The 2014 Democrats, by and large, took the whole Mitt Romney 2012 playbook, stuck it on a copy machine, and ran it to it's exact same conclusion: defeat.
(Granted, when I say "we" I don't necessarily mean individual Democrats, field organizers, volunteers, etc. It is largely directed towards the top levels who make the strategic decisions and coordinate the national efforts. But regardless of who the captain is, we are all on the same ship.)
-We ran from our biggest policy success. Romney ran from his rather successful stint as Governor, mainly due to health care and the fact that it was as leader of a deep blue state. Democrats ran from Obamacare in red states even though it has been nothing but successful.
-We tried to excite the base while pandering to the middle, and in the end got neither. Romney: "Severely conservative." Alison Grimes may or may not have voted for Obama.
-We failed to impress our vision on voters, and let the other side define us. The Obama team was highly successful in painting Romney as an out-of-touch corporate-raiding flip-flopper, who was in it to be in charge and nothing more. The Republicans made us look foolish for failing to give a full-throated defense of the last 6 years of economic growth, health care reform, deficit reduction, foreign policy successes, and so on.
We Romneyed ourselves. Frankly, this loss MUST be a teachable moment, and we can regroup for 2016.
We MUST be proud of our Democratic Party and what it can, and will, accomplish.
We MUST NOT play into the hands of the right-wing by shying away from our beliefs.
We MUST get some new faces at the top of the Democratic organizations. 2010 was a disaster, 2012 was a near miss mainly thanks to Republican political suicide, 2014 was a disaster. With all of the red senators in blue states in 2016, we CANNOT afford to have more of the same and squander the opportunity to get big wins.
Voting is, for most, an emotional decision. Republicans know this, and use mainly negative emotions like fear to turn out their vote. People won't get motivated to vote unless they are emotionally invested in our cause. We need to stop listening to polls and start listening to America.