The best analysis of the Dems' loss(es) that I've read is Marc Cooper's. He writes:
From the onset of his [Bush's] administration, the Democrats have combined a freakish accommodation to Bush with a shrill, sometimes paranoiac exaggeration of his evil. One moment they are part of his War Cabinet. The next they are demonizing him as an individual and warning we are on the doorstep of fascism. And then we blame the voters for being confused.
Doug Ireland examines the Kerry campaign--calling it "one of the most incompetently run presidential campaigns by a Democrat in my lifetime"-- and notes: "History will record that John Kerry lost the election the day that he voted for the Constitution-shredding blank check for Bush's war on Iraq."
To these analyses, I would only add that the word "electability" should be taken out into the fields and shot.
But what about Lenin's age-old question: "What is to be done?"
To answer that, I suggest a resolve-strengthening visit to his cyber namesake's website, Lenin's Tomb, where he makes the common sense observation that:
The left that got so electorally organized around Kerry ought to be able to get its shit together for a sustained campaign to curb Bush's ability to act.
Cultural wedge issues aside, there is more than enough work to do in the battles to stop the sequel to the Patriot Act, the privatization of Social Security, the appointment of loonie rightwingers to the Supreme Court and the spiraling carnage in Iraq (Not to mention any other new invasions these fools may now believe they have a mandate for). Don't stay down for an eight-count. Get back up from the canvas, stay organized, and let's beat these clowns to such a pulp that they'll wish they had lost this election.
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Brian Cook was an editor at In These Times from 2003 to 2009. He now works on the editorial staff of Playboy magazine.
