Reply #38: Think about it another way [View All]

Kerry got 59 million votes, 6 1/2 million more than in 2000. (Without the election hijinks, maybe more.) He lost to an incumbent President by about 3 million votes or so. (again, without election discrepencies factored in.)

Kerry was a bonafide liberal. (Check the dam voting record, check the ADA ratings. He has a higher lifetime ADA rating than Ted Kennedy.) The Rethugs threw every trick, every lie and every weaselly piece of misdirection they could at a campaign that had deep problems responding. The national media has been realigned in a conservative direction and the Rethugs have an entrenched system that skewed coverage right. And the Dems came within 3 million votes of unseating an incumbent President in a time of war after an attack on American soil. (Something that hadn't happened in 60 years.)

The Democratic Party is not on the verge of bankruptcy for the first time in a long while. Dems got over $1 billion dollars in contributions in the last election cycle. Process that for a minute. Democrats, the perennially poor sister got over $1 bil in contributions. And so much of it came from We The People, not the corporations. The Democrats, for the first time in so long are looking inward and generally assessing what the hell we can do to get more votes. And Democrats are looking at the grassroots and real change that invites you and me into the national conversation. (This must be vigorously encouraged, it can be done.)

We cannot sit around and mourn what might be lost. We have to take advantage of these stunning changes in Democratic structure and believe that they will pay off. (They didn't this time mostly because of Southern solidification in the RW column.) I believe they will pay off in the next election cycle. This is positive stuff and reason to believe that we are going to win. And you don't win by being wishy-washy. You win by presenting real issues and connecting them to the lives of ordinary voters. Montana shows the way. We don't have to jetison our core beliefs, we have to celebrate them.