As the saying goes, when we enter a New Year; "out with the old and in with the new"; in this case, the old Democratic Party has seen its day and now it needs to be transformed into a new, dynamic progressive party that will turn this country in a new positive and exciting direction.
Ronald Reagan may have been on the right track when he said, In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Let me alter that quote somewhat and state that government in itself is not the problem, but a highly dysfunctional, corrupted, do-nothing government and this current Congress, in particular, is 'the problem.
The Democratic Party has allowed itself to become a part of that problem and now it's time that it and its members break away from that dysfunctionality and return to a strong liberal/progressive agenda.
The departure of Hillary Clinton gives the Democratic Party the great opportunity to truly reinvent itself and move into the future with a new sense of purpose and direction. The same can be said of Barack Obama who presented himself as an agent of change but most certainly wasn't up to the task by any stretch of the imagination. These two should be like the last of that breed of politicians within the Democratic Party.
The new Democratic leadership that emerges after this transformation must assure the American people that it will never again, as it did under the President Obama and Hillary Clinton's tenure, take misguided military actions against nations such as Libya, conduct relentless bombing in Syria, and launch unjustifiable drone attacks on the sovereign nations of Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan, The Democratic Party must totally renounce that form of extreme foreign policy.
Here's an excellent observation about Mr. Obama's very aggressive use of drones that continues to cause havoc and misery in these countries and the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians. These attacks are greatly tarnishing America's image around the world and creating many enemies who are motivated to seek deadly revenge; and then we wonder why we are facing this terrorist threat.
In this process of transformation here's what, in my opinion, the Democratic Party must do:
*Attack GOP voter suppression; and I mean attack! Do it now, don't wait until the next election when it will be too late. It is absolutely incomprehensible how Democrats, time and time again, have watched the GOP prevent qualified voters from casting their ballots and just haven't found the ways to put a stop to this politically evil process. How incompetent can they possibly be?
*Expose the Republican Party for what it is; an albatross around the neck of America, a party with no vision, possessing a badly damaged moral and directional compass.
*Stop the current Democratic movement toward the Right and move back to the center left where Democrats do best; acting like a more liberal version of Republicanism is certainly not working; ask Hillary Clinton about that; see where it got her. This is, in reality, a liberal/progressive party and it's way past time that the Democrats returned to that role. That's what the majority of the American people want and they will respond with their increased support.
One thing that Democrats need to do is to find the ways to flush out of their ranks those party members that we might refer to as pseudo-Democrats, those who call themselves Democrats but, in reality could never be called liberals or progressives.
*Never, ever allow someone like the overly aggressive war hawk, Hillary Clinton, to be the party's candidate for president. When the people can see that this country's most critical problems are not being solved they don't want to listen to someone who keeps telling them that everything is just fine and we just need to stay the course.
*Democrats must be far more proactive in connecting with the American people; communicate, communicate and communicate. Speak to them constantly about how Republicans are hell bent on destroying Americans' social safety nets.
Question: what kind of gutter level, twisted politicians "lick their chops", as has been reported in the news, as they prepare to destroy the medical coverage of 22 million Americans rather than fixing its problems and making it better for those same fellow citizens? Answer: gutter level, twisted, sociopathic politicians of the highest order.
*Never again let someone like the incompetent Debbie Wasserman Schulz head the DNC; pick someone like former Gov. Howard Dean who used his "50-state strategy," to strengthen the Democratic Party's infrastructure and recruitment of solid candidates in all levels of organization in every state. It worked back then and will work again if someone with real leadership skills leads the efforts.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
4
3
