What will happen to the Democratic Party?

[theim]

This election was a huge clash of ideologies. It was like a movie. The hatred of many Democrats had literally hijacked the entire Party. Should they have won, that type of vile rhetoric and hate-speach from the likes of Micheal Moore and Harold Ickes and Co. would have become the norm in American politics for decades to come. They would have all been vindicated.

But thankfully they lost. Now what will happen to the Party as we know it? What will come of Terry McAuliffe, the man who presided over the Democrats disaster in 2002 and now in 2004. I don't think he will be around much longer. Americans don't want as much bile from the main party leader.

I think that entire Party has some serious introspection to do during the next four years.

 

[freeandfun1]

I think this election proves two things.

1) Americans are sick of the hatred coming out of the left and therefore, the democratic party

2) Americans REJECT the notion of super-rick folks like Kerry, Soros, etc. telling us that the so-so rich make too much money while they use their $$ to try and take over the country.

 

[Zhukov]

Let us hope they take this as an indication that most people are tired of their vitriolic rhetoric, that perhaps it would be better if they provided realistic and sensible alternatives to Republican policies rather than just complaining.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

The pendulem is now swinging to the Right.

 

[Jimmyeatworld]

The main thing I would suggest to the Democratic Party is to rid themselves of Terry McCauliffe. He is a cancer on their party. Other than that, where they go from here depends on who will take the lead. If the hateful, conspiracy driven people strengthen their stranglehold on the Democratic Party, they are doomed. It's odd, but that entire party could learn a valuable lessen from one of it's youngest and most inexperienced members, that being Obama Barack. And it's a simple message.

Have a platform. Have direction. Stick to it. Use common sense.

If all a party can offer is "We don't like the other guy", that apparently isn't enough to carry that party to much of anything.

 

[fuzzykitten99]

What will happen to the Democratic party?

first...que the mission: impossible theme...
then we will hear a electronic voice say "The Democrats will self-destruct in 3 seconds..."

 

[Kentucky]

I think their initial reaction will to be even more hateful by (1) condeming the American electorate for being so stupid as to vote for Bush and (2) believing the election was stolen again by ballot manipulation.

Hillary, recognizing that this is a losing strategy for her will convince the party automata to put on a centrist face and hide their anger & leftist tendencies. Central to this strategy will be to try to sell the idea that the Republicans are really the extremists here.

In other words, they will conclude from this election that they need to get better at hiding their liberal ideology even as they continue to veer more to the left.

The problem with this strategy is that it requires stong support from the MSM in order to pull off the disguise. However, the MSM is likely to lose significant clout over the next four years as the internet and FOX continue to advance.

What they SHOULD do is re-evaluate their positions and adopt a platform that more comports with the attitudes of the electorate. I think this is the least likely outcome, though.

 

[Democrat4Bush]

Off the top of my head.

1. Fire Terry McAuliffe.
2. Drop the far left from the mailing list.
3. Get a candidate that appeals to moderates.
4. For God's sake don't have Al Sharpton supporting you.
5. Stop proclaiming to be the party of the minorities and start becoming the party of the american working person again.

I think in a effort to beat GWB the DNC embraced the Moore and Dean crowd in hopes of beating their numbers from 2000, but in reality it had an adverse affect, it drove moderate dems like myself to the right, and brought more of GWB's base out to vote.

Now the DNC has a big identity problem.

 

[Kentucky]

I agree that McCauliff SHOULD go but don't think he actually will. I assume that the Clintons are running the DNC & Terry is the biggest ally that Hillary has. I think that she will keep him so that she can completely control the primary.

Just my $0.02

 

[Bonnie]

Im hearing the Democrats say things that prove they don't get it!
Their use of the term "Simple" when referring to Bush and his supporters shows the obsession they have with intellectual elitism, which includes Sorros, Moore, Hollywood, and the media.
Also they don't seem to be able to reconcile the notion that most of the country is still founded in moral based beliefs that don't translate into Right Wing Fanatics, but rather mainstream America. As long as they insist on alieanating the majority and impuning them in this way the Dems are finished.
Lastly they as a party need to come up with positive things for people to vote for not just to vote against the Republicans, and that doesn't mean Socialism, Gay Marriage, Abortion for any reason, blaming America for everything that is wrong with the world, and showing no guts when it comes to defending our country against harm.

The DNC has no soul!!!!!!!!!

 

[Flying Duck]

They need to rename liberalism again, progressive didn't work. :chains:

 

[NATO AIR]

How To Fix The Democratic Party

- Fire Terry
- Stow Away Hilary
- Promote Salazar, Obama, Feingold as your new Democratic generation in the Senate, Ford Jr. & several other young, centrist Dems as your high profile, centrist Reps.
- Raise the profile of your successful governors like Mark Warner of VA, the female (her name escapes me) in Michigan & others.
- Start developing new strategies to develop a more publically moral Democratic party, including building stronger ties with churches and social groups. Promote greater human rights, religious rights, and the improvement of famiiles not just in the US, but around the world. Find common ground with Republicans and conservatives who care about their causes more than their political idealogy.
- Instead of fighting for abortion rights on the left, talk about improving and reforming the nation's healthcare, adoption and education systems. Message- Educate our kids, teach our kids the right thing, take care of our kids and give women who have an unwanted pregnancy another BETTER option aside from abortion.
- Focus on reformist environmental issues, in essence, helping to clean up polluted cities, towns and natural areas. Stop scaring folks by putting a higher priority on the spotted owl than a human being.
- Support Pres. Bush on terrorism, but emphasize fiscal responsibility and military/intelligence/law enforcement innovation. Hold the Pentagon and the contractors feet to the fire to make sure Americans get the max out of their taxpayer dollars.
- Steal tort reform from the Republicans by tasking high profile trial lawyers like John Edwards to fix the broken system. Those who think this is impossible or crazy should take note of numerous occurances in 20th century history where broken industries and systems were fixed by the very crooks (joseph kennedy for example with the SEC) who used to exploit them.
- Promote broad, innovative immigration reform that is fair to Americans and those who want to live in America.

- Hope to God Obama is good at his senate job and Mark Warner and other governors continue to do well.

 

[remie]

They need to figure out what they stand for, not spewing their hatred for the Republican party. It took the conservatives a long time to build their base and last nights election proved that base is solidified.

BTW I wouldnt bet on McCauliff going away. He is Hillarys main man.

 

[Trigg]

I think the vote shows that people are getting sick of the democrates and BIG government.

Anytime the gov. gets involved in something and throws money around things get worse. Bush is right to scale back some of the social programs and I would love to see affermative action done away with all together.

Thank goodness Kerry conceded unlike Gore who whined about loosing.

 

[Flying Duck]

IMO, the Democratic party really has no core principles. Their approach is to gain votes by promising to tax someone else (the "rich") and dole out social welfare programs. Not to mention hatred.

The exit polls reveal that a large factor in voting for Bush was principles and character. Kerry had neither.

 

[Kentucky]

They need to figure out what they stand for, not spewing their hatred for the Republican party. It took the conservatives a long time to build their base and last nights election proved that base is solidified.

BTW I wouldnt bet on McCauliff going away. He is Hillarys main man.

The 1992 election was devastating for Republicans --
In the wake of that election, they controlled no branch of the Fed. Govt., had a minority of governorships, controlled a minority of state houses. The American people viewed them very negatively and the Democrats had marginalized them.

The Republican Party responded by doing what Remie suggests. Re-examined their principles, reformulated platforms that were consistent with those principles and which related to the electorate's mainstream, and developed an implementation plan for the whole thing. They called it the "Contract with America."

The Dems made fun of that at first but the Republicans followed through in an honest re-formulation of the party and its principal players. The re-taking of the House in 1994 bore out the wisdom of this approach. While the details of the contract itself are no longer at issue, the success of the party continues to be a result of this restructuring effort.

The Dems now need to do something similar; make a sincere attempt to re-orient themselves to the majority of the body politic. If they do anything less, they risk marginalizing themselves even more. And any such effort must be an honest one, bloggers, FOX, talk radio, etc. will "out" deceptions from here on.

I hope that they can do this. Our country faces some tough issues in the coming years and we need to have honest examination of both sides of each issue.

I am pessimistic that this will happen, however. I think that the Dems are most likely to become, if anything, even more extreme and, rather than become more honest, they will try harder to conceal their extreme positions. I fear they will get worse before they get better.

Key tests of this hypothesis are, in my opinion:

1. Does Terry McAullife stay?

2. Does Nancy Pelosi stay?

3. Do the Dems' new Senate minority leader maintain the judicial fillibusters?

If the answer to any of these is 'Yes', that will be a bad sign.

 

[Zhukov]

Can anyone even imagine, if the roles were reversed, a left-wing board with an honest discussion about what the opposition party should do to increase it's popularity?

Somehow I just can't fathom it.

 

[JIHADTHIS]

If you look at some of the left wing boards, they have gone off the deep end. NO self reflection, they swear all of their votes were stolen by the "evil" Karl Rove. They find it hard to believe that all of us dumb "right wingers" stole the election from them.

They seem to be living in a parallel universe. Unless they can learn to RESPECT the opposing view point, and stop trying to tell everyone that they are smarter then us, nothing will change.

The true dems need to take back their party from the loony leftwing moonbats.

 

[ScreamingEagle]

Our basic analysis of Dems: Get a life.


Or not. :cof:

 

[Mr. P]

" What will happen to the Democratic Party?"

What party? All I've seen for years is a mob. So my answer is, They need to start over and form one.