Independents, get off the donkey and start your own damn party!

I know John Kerry and he would have done one hell of a job as President. As it was he ran a pretty fine campaign and almost won against a war-time President. Now changes to the Democratic party have to be made, obviously. We can no longer rely on the remnants of the New Deal coalition to win office and must find new constituencies to rebuild our base. I am starting to believe however that how we might want to start that process is in much the same way that the Republicans gained their prominence. Namely by cleansing their own party. The more I hear obnoxious independents slander the Democratic Party the more apparent it becomes that their involvement in, and critiques of, our efforts may be the problem. It seems that the Democratic Party has lost its way by trying to appease all of these independent and/or single issue constituencies in an attempt to piece together a broad coalition that can take on the Republican destruction machine that they have built over the last 25 years. Instead of wasting our time on trying to attract independent votes we should focus on the core ideology that makes us Democrats who we are. That ideology of fairness, equality of opportunity and lifting all boats has been muddled over the years by our attempt to encourage closet Democrat-haters to join our efforts during election time. If this election has taught me anything it is that running to the middle is no way to win nationally. Although I believe strongly in governing from the middle in order to build the most effective government a party must expand its base in order to run the most effective campaign. If you are an independent and don't like the two-party system than start your own party and start building that base. The Grand Old Party did so in the mid-1800s and look where they are today.