Well you vote for electability, and this is what you get. John F. Kerry, the
electable candidate for President. And how is he electable? Easy, he'll support the Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment! He'll send your kids to war! He'll whine about deficits, but offer a tax plan that doesn't even come close to fixing them!
It seems like no matter how much work you do, it doesn't really matter. In the end we keep getting stuck with these Democratic candidates who are fundamentally
ashamed of who they are. Democrats who spend the bulk of their time campaigning trying to point out how they're not
really Democrats. Why do we have to do this? Why must every "electable" Democrat take this apologetic attitude towards their own party? Why is it OK to be proud to be a conservative Republican, but not to be a liberal Democrat?
I'll tell you why. It's because liberal Democrats have absolutely no respect for their own ideology. We're conditioned to failure. Liberal Democrats apparently actually think that their ideology is either a) so unpopular or b) so frickin superior that the vast majority of the American people aren't ready for it. So we keep supporting these empty suits like John Kerry who promptly proceed to stab us in the back. To say "thanks for the votes" and then indulge in "bipartisanship" that basically amounts to ducking our battles, compromising our values, and ignoring the people who most need political protection.
If you make "electability" your first and only criterion for support then you simply invite this kind of blatant disregard for your beliefs. Electability just means you say and do whatever you think will get you in office, it means watching the polls and never making a chance. "Electability" is the criterion a party considers when it's lost hope in any chance of leadership.
And so our probable Democratic nominee would support a federal amendment banning gay marriage. In effect, the man is supporting a conservative Republican idea, simply to get himself into office. This is the essence of electability. It's a rejection of his party just as clear and divisive as anything Dean has said or done. But at least Dean's "divisive" moments have been rooted in real, passionate beliefs that he shares with most Democrats. I think it's absurd to think that the same could be said of Kerry's. In this election, the Democrats desperately need a leader. Instead, we're getting a spineless beauraucrat...