Overwhelmed

::The beginning of thought is in disagreement -- not only with others but also with ourselves::

There are times when the educational needs of the world seem so great, I yawn just thinking about them. I understand how people can be Republican--I really do. I may not hold those same political or social values but I understand them. I don't, however, understand how people can be so blindly ignorant. However, my response to that frusteration is not always productive. All my life I have struggled with two things (a) my (sometimes out of control) competitive nature and (b) dealing with people who I perceive to be "dumb" or "uneducated." Not so proudly, I refer to myself as an itellectual elitist. Often, this translates to a harsh political dogma. Instead of trying to educate people on my views--and listening to others'--I rant about obvious things people should be paying attention to. "It's not enough to know that he doesn't favor a women's right to chose?" "What do you mean fiscal conservatism?" As always, I watched Meet-the-Press this weekend. It was a great show and one of the guests (David Brooks--New York Times) said something that really hit home:

"But most Democrats seem to be acting as if the main problem with the country is that the country doesn't hate George Bush enough. And if we only shout louder, they'll hate him more like tourists in Paris who think they'll understand us if we scream a little louder. And to me, it's led to the brain death of the Democratic Party. I don't know where the party stands on Iraq. I don't know where it stands on entitlement spending. On issue after issue, I really don't know where that party stands. So we're having a joint race to the bottom here between the two parties, and I think the result is what you're seeing is a dealignment. Voters flaking off the Republicans but not going over to the Democrats. They're just sort of stuck and floating in the middle. Stan Greenberg, Bill Clinton's old pollster, called them dislodged voters. And to me, that means the '08 election is gonna look very different than the '04 or '00."

I hope, personally, that the '08 election is different--in terms of outcome! But I also hope, civically, that it is different--in terms of discourse. It is not enough for Democrats to talk about how dumb W is (doesn't everyone know that?!). However, we aren't going to gain votes by encouraging hate. We are going to gain votes by articulating our position on Iraq, forming a platform around energy (and generating jobs and income from new technolgy), and raising awareness about our impending fiscal crisis (regarding our deficit and borrowing money from abroad). It is the Democrat's challenge to tap into the narrative that the right controls. As a party, we represent strength, morality and equality--hopefully, we will be able prove that to the American people. If we can't win in '08 maybe we don't deserve to be in control!