IT'S 1964 ALL OVER AGAIN

It has dawned on me. Maybe everyone else has figured it out, and I’m a bit slow. But it has dawned on me why the country continues to shift rightward; the reason why liberals are scratching their heads today, still trying to come up with ridiculous reasons why they lost.

There are no moderates at the helm of the Democratic Party.

For crying out loud, Howard Dean is bidding to chair the DNC…and it appears he's being taken seriously. For those of you who are so far left that you can’t see the forest for the trees, this would be like Pat Buchanan becoming the RNC chair.

I grew up a Democrat, a party that used to stand up for the little guy. Then, the party was about correcting injustices in the system, such as racism and antitrust legislation. The Dems stood for exposing abuses of power, whether political or social, and keeping the playing field level for the common person. They voiced a clear vision of what was right and wrong in the world, and how they saw to correct it.

But not any more. Now the Dems are best embodied by their congressional leader, Nancy Pelosi. This is a party that has no clear direction other than opposition, that paints Republicans and those who vote for them stupid...and then actually tries to prove it. This is a party that represents people on the fringe but will ignore those in the center. This is a party that accepts defeat with the grace of a 2-year old, and instead of turning the mirror inward looks for spurious reasons why its candidates continue to lose. In 2000, it was a “stolen” election. In 2002 it was "knee-jerk voting." This time, it’s “stupid, dangerous Christians.” What’s it going to be next time, “stupid dangerous knee-jerk Christians that prefer red,” so they vote Republican?

Here’s the real problem, Party of My Youth: you are putting up lousy national candidates that don’t represent anyone outside of San Francisco, Hollywood, New York, and disenfranchised inner cities. Look at the county-by-county map of how the country voted. Your candidates are getting shelled. Quit patting yourselves on the back about how smart you are and how stupid everyone else is, and educate yourselves about what is really happening in the rest of the country. Maybe (gasp) visit the Midwest. Or Atlanta. Or if you have to leave the safe, fake-world reality of Liberal-Land in baby steps, head to Austin.

Barry Goldwater, who would be considered a moderate Republican today, could not win in 1964 when the country was leaning extremely left. Hear me well, my fellow Democrats: John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John Edwards and Howard Dean cannot win in today’s environment, nor can anyone that looks and sounds like them. If you do not put up a centrist candidate, you will continue to get the living crap beat out of you.

Turn the mirror on yourselves for once.