Today, the national Democratic Party really IS the minority party

A fellow Oklahoma blogger [Martin Jensen] has this analysis of where we liberal Democrats need to go from here:

"It's morality, stupid"- Citizens from both ends of the economic spectrum voted against their economic interest on 112.

- Democrats need to define their positions based on clearly stated principles*, rather than a grab bag of issues. These principles should be defined in moral terms more than in logical terms. Everybody has principles they think are worth fighting and even dying for, and people want to know what ours are. Until we can explain them, they will never trust us. Until we can prove to them that they share those principles, they will not vote for us.

Here is Mr. Jensen's proposed list of principles for Democrats:

* Principles (A List to be Modified)- Equal opportunity precedes equality of condition

- Fairness to all

- Free markets must be governed by fair competition

- Investing in success is smarter than spending on failure

- Focus on the best we have to offer

- We can be wise -- get the big picture before you start painting yourself into a corner

- Leverage applied in the right place is more effective than opposition applied just about anywhere else

- Programs that benefit society as a whole should be supported in proportion to an individual's benefit from that society

- Protection of individual liberties is the right and proper role of the judiciary

- The separation of church and state benefits religion more than removing those separations would benefit the state. (Evidence: check out the low rates of church attendance in all those European countries with state-sanctioned and -supported religions.)

- Corporations can survive without welfare programs from the government

And…any principle we don't think we can get a significant majority of the electorate to agree with should be revised -- or stricken from this list.

Mr. Jensen concludes his piece with this reminder that we have to work at winning the hearts and minds of our fellow Americans:

And how much easier would it be to "convert" others to our point of view if we emphasized our shared principles and helped them to see those issues from that perspective? Telling them they're wrong, they're stupid, they're bigoted and they're delusional clearly has not been effective so far.

I said recently that the (Oklahoma) Democratic Party was a majority party that acted like a minority party. Today, the national Democratic Party really IS the minority party. We have to quit trying to defeat them and start trying to win their hearts and minds. We're not going to change the world without changing those voters' consciousness. As well as our own.

For me, a problem with so many left-leaning blogs is the constant name-calling and a childish potty-mouth mentality. Let's leave that to the right wingers (freepers, Little Green Footballs, etc.). We aren't going to win over a majority of Americans by behaving like spiteful children.

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)