While I seldom repeat diaries or essays published elsewhere, this I wrote immediately after the election and published dKos. I'm re-publishing today as I think it has even more relevance today than it did then.
Seven New Rules for Democrats
[originally written November 6, 2004 and re-edited slightly for June 19, 2005]
While I don't agree that the world has ended, yet, for the Dem Party as some seem to think here at dKos and elsewhere, I also don't think this election, (even though we lost the electoral vote by less than perhaps 250K votes out of 120 Million), means we continue doing things the same way.
A working definition of insanity: To keep doing things the same way and expect diffent results.
Therefore the following 7 New Rules:
New Rules:
1. Never nominate anyone who has more baggage than the average train.
2. Never nominate anyone who will cause a spontaneous outburst of fundraising for the opposistion and cause Opposition turnout to increase as well.
3. Never nominate anyone who's visual past very easily lends itself to attack ads.
4. Never have a Party Chair who has no idea how to run for office since he hasn't done it himself.[We solved this in the interim with Gov. Dean!
5. Never have a Minority or Majority Leader in either chamber from a truly insecure seat.6.Never build your policy message or stump speech on anything that doesn't tie easily, in the same sentence in to our honestly held core values.[Family, Country, Patriotism, Freedom, Mom etc.] [PS: with a little thought they all do.]
7. Memorize the following three paragraphs from Dick Polman's analysis for Knight-Ridder of KE04:
Start with the message. Bush was a man of few words, and Kerry was a man of too many. Voters tend to recall a terse message, endlessly repeated. They don't tend to recall a menagerie of messages, some of them contradictory, delivered with an excess of verbiage.
Bush's message never changed: Tax cuts are good, Saddam Hussein was bad, freedom is on the march, we must be steadfast and resolute. He wants to discourage abortion, period. He would amend the Constitution to outlaw gay marriage, period. He prays daily.
Result: Among those voters (in the national exit polls) whose top priority was to choose the candidate with the clearest stands on issues, Bush beat Kerry by a ratio of 4-1. Among those voters most interested in choosing a "strong leader," Bush beat Kerry by 7-1.
While I think KE04 did a fine job in the last two months and came out with a small electoral college loss, [it could easily gone the other way], I think if we take a hard look at Party leadership and candidate selection...and focus on WINNING...we can.
We only need bring back home 3% of the electorate with a change in focus, language and candidates-types.
Interesting question: Assuming you accept, for the moment, The 7 New Rules, who is eliminated from contention in 2008?
