Where we go from here...

Hello everyone. I haven't posted anything in 10 days. After some time for reflection, I've learned 2 things. First, I learned that not writing for 10 days means this blog gets overloaded w/ red & purple postings. Second, I learned that a lot can happen in 10 days, indicating that the next 4 years will be a hell of a ride, even if it is downhill. In the last 10 days, half of the Bush cabinent resigned, w/ more departures still possible. Most notably, John Ashcroft & Colin Powell will be leaving. Powell will probably be doing some philanthropy to help out others while Ashcroft gets to do whatever jackasses from Missouri do in their spare time. I'll write about the changes in the Bush cabinet, including Bush's record for diversity in government, in another posting.

However, I came across something during my hiatus from blogging that I wanted to show for today. Slate put up a series titled "Why Americans Hate Democrats - A Dialogue" that was really interesting. Aside from a title that make "Red" people writhe in ecstasy, the actual articles displayed the ideological diversity of Dems, each of whom percieved the same election in unique ways. The articles were written by a wide range of contributors, including prominent Dems like Robert Reich, Bruce Reed, and Donna Brazile. Each contributor posed their own ideas about why the Dems lost the election & how to come back. Personally, I thought that Robert Reich ("Gotta Have Faith") and Bruce Reed ("The Fight for the Middle") had the best insights.

I liked how they were both Reich & Reed were Clinton Dems who knew how to craft good policy AND win elections. Both feel that the answer isn't becoming more conservative or fighting as dirty as conservatives. Rather, the answer lies in actually showing how the Democrats' ideas appeal to the voters' hearts, in addition to their minds. Specifially, the solution is to make already good policy seem better appealing to peoples' true values and faith, which is different than religion. Reich defines "values" as principles like social justice and respnsibility; and "faith" as the idea we can achieve a better scoiety by working together and realizing we all need each other. Reed says that until the Dems shows that it will stand up for those things w/ determination, middle class voters who live in a world of uncertainty won't vote for them. Otherwise, the candidate w/ a better "message" will always have the better chance of winning, even if he suffers from bad policy and poor job performance. That's the reason why many Bush voters were those who voted against their own self-interest. (Reed puts up this cool stat: Out of the 28 states w/ the lowest per capita income, 26 went for Bush, which is an amazing fact considering how much the Bush administration does to help out the wealthy & widen income inequality.) In any case, you should actually read the articles. They're well-written and say a lot more than what I can post up.

For those of you who want to read something w/ more entertainment value, read the article in the series written by Jane Smiley. She talks about how fostering ignorance is a useful tool in elections b/c it prevents people from thinking things through. Here's the link.