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Nov. 6, 2004 The word has been floated that liberalism is dead. I strongly disagree; liberalism is still alive and well, just falling out of popularity again. Keep in mind that liberalism was just as unfashionable when Bill Clinton, a moderate, was President as it is now, during the very right- leaning Bush Administration. I’m one of the lone Democratic hacks among a sea of Republican hacks. The level of hackery rivals a New York City taxi depot. This, however, does not make my points any less correct, or any less worthy of a decent reading. Liberalism is alive and well, though Democrats will not win based on a platform of liberalism. We saw that in 2004, and we will see it again in 2008 if the party continues to play cards that have been outmoded for decades. Moderates like Evan Bayh (65% of the vote), Barack Obama (70% of the vote), and Ken Salazar (54% of the vote) hold the keys to this new Democratic Party I speak so fondly of. I received an e-mail that responded to my earlier work with, “Democrats must act like Republicans,” if they want to win elections. Not true. First, we must spend the next four years refining our message and focusing on more effectively bringing it from speaker to audience. We must rework the fundamentals, and return to the moderation of the Clinton Administration. Refining our message does not entail a great logical leap. It would be the more sane reverse from President Bush’s chasm vault from “compassionate conservatism” to what can best be described as a pandering to the radical right. In the pamphlet I’m working on right now (in convenient PDF form on my website, listed at the end of this column), I attempt to explain that the moderate center does not belong to either party, but is a justly unbiased reference point. Republicans have monopolized this area because, frankly, at this point in time, they are better at appealing to it. It does not always have to be that way. The Democratic Party will win Congress back in due time, when we have spaced ourselves from the liberalism that so denotes us now. I will explain it very clearly here: “Old” Democrats, such as Senators Kerry, Pelosi, and Kennedy, stand little to no chance of understanding or being taken seriously by the New Democrat movement I am pushing. It will be, as should be obvious, the members of the party that are new, that do not have established “liberal” voting records, men and women who believe in the New Democratic goals. If we can build this message, we may have a chance at the White House in 2008, assuming we nominate the moderates and not the liberal, alienating portion of our party. Beyond that, if the principles of moderation and critical thought championed in my pamphlet are taken seriously, the sky is the limit. Republicans may be skeptical of this new, “moderate” Democratic Party, especially as it is being advocated by a seventeen year old man. If that is the only thing holding them back, I say we are already in better shape than we were three days ago. ------------ About the author: Max Burns is a 17-year-old Democrat with moderate, centrist ideals. He blames John Kerry's 2004 loss on John Kerry, and is authoring a pamphlet on how to refine the Democratic Party for Victory in 2008 and beyond. For more information, check out The New Democrat. Read the fantasy-fiction novel "Alcardia". Email: DeMBurns@gmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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