You wrote: "They are not as interested in issues as they are in BALLS."
This is true. But balls alone aren't enough.
Americans don't want to see their elected officials attack each other. They want an America that works, an American vision that they can believe in. Bush, despite all his monumental fuckups, is still the only one selling a vision. Bush's vision is of a free Iraq, where the terrorists are on the run, watching from their caves as the despotic governments of Arab states are toppled one by one and replaced by McDonald's-loving, Coke-drinking democracies.
It doesn't matter that his vision isn't happening. What matters is that he has a vision. That's what he sells.
When the Republicans attack Democrats, they often do it by repeating the vision and then saying that Democrats don't know how to achieve it. Democrats then get caught up trying to convince America that they can achieve a vision that was Republican from the get-go. Remember John Kerry trying to talk about how he'd win the war in Iraq? Here's what Bush blasted him with in the 2004 debates:
He talks about a grand idea: Let's have a summit; we're going to solve the problem in Iraq by holding a summit. And what is he going to say to those people that show up at the summit? Join me in the wrong war at the wrong time at the wrong place? Risk your troops in a war you've called a mistake? Nobody is going to follow somebody who doesn't believe we can succeed and with somebody who says that war where we are is a mistake.
What Democrats need is a vision of our own. Something we can promote, defend, fight for, dream of, and be inspired by.
Until we have that vision, we're only half a party. Until we articulate that vision, all we have is repudiation of theirs, and that's not enough. It never is.
So what should a Democratic vision of the future look like? What big ideas does it center around? Here's my two cents on the subject:
I think it starts with energy independence. Instead of a War *for* Oil, we should be engaging in a War *on* Oil. Montana's governor Brian Schweitzer gets it. If you haven't seen the "60 Minutes" profile on Gov. Schweitzer, and his plan for environmentally safe coal gasification, you should. Take a few minutes and
check it out. Schweitzer comes off as a leader, striking all the right notes about American independence, innovation, and national security: "Why wouldn’t we create an economic engine that will take us into the next century, and let those sheiks and dictators and rats and crooks from all over the world boil in their own oil?" You can imagine red-staters voting for him because he's got a vision for Montana, a vision that can ultimately be extended beyond Montana, and beyond coal.
Describing the emerging Democratic vision for America really should have a thread of it's own. I just wanted to point out that it takes more than just balls to win. The difference between "balls" and leadership is vision, and both Democrats and America need a new vision to succeed.
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