faith on the left to stand up for social justice and AGAINST this mess of a war.  We need you.

The tail of fear is wagging the dog.  When we have a president using end time propaganda, the fearful trumpet morality and look for sinners in every nook and cranny.

As Joe McCarthy and Rove has shown us, timing is everything.

Why do they hate Jesus? Is it because he is a Jew? <===said with sarcasm, in a reference to how "they" operate.

End of meme.

But there's no question that life is simply better in Canada and (much of) Europe.  I don't look forward to being permanently surrounded here with frantic, bitter, underpaid, double-income families with vanishing benefits, treatable ailments, semi-abandoned kids and hopeless dreams.  

"Values" is code for certainty of being right, and excluding and judging those who are not on your side. That's why it's impossible for Bush to reach across party lines - his entire premise of power is not to attack the argument, but to villify the person who is against him.

The conservative electorate treats their republicanism the same way they treat getting into heaven. It's the very rightness of being right that is important. We can't beat them at this - any value we put out there will still be wrong because it's not theirs. This is the certainty republicans offer those who vote against their economic interests.

The solution: let this dynamic play out until ruin visits America (which it will), and then be ready to pick up the pieces. They have to figure this out for themselves.

i heard something on npr about how democrats fail to engage republicans on faith-based issues. we know these issues are killing us and yet we act as though we don't need to pay attention to them. and yet they are almost everything to the evangelicals. this is clearly an area where we need to set aside our pride and take it to their own turf. we need a dialogue with them about what is and isn't acceptable. we need to bring the facts to the table, but also our faith.

another reason we lost - democrats voted primarily because they hated bush. republicans voted because they loved bush. they viewed him as an instrument of god. science is vitally important to the democratic party but it can't save us alone. we need some kind of fire other than the fire of hate, no matter how much we feel that hate has been warranted.

pretty soon, it's going to be time to stop bitching about how they cheated or how they're fundamentalist idiots, and we're going to have to think about what we do wrong. so let's get all our anger out, take a little time to enjoy the things we fight for, regroup, and get ready to seriously kick some ass.

This is the real issue today. We have to face up to the fact that Democrats are not reaching that vast majority of people in the country who are fundamentally conservative in their social outlook. The rate of attrition for Democrats is growing this year.

The GOP stole the language of religion and used it to their advantage. Bush was very sophisticated in his appeals to fundamentalists, using coded phrases in his stump speeches to paint himself as annointed by God to lead.

We need to reclaim the language of faith and use it to our advantage. Lincoln was never afraid to quote scripture within intelligent debate. We ought to look to the Bible to provide us with new soundbites and new phrasings, and reach out to the great Christian conservative majority while never giving up on our principles.

My point is simply that we can take hold of the language of religion and use it sincerely to back up our values while still maintaining a stanch separation of church and state. We can do this while still preserving our own values, such as support for gay rights and choice.

We absolutely must reach out to fundamentalist Christians by learning to speak their language. I realize how repugnant that idea is to many Democrats, but it is that dogged resistance to the stark reality of the country that has made us lose . . . again.

We need to find Democratic leaders who have the courage to begin talking in religious terms, and are not afraid to openly claim that they believe in God. They need to start using the language of faith in their speeches.

Until Democrats begin to appreciate just how powerful religion is to poor and uneducated in this country, we will keep losing. We will never win them over on purely economic arguments or appeals to social justice, as religion (their passion) trumps everything else.

Personally, I'm happy to leave "marriage" to the churches and have the state confer civil unions and appropriate to any couples who want them.

I've started calling the state and federal amendments that would ban same-sex relationships "anti-marriage amendments."

How many times do you hear people complaining about judges who "legislate from the bench"?   WTF does that mean?  It means, "court rulings we don't like," but they've framed it as "courts abusing power to thwart the will of the people."  Genius.  

We should not speak their language nor should we all run after the soccer ball every time they throw out a smokescreen of outrage over a minor issue (hello, Mary Cheney).  Dozens of diarists trying to "debunk" a right-wing talking point are totally oblivious to the fact that by repeating it they're doing the GOP's work for them.  There's no debunking many of their talking points - there's only talking back, and talking better, or dismissing them with humor if we can.  I heard someone say on the cable news, "the only wolf we have to fear is Wolfowitz!"  More of that, please!

I liked Kerry saying he's got our backs.  I sincerely think Kerry built up a great deal of trust with the Democratic base.  That's important.  Trust is a value; honor is a value.  Running shrill, negative attack-based campaigns is dishonorable to the extreme.  Respect is a value.  Clinton was right on target when he said Kerry has treated the voters with the utmost respect.  Kerry attacked Bush on a lot of issues, but it never got personal, and he rose above the personal attacks they used on him.  I really, really don't like that we lost, but I think we lost honorably, and I don't think we could have won ugly, not with the electorate as it is.  

I know people are sad and angry, but I don't want us to turn as shrill and hateful as some of our opposition is and will remain.  Bush is wrong on so many things and his policies so disastrous, we've got to focus on that, and leave the mockery and insults out of it.  (I'd love to see him go down in flames amid massive scandals, but I'll leave that to Fitzgerald and other federal investigators.)

abortion is another matter. ignoring the extremists on their side, the right starts from the higher moral ground. also they have the advantage of being in the advocate position (since roe v. wade is supposedly settled). the left ought to be advocating for some form of prenatal rights as well. if we don't the country may seesaw to an extreme right position on the issue. oh and by the way, 70% of the public would be on our side, not with the "life at conception -all abortion is murder - woman's health doesn't matter" crowd.

Ah, but there's the rub.  Bush didn't run on policies of any kind.  Quick, what did he say he was going to do in his second term?

I think this was a post-policy election.  Bush won not because of what he wanted to do, but because (to many more people) he's the kind of guy who would do the right thing.  You can't beat that with promises and policies.  Kerry tried.  He won the debates.  Bush muddled through.  It didn't matter.

Because the party doesn't stand for anything, Tom Daschle was a limp dick of a Senate leader, and W. had his way for far too long before anyone even attempted to put a leash on him.

Because the party doesn't stand for anything, the only democrats to be elected since 1968 have been southern governors.

Because the party doesn't stand for anything, it abandons issues (like guns) for political expedience.

Now, more than ever, I'm seriously considering becoming a Green. It may be a long time before they win any substantial elections, but at least they stand for something. I'm tired of living and dying with the John Kerry's of the world.