I've never posted a diary before, but I feel pretty strongly about what I have just read. So strongly, I posted on my own blog about it, posted at MyDD about it, and am now cross-posting here.
Jimmy Carter has summed it up better than anyone out there right now.
He enumerates the values that today's dems should return to (from which they never ever should have strayed!). These values, I think, make the platform for the "Realignment" folks have been talking so much about, which I want dearly to see happen.
(List and Poll follow.......)
A commitment to international peace and justice,
A world leader in treaties and agreements which foster peace,
Continuing expansion of civil rights and liberties here at home, as a model for the world,
Stewardship of the environment,
Government's role in lifting up the poor and holding the rich accountable to the society that allows the accumulation of massive amounts of wealth,
The separation of church and state, while church provides guidance and personal insight and peace for so many, church and state must never intertwine.
I suspect that the dems felt, after watching the defection of parts of the dem base in the Reagan era, that they had to become "pro-business' and DLC and all that junk. But that imaginary center is garbage. America is great because of what liberals have brought to it. We must reinforce that, just as the fictional "Santos" did so forcefully on the West Wing "live debate."
As a loyal liberal, a loyal dem voter (except in a 5th grade election when I voted for John Anderson cause my parents told me to!), and an eager volunteer/phone-banker who is waiting for candidates who stir my passions (FEINGOLD 08!), I am craving candidates who will articulate this.
Being anti-Bush is not enough. We need to Restore the American Image - we need to make being American something to be proud of again. My sister and her family are living in Paris right now and note that people always ask them, "Oh, you're American, did you vote for Bush?" and they have to disavow any republican leaning before the French will be friendly to them.
Our image is trashed, within the USA and outside. We must restore our confidence in ourselves, and the world's confidence in us. Lets present that vision in 2006, and solidify the dems as the party of true American Values in 2008 with a candidate like Feingold who can truly say he embraces all of the above.