My political debut on this Forum
FIrst off I'd like to make it clear that I am not a Republican. I am a conservative who voted Bush for president and Libertarian for everything else.
I'd like to weigh in on why I feel Democrats lost, as well as to try to provide direction on how they can stop losing; which they need to do (stop losing that is). I have three reasons that I'd like to posit for all to consider.
1) Democrats no longer represent the people. Liberal idealogies are sound; equality for everyone, assistance for all who need it, etc... These are things America likes to hear. Unfortunate as it is to say, it is well known that Americans will gladly sacrifice liberties for security. The problem is that Democrats have progressively walked further and further to the left. Maybe not the whole party, but the ones people hear. Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy, Micheal Moore, the idiot Hollywood-ites, Hillary Clinton, and yes, John Kerry. These people don't represent America and the elections showed that. Look at State Houses, Governorships, Senate, HR, etc... The real Democrats, Truman and Kennedy Democrats, need to wake up and reclaim their party before it walks itself down the gangplank to obscurity. I am a Social Worker by profession, and trust me I know the irony of a conservative Social Worker. But at the same token I understand where the Democrats say they are on issues as contrasted to where they really are on producing results. Right now the democrat voters consist of the uninformed and the disillusioned (no offense). I say disillusioned because they're voting for what they think the party should be, what it used to be, not what it actually is. America votes in the middle, democrats need to grab their leaders by the balls and drag them back there.
2) Hate and vitreol. While I'll be the first to admit that idiots like Ann Coulter on the republican side do exactly what I'm condemning, democrats need to stop villanizing Republicans. It goes back again to the current pundits leading the party. They spend more time pontificating on how evil the right is that they miss any and all opportunity to address the issues that they say they hold dear. America loves to watch Jerry Springer, but they wouldn't vote for him. Basically the Democrats spend inordinate amounts of time bashing Republicans for not doing what THEY think is best for America instead of actually asking America what is best for them.
3) Production of results. Republicans do this, Democrats don't. Unfortunately the main things that Republicans promise are money in the forms of tax breaks and employment. They don't care who gets employed, whether they get paid equally, or any other "touchy feely" equal rights propaganda like that. They do, however, provide what they say. More jobs, less taxes. People don't give two shits about a projected deficit when their paychecks are just a little bigger than they were last week. We, as Americans, are fairly selfish in this regard. And fighting terrorism is another current production point for Republicans. Whether you agree with what they do, whether or not you think they're doing it correctly, the fact is they're doing something. As long as America keeps seeing action - even non-productive action, they'll be placated because they'll feel "safe".
Bottom line, we need democrats. I lean more conservatively - but I don't ever want to get so far to the right that we can't see the middle. Democrats are supposed to provide that balance. I look at this election as the lesser of two evils. Neither democrats or republicans are anything remotely like what they are supposed to be, the republicans just hover a little closer to the right side of center than the democrats do to the left side. Hell I thought republicans were supposed to be for smaller government. That certainly doesn't explain same sex marriage laws, abortion laws, Partiot acts, and the "War against Drugs". Do I, in principle, agree with some of these conservative "big government" stances? Yes, mostly. But my viewpoint is irrelevant and so are these laws because the last I checked it wasn't even the governments place to be legislating issues of morality on either side, for or against. Sorry, I digress.
Democrats and Republicans no longer represent the people. They represent themselves. I liken them to two huge corporations vieing for a customer base. They give just enough to draw a crowd and then once they got'cha they forget'cha. I'm not depressed that Kerry lost, quite honestly he scared me. But I am depressed at the way the rest of the elections went. And now people are talking about Hillary '08. God help us. Democrats if you do that '08 will be much worse than '04 was. Grab your party and bring them back to reality, before it's too late.
Personally, and in closing, I think it's a waste of time to vote for either party. Vote Green, vote Libertarian, hell vote for an outcropping of rock. It's time to give these entrenched and established parties a reminder as to why they even have power to begin with. They've obviously forgotten. (Please excuse any grammatical and/or spelling errors, long day).