Let's stop shooting at the target fading into the distance

Craig Crawford is right.  George Bush can't run again, so let's stop talking about him and go after Republicans in general.  Presumably, we all know why the GOP is bad and why Democrats are good (or progressives are good, at any rate).  If that's true, why don't we stop trying to redo the 2000 and 2004 elections and set ourselves to winning the 2006 and 2008 elections?

At the risk of telling everybody something they already know, for us to win in both years we can't just hang around and wait for a historical wave to carry us into government so we can whine about how badly the other guys have done.  We have to convince people of two things:

1. Why they shouldn't vote for the other candidate
   
2. Why they should vote for our candidate

#1 ought to be easy.  2005 provided a wealth of ammunition to use against the Republicans.  We ought to be able to pick and choose our own subset of corruption and stupidity and incompetence to use.

#2 is more difficult.  Voters are going to want to know what we will do and they want to believe we can do it.  They're hiring us, as it were, to run the country so they don't have to.  They aren't hiring us to be their nannies, or to nag them about their health, or to help them save the world.  All they want is for government to run efficiently, with quiet pragmatism, and not get wrapped around the axle doing things it isn't any good at.

Voters will want to know, for example...

..that a FEMA run by Democrats will pay attention when a report on levee failure is sent to us.

..that a National Security apparatus run by Democrats will listen when someone tells us that a terrorist is determined to strike inside the US

..that a Medicare program run by Democrats will be able to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs

..that a Supreme Court appointed by Democrats will heavily favor individual rights over the "rights" of corporations

..that a Department of Energy run by Democrats will heavily fund the development of new, clean, and renewable energy sources to free us from our dependence on oil

..that government at every level run by Democrats will protect the privacy and security of its citizens

..that a Congress run by Democrats will shift tax incentives away from offshore outsourcing and towards developing our talent for creating something new that the world needs (and creating jobs for our citizens in the process).

The list goes on and on.  If we really want to govern, we have to step up to the plate and talk about what we will do and why it will be better than the same tired conservative balloon juice.

•  You haven't addressed election theft.

  without which none of this matters.

  by neroden on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 07:22:20 AM PDT

  •  good point. add more items...

    ..in an election run by Democrats, every eligible voter will be able to vote and every vote will be counted.

    ..in a government run by Democrats, districts will be drawn to make politicians work for the voters and not the other way around.

    by DemInTampa on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 07:40:38 AM PDT

  •  So much corruption... so little time!!

    I feel that the amount of corruption and unprecented total disregard for congress and the laws is specifically designed to have us running from place to place while the press covers the Aruba disappearance of a blond teenager.  

    The President nominates the Chairman of the FEC during a recess... along with many other key jobs. What does the press say about it? NOTHING!

    The regime ignore the laws, they ignore the the congress, they trample the Constitution, and proudly defend themselves on TV. Nobody seems to be asking the hard questions... They are now naming a new prosecutor for Abramoff, they try to hide the Katrina records, although everyone knows they f@@@up!  Where is the outrage? On Media Matters? or Daily Kos? So the charade goes on and on!  

    by GUGA on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 08:28:07 AM PDT

•  I'm tired of being told what to do.

  What makes you think we can't do all of the above and rail about Bush?

  by Cheez Whiz on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 07:25:23 AM PDT

  •  Because if we rail about Bush, it gets seen as

    "nyah, nyah" plus it makes us look like we're a bunch of sore losers who would rather argue with the ref over a call two games ago then get to work moving the ball over the goal line today.

    by DemInTampa on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 07:39:04 AM PDT

•  It worked with Clinton....

  The republicans vilified Clinton, and still use him as red meat to shore up their base. Whenever I speak badly about the administration my Repug. friends bring Clinton's "crimes" up! They still do it all the time, less and less now, until Hillary runs for President.  Let us keep bringing up the Bush failures and lies, and we will keep the base energized, and we will get more people to the polls. A "right wing" democrat is not bringing me in... I will change my registration to independent if the party does not filibuster Alito. THAT IS A PROMISE!

  by GUGA on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 08:19:05 AM PDT

  •  I am not convinced that it did work with

    President Clinton.  If I am not mistaken, he had a very high approval rating even on the very day that he was impeached.  It only helped the 23-27% of hard-core "I hate Bill Clinton" people but it did NOT convince any of the rest of the country that Pres. Clinton was doing a bad job as president.  I believe that GWB is doing a VERY BAD JOB as president and I do not need anybody to rail against him to convince me of that fact.  When we beat a dead horse and, GWB is a very dead horse, we waste our ammunition that can be effectively used against those who are trying to convince the sheeple that Repugs are more effective against terrorists.  Republicans have never been effective against anybody except the middle class, the poor, the old, and those who need government the most.  The Republicans have destroyed this country fiscally and has diminished our position as a world leader.  GWB is a puppet who will be lifeless except to continue to pull money into his pockets after he is out of office.  We Democrats need to paint the picture that it is the whole Republican party who has done the bad things because those bad things enrich their cronies and we are tired of this Culture of Corruption!

    by macmcd on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 09:18:42 AM PDT

    •  They used Clinton to mobilize their base

      I am aware that Clinton continued to be popular with the American people, but the republican wign nuts flocked to the polls to vote for someone to restore "moral values" to our country. We are not as good at it, but we should use Bush as the whipping boy! It worked for them!Even Gore was somehow guilty of Clinton's sins..

      by GUGA on Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 07:02:51 AM PDT

      •  With the rampant robbery of votes and

        voting machines, I am not convinced that Bush even came close to beating either Al Gore or John Kerry.  There is no telling how small their base actually is.  It is my opinion that it did Gore great damage to hide from President Clinton during Gore's campaign.  Clinton/Gore have a magnificent record of governance and Gore should have been proud of it.  I think Gore would have had an even larger majority if he had had the character to stand tall for the record and to call the impeachment what it was.  It was a Republican ploy trying to make a personal sin into an impeachable crime.  It was just another way of trying to destroy the Constitution and Gore did NOT call them out on it.  That is a deep hole for Gore to dig out of although he is doing an admirable job of it finally.

        by macmcd on Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 07:33:00 AM PDT

•  Bush is the Albatross

  We hang around the Republican party's necks.  He is their man.  He is their man for 3 more years.  Doesn't matter if he's not running for election again.  He has led this nation into catastrophe and chaos, against loud and clear voices of reasonable dissent.  Furthermore, it's readily arguable that he's not actually the one making the major decisions, and our goal should be to demonstrate that and reveal the real decisionmakers -- the fucking "think tanks" run by assholes like Grover Norquist who are actually formulating policy for this imbecile.

  We have this guy for three more years.  Keeping him impotent and lame-ducked is and should be our number one goal.  Just because he can't be elected again doesn't mean he can't do anything else, and he needs popular support to do his job.

  Finally, we have three more years to make his administration and all of the shills, hypocrites, and lying bastards who are not elected pay for their very real and very illegal activities as members of his administration.  This isn't a tactical fight -- it's a fight for the soul of our country.  We have to make it plain that we as a nation will not tolerate the abuse of executive power.  If Republican shills want to paint this as "sore loser" syndrome I suggest we rope 'em into the same corral as he is and ask them to defend what he's been doing.  We should have no fear of having this argument out in the open.  The American people are clearly with us.  The Constitution is clearly with us.  We are a democracy and that means the people own the government.  Time to assert ourselves on that score and act like the owners of our government.

  by slippytoad on Sun Jan 29, 2006 at 08:41:55 AM PDT