If the Democratic Party is going to have any considerable or worthy impact on the next presidential election:
1. Understand that it is theirs to lose, as it has always been.
2. The one lesson the Democrats need to learn from the Republicans is that the next election campaign started on 11/02/04, if not before.
3. Before the Democratic Party floats a candidate, it needs to float itself. If any Democratic candidate is going to win, he or she must be an outgrowth of the party rather than visa-versa.
4. The democrats need to form a political platform that is _American_ rather than Democratic. I think the true foundation of the Republican “win” is that the party functions like a tribe. They can be successful at this because of the large numbers of people who like being tribal. The Democrats have always been a coalition and so require a great deal of consensus to get anywhere. It would a fatal mistake to think of this as an advantage for the Republicans. And, DNC, the only political position that requires 45 pages to explain is a position of confusion.
5. STOP trying to sneak in a Democratic agenda behind some popular issue. Honesty and candor are good things.
5a. If you promote an agenda that is co-opted and implemented by the current administration, you have still accomplished your goals at least somewhat, right? This is better than nothing, yes?
6. I think everybody needs to accept that the next presidential election is going to be essentially decided in the next 10-12 months. What this means is that campaign management has become sophisticated enough that elections can be quite likely predicted this far out. Isaac Asimov’s Psychohistory comes to mind.
The Dems might as well at least give it a try. Rove will.
Lastly, consider the notion that the Republicans were not so much trying suppress the vote as they were trying to suppress _enthusiasm_. Enthusiasm on the rise is an unpredictable wildcard. It can screw with your trendlines. And it’s easier to discourage enthusiasm than it is to forecast its effects. Right, George, Don, Dick, Karl?