Brother, you said a mouthful in more ways than one! I distinctly remember the self-flagellation of the left in the aftermath of the 2004 elections. It went on and on, and I joined in myself. We painted a big bullseye on John Kerry’s head and let fly. Granted, much of it was deserved – from lackadaisical campaigning through the summer, to the failure to aggressively confront the Swiftboat liars, to his concession before the votes were counted. Kerry showed himself to be less interested in the job than what’s necessary to win.

But then I went to Ohio to observe the recount, and my attitude changed. That experience, which I will not detail here, focused my attention on the serious and fatal flaws in our election procedures around the country. Added to the blatantly illegal behavior I personally observed in Ohio, along with thousands of reported incidents around the country, I concluded that had the presidential election been conducted in conformance with applicable state laws, the outcome would not have favored Bush. You can agree or disagree with that, based on whatever hard data or personal experience you happen to have, but I’m not going to debate anyone who has not delved deeply into the reams of evidence of fraudulent and illegal conduct in 2004.

Still, progressives continued to berate their “losing” candidates for months after the election, perhaps because we were so lukewarm on them to begin with. This has been accompanied by near total refusal to acknowledge the real threat of stolen elections, despite the fact that in recent polls a significant number of Americans appear to recognize that their votes may very well not be counted. Denial – it ain’t just a river in Egypt any more!

But as to the Republicans and their current round of boo-hoo – we have to understand that they have a different relationship to their political leaders that is more devotional in nature. How often to you hear a Republican criticize even the most egregious misbehavior by a fellow Republican? Generally this only happens when the object is seen as a loser. And even then the miscreant will be excused if he goes into a rehab program. Hey – maybe that’s the solution to Bush’s falling numbers! Ooops. Let’s not give him any ideas.

Republicans are participating in a different political world than Democrats, which is why trying to make Democrats more like Republicans doesn’t work very well. The Republicans run a very top-down, command and control hierarchy. Their marching orders, like their talking points, are issued from a small group of strategists in Washington D.C. for the most part. The party is run like a large, traditional corporation right down to the sophisticated marketing, advertising, training, and finance operations. Much like the failing giants of the American automotive industry. With the same results

The Democratic Party, on the other hand, is more of a guild or a holding company for a lot of independent organizations. This is why it is futile to keep ragging on the national leadership about not having a clear message for the American people. They can certainly settle on some broad statement of principles, but for the most part Democrats need to embrace their local issues and concerns and show that they can best represent the people of their state, district, or locality – unburdened as they are by mandates issued from far away. That’s what they did in this election, and it worked very well despite the obstructionist tactics of the senate and congressional campaign committees.

Democrats need to speak clearly with one another and with Independent voters. It’s a waste of time to engage with the hard core devotees of the Bush Corporation at this time. I don’t buy into the Republican model that we must annihilate the opposition – we simply need to prevail at the polls and then hold our elected representatives accountable. The only way we can get back to this is to insure first of all that every vote is counted as cast – and we have a long way to go to get to that point. I hope that will be the personal mission of every American, regardless of party, in 2007.

i think the most important thing is to make sure your guys are the good guys instead of thinking the other guys are the bad guys.