For their analysis:

The simple truth is that Republicans are dogmatic ideologues and, in general, Democrats tend to be less so.  Democrats are less wedded to their ideology and more interested doing what works.  This state of affairs is clear to Americans and any attempt to fabricate the kind of ideological inflexibility the Republicans demonstrate is likely to be viewed as even more superficial.

What is becoming obvious is that the Republicans are overly wedded to their ideology and it has cost the country dearly, and is likely to continue to.  The key therefore is not to offer a different ideological alternative, the key is to offer what we really are: the party of anti-ideology, the party of what works.  We're scrambling around trying to find an ideology in a party that is focused on reality.  

It is my considered opinion that the solution, therefore is not really to sure up a failure of conviction--something I believe Clinton, Gore, and Kerry had plenty of--but rather to sure up a failure of confidence.  The Republicans simply convey far more confidence in their ideas than the Democrats--if for no other reason than they are not interested in any other reality than their own.

1 - Democrats did not spread the word abouot the philosophical difference between Democrats and Republicans: Republicans want each person to fend for himself while Democrats are concerned with helping those who can't help themselves

2 - The fight is not over. Don't kid yourself. It has barely begun. The public is sure there is more to come. Democrats must spread the reasons for their position

Reform and change are still the themes that arouse interest and motivated support.  We'll only succeed by proposing better, more popular reform. Policies and programs don't matter nearly as much as simply having a direction and goal. That's why I'm a Reform Democrat with a general outline of what we should be for.

This is my reason for wanting to run a "screwdriver versus the sledgehammer" ad, where democratic plans are compared to fixing a jungle gym with a screwdriver, while Republican plans are compared to smashing it with a sledgehammer.

It just kept getting worse. Now we've GOPers like Gibbons who make B-1 Bob look like peaceniks. O'Really is starting to sound more like Toxic Annie than she does herself. Hindrocket is actually calling a former President a traitor.

Has the media even so much as whispered any of this? The GOPers can say any repulsive thing they want to on talk radio or to an audience and the media ignores them like it never happened. The reason there will not be a backlash is because 60% of Americans have no idea how repulsive they are. The only ones who know are the ideologues on the right and the left.

How would the average independent voter, who doesn't listen to talk radio or watch Faux News, know about the disgusting things the GOPers and wingnuts are saying? They don't, therefore, no backlash.

The advantage is that by singing to the choir about the evils of Ted Kennedy and Michael Moore they give Bush ideological insullation from failure. No matter how bad Bush fails or what he does, he will never be as bad as Michael Moore. A I the only one that thought the case against Michael Moore was incredibly out of proportion to what was actually in his movie? It's all manufactured. The wingnuts eat it up, and become innoculated to the most catastrophic failure of policy or personal integrity.

They have taken the "home team" effect and magnified it with religious terminology. They have turned Democrats into the "other" that is held in contempt. No matter how bad your guy is, he is still a human being.

We haven't heard from Frank Luntz recently, but you know he's been polling how voters react to Coulter, Hannity and Scarborough. They also have their ratings to give them feedback. Between the two, they have figured out that calling Dems evil is a win/win. Their team gets pumped up and more willing to forgive errors. The opposing team becomes worse than the Oakland Raiders. The only people who know about it are in the stadium. The average joes outside the stadium don't have a clue what's going on, so they are not affected.

The Home Team Effect and Ideological Insullation from failure. Chomsky's Manufactured Consent probably fits in there somewhere as well. The demonizing has just begun folks. We haven't even started to see the bottom of the barrel.

Think about it: do people criticize cops for not having an agenda beyond opposing crime?

Do people bash firefighters for not being proactive?

Is Bush considered weak because his Presidency is focused almost entirely on defending the homeland against terra?

The problem isn't that the Dems need to be going on the attack with their own agenda, though that might help -- Dems need to be clear about what they're defending, and to be strong in that defense.

They also need to be clear about where the attack is coming from. There is a Reep campaign underway to dismantle the safety net! Isn't opposing that an agenda? Criminals are looting the Treasury! Isn't stopping that a positive platform?

The Dems need better message. And they need to stop negotiating with the terrorists in the White House.

I personally trace the entire vile neocon stranglehold on this nation at the current time directly to the Repug reaction to Roe v. Wade. The Repugs used it as springboard to found a base. Had they read polls, they probably would have quit hammering away on the issue a long time ago. Even today, a significant majority favor abortion being legal under current conditions; nevertheless, the Repugs have successfully founded an entire power grab around this singular core issue. Furthermore, the tree didn't bear fruit over-night. Quite the contrary, it took decades for the seed to evolve into a seedling, the trunk to sprout branches and the tree to bear their poison fruit.

Democrats have already developed a severe case of tunnel vision on the race for the White House in 2008 rather than focusing on rebuilding their party. In order to succeed, Democrats must stop being re-active on Repug issues and begin moving the goal posts. This can best be accomplished by looking through the windshield rather than the mirrors, taking a big picture focus based upon rational and principled positions and enlarging the base of the party at the local level rather than battling the Repugs for corporate support at the national level - exactly the strategy the Green party is successfully employing in order to develop a truly progressive base from which an actual movement may take root.

We've been here before.

In 1860.

Crash and burn, indeed. Revenge is a dish best served cold. I'll be plenty satisfied to watch the GOP hemmorage support over the next few years, setting themselves up for a weak hand in 2008.

And, has anyone noticed that -- despite hundreds of man hours of pointing out all the hypocriscy of Fox (all that Tivoing by Media Matters) and the right wing pundits -- they are more powerful than ever?  Pointing out that they are full of it does us no good, we need our own platform that can act as an opposing force.

So, we are know this is the problem.  But, what are we doing about it?  Air America was the right direction.  MyDD and DailyKos were also the right direction.  But, we need our own cable network.  What is Gore doing about this?  Where is the money for making this happen?

We are undergoing, and have undergone, a massive techtonic shift in this country.  Yes, the Republicans only scored 51% in the last election.  But the loyalty of the new Republicans is unshakeable.  

The loyalty comes from almost an ethnic sense of party identification.  The Republicans have separated themselves from the main body of American politics, portraying themselves as an oppressed minority of values dear to the working middle-class, rural America, and devout Christians.  They have succeeded at hammering home that identification to the point that large segments of the population have bought into it.  For instance, when I visit my sister in a rural part of California, the amount of Bush loyalty goes up dramatically.  And there's a certain "Hooray for the home team" feel to the support that people express.  The anger that is expressed when some of them talk about is... well, it's almost like a 50's southerner talking about "the niggers."  We have been depersonalized.  We don't represent good people with good values.  We've been turned into aliens.

So, I think the problem is bigger than ideology.  Face it -- most people don't have any ideology, and especially no consistent ideology.  But they do have a sense of cultural identity.  And when that identity becomes entrenched, as it seems to have become now -- that, gentlemen, is a gigantic problem.

We can talk about how they have achieved it in another thread.  But nobody stopped it.  It happened under the radar.  For every piece of negative news about the Republicans, there is an alternative news story about the same thing from the Republican tools of the press.  Social Security was going to be privatized?  Well, those Dems always try to scare those seniors, ya know.  

The availability of an alternative, friendly explanation for every bit of bad news, given equal time and credibility by the media, allows the party faithful to always discount any news they don't like and suck up any news they do like.  Bad news, like SS privatization, is just the liberal media trying to snow them.  They can turn to Brit Hume and get the REAL NEWS, which is much more flattering to their perceived identity group.  The insulation is nearly perfect for them.

Dems don't have anything remotely similar.  Well, yeah, maybe -- the blogosphere.  That's about it.  I've had to give up on cable TV news because the rightwing takeover has been so thorough.  Talk radio -- same thing.

We need to fight back in the media.  We need to realize how well-coordinated and targeted the Republican takeover of media has been.  We need to fight fire with fire, in some cases, even if it is distasteful, even if it means we lose the "moral highground," which is just a nice way of saying the loser's bench.  We need smart, bold people, scheming for us.  That is what we lack.  The blogosphere can't make up for that.  Not even slightly.

This whole meme  of "Why aren't we killing these guys" is just stupid. We are killing them, a round of town hall meetings back in their districts reinstructed Republicans about the realities of the Third Rail, particularly when their numbers don't add up.

Republicans are not paying a price because there is no plan on the table. And they are coming to the realization that putting any plan on the table is fatal. On the other hand to simply back down and admit there is no problem undercuts their seventy year crusade to discredit and eliminate Social Security.

What's not to like here? They don't put up a bill and we save Social Security. They put up a bill, we kill it and save Social Security and take over control of Congress. I kind of like the latter, but then again I got on board this issue while Dems controlled both the White House and the House.

Social Security is the heart and soul of the Democratic Party. It is our most proud accomplishment. Defending it is more important than transient political gain, and the fact that we are winning on this one should be its own reward.

The fact that if pushed too far Privatization will take a bunch of rat-fucking Republicans down is just gravy.
Nov 21 diary on Social Security
Social Security is not broke: by the numbers