Interesting article from Molly Ivins

[Arlos]

Sounds like she's nearly as fed up with the modern Democratic party as she is with the Republicans.

[quote]Enough of the D.C. Dems
By Molly Ivins
March 2006 Issue

Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I will not be supporting Senator Clinton because: a) she has no clear stand on the war and b) Terri Schiavo and flag-burning are not issues where you reach out to the other side and try to split the difference. You want to talk about lowering abortion rates through cooperation on sex education and contraception, fine, but don’t jack with stuff that is pure rightwing firewater.

I can’t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they can’t even see straight.

Look at their reaction to this Abramoff scandal. They’re talking about “a lobby reform package.â€

[Lyion]

It's interesting that from this post, this person wants the shrill and shrinking DNC to be even more shrill. Which would cause them to shrink even more.

This is the type of rhetoric that caused the DNC to get jabowned in '04 and will likely cause them to lose congress this year, when they should not. This person doesn't get elections are decided by the moderates, not by the die hards.

The simple fact is most moderates are turned off by lack of civil discourse and open angry hostility without a point. Heated debates are good. Anger is bad. There is already way too much anger that we see daily from Pelosi, Reid, Dean, and the rest of the DNC. How much more does this person want?

Instead of anger and 'kicking ass', the DNC needs to explain why they are better for the working people and better for America. Iraq and Campaign finance are not good topics for the DNC. Health Insurance, Taxes for the wealthy, and the economy are.

The people like this will hand congress to the GOP on a silver platter, without even realizing why and blaming the people like Clinton who have the propensity to bring in the moderates because they don't think she has enough anger.

Maybe it's time for the DNC to lose the teenage angst and return to the days of Tip O'Neal and powerful discussion that makes America want them.

[Yamori]

I actually think the Democrats *would* be better off actually having stronger liberal stances - particularly on issues of civil liberties and foreign policy.

Republicans are the party of bad ideas, and Democrats are fastly becoming the party of no ideas. Republicans are making all sorts of horrible mistakes, and the Democrats either flounder or quietly support them so they can appeal to a wider audience.

Right now it seems like their entire political platform is based on saying nothing of actual substance (Have you seen their recent responses to stuff like the State of the Union Address? Horrible. Sheesh) and making reactionary political attacks on Republicans when they do something obviously stupid (or at least obviously easy to criticise).

I think the economic agenda of the more left-leaning part of the Democrat party is stupid, but something needs to be done before the political environment literally over-run by Republicans in every branch of government. They need to get their shit together big time and at least create a decent amount of balance. If that means they have to push their (imo) stupid ideas that strongly disagree with Republican platforms... they should do it.