Miserable failure of Democratic leadership.

That is three elections in a row the leadership of the Democratic Party has ran to the center, three elections in a row they have failed to capture even their own voters.

All the lemmings who declared Kerry ‘more electable’ in the primaries, how electable does he look now? In the coming days and weeks many will bemoan the turnout among 18-29 year-olds, while conveniently forgetting how the candidate who energized that vote was dismissed out-of-hand.

What I am saying is that it is time to learn from the Republicans instead of just trying to be them. They played to their base while the Democrats were ashamed of theirs. Republicans offered the appearance of real choice, real positions, and the Democrats offered ‘anyone but Bush’. That’s certainly not the way to win a mandate, and it turns out it’s not even a way to win the race.

We need leadership again that stands for something. Something other then getting elected, that is. Something based on strongly held personal convictions instead of the latest (oh so accurate!) poll numbers.

Long ago there should have been primary challenges to the likes of Zell Miller, Tom Daschle, and Joe Lieberman. We now have nothing more to loose. It is time to pursue ideals and goals, time to stop going for nothing other then selfish pursuit of power and influence by any means necessary.

Many will dismiss me, but I offer incontrovertible proof of my argument: Barack Obama. Impassioned, articulate, original. He offered something solid and got 70% of the vote. So I ask others to stand up with me and demand party leadership who will nurture candidates like Obama, leadership who will not drive to the center and crush the spark out of candidates like Gore, and leadership who will provide encouragement instead of a knife in the back to the progressive candidates who will lead us to victory by offering the people a choice.

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