This is my first attempt at a diary, so please be gentle.
Watching the Democrats flounder on health care reform has been a painful, frustrating process. In a nutshell, the Democrats need to grow a spine. It’s time to stand up for their base or they WILL lose big in the next election. Voters don’t respond well to wish-wash, flip-flop politics. If you believe in something, stand up tall and fight for it. Join me below the fold and see what lesson they may learn from Rep Alan Grayson.
Rep Alan Grayson is undoubtedly one of the most brash, outspoken members of Congress. His brazen floor speeches against the Republicans on health care reform have awarded him with instant name-recognition, hero-status among progressives, and repeated access to the talk-show circuit (where he can continue to challenge the Republicans at their own game.) He’s good at it, too, and it’s beginning to show.
Republicans like a politician who stands up for what he believes -- even if he believes the Republican Party is populated by a bunch of "knuckle-dragging Neanderthals."
The candidate leading the Florida GOP primary to determine who will take on Rep. Alan Grayson, the Democrat who represents the Orlando-based district, is none other than Grayson himself, according to a poll paid for by his campaign. Grayson is a freshman congressman who has drawn scorn from the GOP and has quickly built a nationwide following of progressives.
Democrats should turn the game around -- stop defending themselves against Republican smear tactics and learn how to attack effectively. It doesn’t hurt to defend the Constitution along the way.
In 2009, Grayson, who carries a copy of the Constitution with him, passed a resolution calling on schools to teach the document for one week in September each year.
Over half of the Republicans polled said that they were more likely to vote for Grayson because of the resolution. He has distributed tens of thousands of copies of the Constitution throughout the district, including one to each high school senior. This September, he said, he plans to go to high schools and teach the Constitution personally in the district.
My advice to the Democrats: Grow a spine. And quickly.