Your Mission...

(And no, you don't have any say-so in accepting it)...

A few days ago, I ran across a blog here on Blogspot trying to convince the various state Democratic parties to establish blogs of their own. The full list is available at the site I linked to above.

Of course, being me, I found the site, asked for permission to use one of the letters I saw... and then promptly lost the site info. Fortunately, one of their members found this blog and got in touch (Thanks, Biggreen80!).

Anyway, go check out the site, and see what you can do to help. Maybe we can get everybody energized enough to force some changes.

If we don't take the time to motivate our party to do better, we deserve to be "represented" by the mouth-breathing Rethug morons we now have in DC.

You know, I really liked Joe Lieberman, when he was AG in Connecticut. I had the chance to meet him a few times (we patronized the same diner on occasion), and he took the time to discuss some of the (then-)latest legal decisions with a lowly street cop. Even as a Senator, I had great pride in him... until he became Bush Lite. Now, I'd rank him with Zell Miller, as far as reliable Democrats go. I mean, voting to confirm Alberto "Lissen to 'em shriek" Gonzalez?!?

Now for the BIG question: how do we fix this? I say "we" because it's becoming more and more obvious that the party "bigwigs" are, in many cases, more interested in "reaching out" to the campaignistration than they should be. After all, Twigster said at one point, "We will reach out to those who agree with us" (may not be an exact quote, but it's close enough). I see no need to reach out to an administration which will not reach back.

As several of the more-established bloggers have pointed out (Kos, Atrios, Oliver Willis, etc), we need to become a party of opposition. Since our plans and proposals would be dead in the water from the get-go, why not go whole-hog and say what needs to be said, and screw reaching out? If Junior's Social Security "plan" is bullshit, say so, and come up with a proposal that would work. No, it won't pass... it wouldn't even make it out of committee, but it might just open some eyes.

Howard Dean, whatever other shortcomings he might have had, energized a large part of the Democratic party with his campaign strategy, especially his use of the Internets (as BoyWonderPreznit said). We can harness this same energy to make some serious changes.

But we all have to work together. One person -- even one so wonder and all-powerful as yr obt svt -- cannot do it alone. You folks in the red states have a special burden: you have to convince enough of your fellow citizens -- even if they are gun-rack-in-the-window, toothless, hooker-humpin, Bible-thumpin, sister-marryin idjits -- to actually think for themselves, instead of letting LordGodKingBoyWonderPreznit Georgie-and-"He Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken" do it for them.

Let's take back our party. Then we can take back Congress in 2006, and the White House in 2008.