More On Making The Message

This is still I think the problem Democrats have: we can't seem to figure out how to simplify our message. Look at last year's party platform: It's 43 pages of many fine words and phrases, but the "actions" are hard to find. We need to simplify the message. The reason we need to do this is not because we think America is too stupid to understand big words, it's just that America is used to associating politicians as being "all words - no actions". We need to create a document that immediately shows the actions we are proposing. We tend to dance away from the harder choices in our platform (abortion, taxes, U.N., etc.) by over-explaining and couching our positions in verbage. To most Americans, that response comes out as "waffling", and weak.

If we feel outlawing abortion is wrong, we need to say it, not run away from it. If we feel taxes need to be raised, say so - we can always point to how the so-called "fiscally conservative" republicans have managed to outspend democratic administrations and overburden America with debt. Our history of being "weak on defense"? Hey, Clinton's military has defeated military forces in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It's the Bush administration that has let our troops down by sending them to occupy a country without adequate battle armor. It's the Bush administration that screwed us into fighting a war based on lies (WMD's my ass!).

It is time for democrats to stop dancing away from our "liberal" image. The so-called "center" of the country's popular opinion has moved to the right - we can only pull it back to the "center" by remaining the "party of the left".