Thank you for your partisan response. It's more accurate to call me an independent. I have loved Bobby Kennedy, been thoroughly disgusted with LBJ and Nixon, appreciated Reagan, and been disappointed in Carter, Clinton and the Bushes. For 2008, I'm cautiously optimistic about Obama.

But I may be wrong about any of those responses, because it's not about me. It's about the country, and about having a political discourse that is sufficiently civil that we can forge constructive policies within a deeply troubled world.

But now here is what happens whenever the issue of the Democrats and their strategy comes up:

1) My neck and shoulders knot up like it would if I were preparing to smash my head through a wall.

2) My body goes into these abortive little convulsions--like I'm about to haul off and punch somebody, and then catch myself when I remember I'm sitting in a chair in front of a computer.

3) My throat and jaw clench, as a physiological response to keep myself from screaming at the ether:

YOU GODDAMN WORTHLESS ASS LICKING COWARDS! GODDAMN IT! GODDAMN IT YOUS STUPID FUCKERS!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU STUPID, STUPID GODDAMN IDIOTS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? COME ON ALREADY, YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!!!!!! GODDAMMIT YOU FUCKIN FUCKIN SHIT GODDAMN SHITHEAD FUCKIN SONOVABITCH...

Exactly like you would if you were at a boxing match and you had bet a million dollars and your childrens' kidneys on the guy who now. Apparently. Is taking. Another. DIVE!

They want to be loved, or at the least they want to say "I told you so". They'd rather be prophets than Presidents.

don't forget that roughly half the population should be held accountable for elections 2000 and 2004. I wanna throttle the people who voted for Bush (not once, but twice, and STILL feel like they can complaign about what their votes have wrought upon the country) just as much as I wanna throttle the Democrats for not running savvier, more aggro campaigns. Yeah, the Dem campaigns could be more Rovian, but the nation at large could also be pickier about who becomes POTUS.

We don’t need the neuroscience stuff in this article, or the arguments about appealing to emotion. When we strip these away, we find the elephant in the room: the Republicans have succeeded in making Democrats afraid to stand on principle for fear that the notion of principle itself is Republican. Backbone, spine, principle, consistency, courage, strength, character: this is what we need, we crave in our leaders. But Republicans have learned well the lessons of Orwell’s novel, 1984, so that Democrats are afraid to use words which used to represent noble attributes because Republicans have made them their own. Republicans have distorted the words, Democrats need to reclaim them and remove the stain of Republican misuse. We need leaders who are consistent in their adherence to notions of justice and fairness and decency, who are strong in the face of manipulative, unprincipled attacks, who are empathetic and decisive in the best way, in protecting and rescuing and assisting citizens in the face of disaster, who are brave in facing the truth, who are principled in their refusal to let money influence their decisions, who have backbone when it comes to telling citizens the truth about our environment, our economy, our healthcare system, the damage we have caused in Iraq. We need leaders who will not cave to Republican threats of messiness if Republican nominees, ideological to the core, are thwarted. Of course, responses to these stands will register on brain scans. We don’t need brain scans to tell us that this is what we need.

am planning on discussing my plan for blogging about what I plan to do.

I much appreciated the tenor of this article, for its evenhandedness. It displays, succintly, the pluses and minuses, of the Democratic messages. I think an article, done in the same fashion, would show the flaws in the Republican message. More correctly, what I mean is that, the Rebublicans have no message, other than "more of the same". Or even worse, "more, of more of the same" Get the gist?

The Repuglicans are, and always have been, a party of devisiveness. They play to the most base, of human emotions. They revel in the juxtaposition of one group against another, in the most vile of ways. The Democratic constituency is made up of very diverse groups, who for the most part, look toward the inclusiveness of all peoples, with the betterment of all at its' root.

So please consider doing the Repugs. We need them to be shown the way they truly are.

Thanx;

John A Santomasso

Westen states: "The brand that the Republicans have given the Democrats is that they have no values, and the Democrats have repeatedly, on issues from abortion to gays to guns to, I mean, name your wedge issue, they have been hedging in the face of those values issues as opposed to saying what they believe. So in all of those cases they're supporting the conservative narrative as opposed to offering a counter-narrative."

What does this mean?

Democrats should take a bolder stance on gun control? Well that would make me happy, but is that going to help them win an election? I'm thinking "no." Gore's position on gun control certainly didn't help him win his home state.

Democrats should take a stand on abortion? Okay, they already do that - no ambiguity there. And the majority of americans are prochoice. That's a wedge issue the democrats have on their side. But it isn't translating.

My evaluation of the emotional vote and america's collective psyche: Americans are generally paranoid people. But that paranoia laid dormant for decades. Then along came 9/11, and we got in touch with our inner paranoid crazy - there IS a little green man in my head after all! The reason the democrats aren't connecting with people is that the democrats aren't a party suited for placating paranoia, whereas the GOP is. The solution? Democrats will never be able to emotionally connect with the angry paranoid voter, and democrats shouldn't endeavor to do so. Democrats need to keep doing what they do best - have a soul, and appeal to voter's reason. And hope that reason will trump emotion, when people realize that we're pissing away our young soldiers and trillions of dollars pursuing a little green man that doesn't exist. I personally believe in reason, and I believe it will prevail in 2008.