I guess you can probably put this diary under the heading of rant. I have been reading on here and hearing in the media endlessly since election day that this election's outcome was based solely on "moral values". First off, let's call a spade a spade and transform that to homophobia. There have always been many Americans uncomfortable with abortion and other right wing wedge issues, but the reason so many people of faith turned out this time for Bush was rampant fear of gay marriage. It seems as though one narrow loss has caused the conventional wisdom to become that the democrats "have a lot of thinking to do". We came very, very close to unseating a war president who used wedge issues and every form of fear and slander available in order to win.
Pundits on TV and a shocking amount of Dkos users seem to think that by becoming a watered down version of the religious right that we will somehow win more votes. First off, yes we do need to do some thinking about gay marriage. It is obviously a wedge issue that hurt us badly. Beyond that, though, I do not think for a minute that the democratic party needs to shift right in order to win. We need to stress our populist ideals about the economy, health care, and education. This election was not won or lost because of the christian right. The reason that we lost this election is FEAR, plain and simple. Fear of terrorism, fear of liberalism, fear of gays, fear of change. The thinking that the democratic party has to do must be framed in way that measures how to combat the fear machine of the right, while not losing our core values. Make no mistake, the battle for the heart of the democratic party will be fought over the next year, and we must not make the mistake of becoming republican cheerleaders again and hoping that makes people like us more that way. We need to aggressively attack language. So long as liberal is a dirty word, we have problems. We can do it, but giving in to the right by becoming a shadow of their party will mean that this election did give them a mandate. We barely lost this thing. Let's start acting like it.