The Democrats have got to regroup and coalesce NOW.

[Julien Sorel]

Organization. Planning. Confidence. Resistance.

There is no time for wound licking or finger pointing. Bush is going to try to use the next few months, when the party is rudderless, to gear up and jam his collection of bullshit down the country's throat.

We started a great thing this year. People united around the objective of defeating Bush. We came up 3% short of that goal. and that was against an incumbent during a "war," when the unemployment rate was at about its historical average.

We need to maintain that passion and energy. We can still defeat Bush and Bushism -- perhaps not directly, through the ballot box, but indirectly, through organization, planning, resistance. If we wait a month, that's a month we won't get back.

This isn't about the 2006 elections. This is about Bush, trying to claim a mandate that is repugnant to people here, and many people across the country. If people here give in to anger and finger pointing, Bush will seize the moment and we will be further set back.

You want change? Start now. Remind the Democrats we are still out here, and we demand they represent us aggressively. Remind the media that a majority of the country still believes it is on the wrong track, whatever the vote was. Hold people accountable -- starting with yourselves.

[Trahurn]

1. This Was Supposed To Have Already Happened

You remember in election 2000? The mantra was "Never again". We were to have supposed to reorganized and re-planned out entire party. We were supposed to have the most sophisticated GOTV mechanism possible in place for election 2004. Now you are saying we need to regroup and reorganize?? Like I said we were supposed to have been so motivated by the very ugly and smug sight of Bush winning election 2000 to have vowed to never let it happen again. It did!! and you're saying we need to regroup? You need professional help.

[Julien Sorel]

3. The GOTV mechanism was fine.

We lost on issues and circumstances. The unemployment rate was 5.4% or thereabouts. No president in history has lost with an unemployment rate that low. No president in history has even come close to losing with an unemployment rate like that.

Bush did.


I never expected the election to be this close. I expected Bush to get about 54-55% of the popular vote. The economics-based forecast models all say that's where he should have been. That he didn't is because he 1) Ran an odd campaign, and 2) the Democrats were motivated and organized.

Losing sucks. And I'm not a big "silver lining" guy. But there's a lot to look at over the past year and be pleased about, a lot of organization, a lot of passion, a good beginning -- unless we throw it away on misdirected anger and feelings of helplessness.

[JI7]

2. that's

that's one of the biggest problems we have. there are so many reactionary types in the party. remember how it was during the primary when people would bring up a quote by some candidate and post "did candidate x really say _________" ?

all the "fuck kerry, i'm glad daschle lost, edwards didn't help" etc type posts.

organizing together as one team is something republicans do much more easily. much of it has to do with their few common ground on issues like gay rights, abortion , taxes. when arnold gets out there you don't see other republicans protest or attack him for supporting abortion rights, you see them cheer him on for talking about things they agree with. democrats on the other hand would wonder why they said nothing about this or that and they would want them to say something to make them feel better about the person's position on a certain issue.

but i do agree it's something we have to work on and do. especially the part about the media. they also help the republicans by making such huge things out of issues like gay rights but don't do much on what is going on with our foreign policy and domestic issues. during the start of the iraq war they were on all day showing the bombing which they could do through distant cameras. but once it turned to on the ground problems, such as iraqis not getting basic services and how this is contributing to the overall violence in iraq they no longer report on it or totally ignore it.

i think it's probably more important for us to get the truth out there about bush and republicans than just promoting a candidate or some other agenda.