Meh.. I don't care enough about your issue. Just saying that I've rarely seen you in the Hangout, recently.
Ther are assclowns on bothsides of the aisle. My point which I am sure you got was that the conservative assclowns hurt the right just as much as the liberal assclowns hurt the left.
As a liberal, I don't totally agree with 4chuckie's assessment over the media image of the Democratic Party. While there are certainly some....colorful-looking Democrats who are the news frequently, most Democratic candidates and party members look just like Republicans. However, I agree with his basic premise - that the Democratic party has to find candidates that are more appealing to the average voter. And I don't just mean on the national level - there needs to be a concerted effort to find attractive, non-threatening candidates from the local level up. Eventually, the stars at the local level will reach state and maybe eventually national prominence. On topic, the lack of communication between intelligence organizations and the government is nothing new. However, because of the magnitude of mistakes in Iraq intelligence, SOMEONE should be held accountable. But I suspect the Bush Administration, with its typical lack of curiosity about just about anything beyond its normal ideology, won't ever do this.
Democrats have become reactionary as the Party of Everything else. They don't have a concensus on how to pursue policy agenda that might alienate some of their constituents. Republicans last elections secure moderates and libertarians by emphasizing that they were still better of the two evils. The general perception is that Democrats don't practice what they preach, therefore why get off your duff to vote for them? I'd vote for a charismatic liberal than a smooth talking Hillary who's only looking at polls and demographics.
I agree to an extent. What I think has costs Democrats is their coalition between urban intelligentsia, minorities, environmentalists, farmers and union has fractured. This was a long time coming because many of these groups issues were opposed to each other. Farmers and labor are opposed to environmental regulations because they costs jobs and they are also opposed to the socially liberal agenda of urbanites. IMO both the Democrats and Republicans are due for a realignment of issues and constituencies. I think with things like the war on terror and the rise of Christian conservatives we will see that. The Democrats IMO should give up the rural constituencies and some of their labor support and go all the way to becoming the party of fiscal and environmental responsibility and social tolerence. Or in other words the urban party and as suburbs develop and mature they will start to adopt those issues.
