Back to the drawing board
A lot of Democratic soul-searching is going on right now. Where did the Democrats go wrong?
There will be a lot of focus on policy, "values," message and the like.
There needs to be more focus on attitude and strategy, however.
Probable election fraud on the Republicans' part aside, in November George W. Bush "won" the popular vote with 50.7 percent to John Kerry's 48.3 percent of the popular vote.
To the same degree that Republicans mistakenly construe 50.7 percent as some sort of fucking mandate -- 50.7 percent is no fucking landslide -- Democrats mistakenly construe 48.3 percent as some sort of crushing defeat. 48.3 percent is no crushing defeat. It's a loss by a hair.
The fact is that the nation is split almost evenly down the middle, and Bush and the Republican-dominated Congress are much weaker than their post-election bravado would lead most Americans to think.
An Associated Press poll of just over 1,000 people taken earlier this month shows that Bush has an approval rating of only 49 percent -- "as low as any job approval rating for a re-elected president at the start of the second term in more than 50 years."
The AP reports that "About four in 10, 41 percent, approve of the job Congress is doing, while 53 percent disapprove."
Not exactly an auspicious beginning for Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress.
And what is going to happen in the next four years that's going to improve those approval ratings?
Iraq most likely is going to remain an absolute mess for years to come. Turns out trying to shove American-style democracy down Iraqis' throats was a baaaaad idea. Only Dick Cheney's Halliburton and other war-profiteering subsidiaries of BushCheneyCorp have benefitted at all from the Bush regime's illegal, immoral, imperialistic and unprovoked invasion and occupation of Iraq.
The U.S. economy is unlikely to return to pre-George W. Bush levels any year soon.
There is nothing on the horizon that is going to improve Americans' image of the Republican Party.
The key to recent Republican wins, aside from vote-fixing -- which includes Republican secretaries of state doing all they can to deliver their states to the Republican candidate, having Republican Party-supporting corporations manufacture and maintain electronic voting machines for which there is zero accountability, and doing everything in their power to keep black people from voting a la the Jim Crow days -- is the Republicans' bluster.
Although the Republicans are wrong on virtually every issue, although they are fueled by ignorance, fear, hatred, lying, greed, violence, militarism, racism, homophobia, patriarchy, pseudo-patriotism, a toxic and virulent form of "Christianity," etc., they sure put on a confident public display.
While the Democrats are right on virtually every issue, although they are fueled by intelligence and thoughtfulness, courage, love and concern, truth, generosity and socioeconomic justice, pacifism, inclusiveness, true patriotism and true Christian values (that is, values that are actually based in the teachings of Jesus Christ that anyone can read in the New Testament but that no one bothers to do), Democrats are tentative and timid.
Here's just one example:
Although they indisputably lost the popular vote by more than half a million in 2000, the Republicans viciously fought for Florida's electoral votes to put Bush in the White House. If they had any doubt about the "righteousness" of their "cause," they didn't show it publicly. Although he won the election, Al Gore barely put up a fight.
Although there are numerous indications of widespread election fraud committed by Republicans in Ohio in 2004, the Democrats, in challenging the Ohio election results, have repeated, over and over again, that they don't wish to overturn the election results. Even California Sen. Barbara Boxer and Ohio Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, in their courageous objection to the certification of Ohio's election results this past week, emphasized that they didn't wish to overturn the election results.
Well, if Bush did not win Ohio -- and I do not believe that he fairly won Ohio -- why not overturn the election results? What the fuck is so wrong with playing by the rules of the game?
The Democrats have been so petrified of offending public opinion, afraid of looking like sore losers.
The Republicans sure weren't worried about looking like sore losers in Florida 2000 -- in fact, although they were the sore losers, they accused the Democrats of being sore losers -- so why the fuck are the Democrats so paranoid about looking like sore losers in Ohio 2004?
It is against Democrats' and progressives' nature to be as aggressive as the Republicans are. So time and time again, the Republicans scream, yell, threaten and tantrum, and the Democrats give in.
It's time for that shit to stop. If your cause is right and you defend your cause, that's not aggression -- that's assertiveness.
It's time for us Democrats and progressives to be assertive, to match the Republicans' aggression with our assertiveness. Most of the time, like a schoolyard bully, when you throw their shit right back at them, the Republicans back down, because, like the schoolyard bully, they can't believe that you actually fought back.
The Democrats' comeback will depend upon leadership that will foster this new attitude of not bending over and taking it up the ass, and the current Democratic "leadership" is not the leadership to do this.
Although the Democrats suffered defeats in 2000, 2002 and 2004, we still have Democratic "leaders" insisting that being centrist, milquetoast pussies who don't want to offend anyone is the way to go.
Memo to the Democratic National Committee and to the Democratic "Leadership" Council: No one respects and admires a pussy.
Even though he is destroying the United States and indeed has put the entire world in danger, George W. Bush is oft-praised as decisive. It is stunning to me that so many Americans value decisiveness, even if one is decisively leading the entire nation into a brick wall. However, if decisiveness comes first and whether or not one's decisive course of action is wise comes second, we Democrats and progressives can still be decisive.
And we need to disabuse ourselves of the notion that holding our ground, like the Republicans do, is some sort of sin.
John Kerry probably thought that conceding Ohio to Bush so quickly made him look like the bigger man and thus gave him political brownie points.
Did it?
Bush voters certainly didn't think better of Kerry for having conceded so quickly, and many, if not most, Kerry voters were pissed off that the candidate representing their interests conceded so quickly.
So what exactly did Kerry accomplish by folding so quickly?
Fact is, no one likes a wimp. Gore and Kerry might have thought they looked like the bigger men by allowing crybaby Bush and his crybaby supporters to have their way, but the days when being the bigger man mattered to most Americans are long gone. All that Gore and Kerry have accomplished by caving in to Bush and his vicious supporters is allowing the BushCheneyCorp to systematically roll back that which took decades to achieve -- civil rights, labor rights, voting rights, environmental protection, a good global reputation, etc. -- and will take years to recover.
So step one in the recovery of the Democratic Party is to purge the party of those ineffectual idiots who would have us believe that the way to strengthen the party is to continue to do what has only weakened the party, such as kissing Republican ass. Those Democratic Party "leaders" and consultants who haven't delivered results -- who haven't won us elections -- need to be replaced sooner rather than later. Those Democratic Party "leaders" and consultants who suggest that the way to strengthen the Democratic Party is to kiss Republican/redneck/red-state ass should be immediately shot, in my book, but since that is illegal, we should remove them from power.
You don't see anyone in the Republican Party suggesting that the Republican Party kiss Democratic ass, so why the fuck should any Democrat suggest Republican ass-kissing?
If we want to come back, we need to be like the Republicans in our resolve and assertiveness.
Strong and right will beat strong and wrong.
Rebuilding the Democratic Party starts with changing its leadership and changing its approach. Visit standupdemocrats.org and drafthoward.com. While you're at it, tell the chickenshits at the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic "Leadership" Council how fed up you are with their chickenshit, Republican-ass-kissing "leadership" that sells us out and allows the Republicans to continue to destroy our nation.
3:23:21 PM 
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