The DU could do with a little Democrat initiative, DFA'ers

[mogster]

If you don't mind me saying so. The fallout from the torture issue had consequences for the overall appearance of the party here at the DU, and now the war vote will make it worse. This will reflect down to the Dem candidates up for election, no doubt. Among which, I'm sure, most everybody here at the DU may find one they can identify with anyway. If you want Democrats to mostly come out on top (which I will unashamedly confess that I want), you are constantly on your heels, trying to stem the negative tide. Which will always be +10 in comparison to the positive tide, which actually gives Dems cred for the positive things that happens.
You've been here long enough, you know what I mean. There are many good reasons to criticise many Democrats, but the total sum doesn't add up. And there's an election coming up.
Now, I don't have many political absolutes, but a Democrat IS going into the White House in 2008, that's for sure. It may be for great deeds or as a limited measure of damage control, that depends, it seems. But I expect from the next American president no more than 'will not start a thermo nuclear war accidentally or intentionally', which isn't a great compliment to seven years of Republican presidency. Any Democrat will perform better than that, it will be like replacing the cartoon people with real people.

So, what can we do to help Democrats?
It worries me when Al Gore is in Norway receiving the peace prize and John Kerry is more or less speaking for every DU'er at the Bali conference, and at the same time a torture scandal afflicts the Democrats at home, bringing everybodys mood here down to zero. The support for Democrats down to ?? The offset between the picture you see if you live in the US, and the picture we see abroad who doesn't live there, is a wake up call. The Bali conference was a huge event, and Kerry made a good impression, setting good Democrat agenda. An environmental kick off as I see it. Any peace prize event will automatically be exaggregated by any Norwegian, we are after all a small people in the world and not used to it's attention. But the significance of Gore being awarded the Nobel prize and Kerry speaking in Bali is visible in a larger perspective through the global understanding that something must be done in the name of peace and understanding, for the environment, and they've helped to boost the momentum the Bali conference has gained. Despite the Bush governement's constant rejection of any reasononable agenda in relation to same subject. Or plural: Same subjects -- peace and understanding, reason and sustained development. Or government, as it should be. The Democrats were visible at the Bali conference as representatives for the US democracy, there's no doubt about it.
Align that to the torture allegations and decipher.

People are mad and the respect for government--any government--is low. I can understand that very well, because that's the way I feel myself. I blame the people I voted for first, back home. It makes sense, in the democratic way. Democratic leaders are better than Republican leaders because we pick on them. As a democratic leader you are not even judged on the same scale as non-democratic leaders. It's really the very nature of democracy to think like that. But more time spent on picking on Democrat leaders are less time spent picking on Republican leaders, and the Republicans are in this election too. I am missing some of the democratic ground beat here.

How can we, without finger pointing and accusations, make the picture more balanced?