Liberals need to stop sneering at people

[notyoueither]

4) Kerry is an idiot who thought he could sell out American servicemen 30 years ago and be their Commander in Chief today.

What a ****.

[Tingkai]

5) Democrats should have copied the Republican attack ads.

John Kerry fought for his country in Vietnam.
Where was Bush?

In the 1970s, John Kerry was a prosecutor putting criminals behind bars.
In the 1970s, Bush was arrested for drunk driving.

In August 2001, the White House was told Bin Laden was planning an attack on the United States.
George Bush was on vacation.

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
The jobs market still hasn't fully recovered

That's what really matters

The election results say otherwise.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Zulu Elephant
I swear to god! If Jefferson, Madison and the rest turned up today, they'd be derided as ivory tower intellectuals and be shot.

Jefferson would need one hell of a pick up truck to be accepted into US politics nowadays.

Well, Jefferson would still take that all important slave owner vote.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by GePap


BY what you claim, there would be no "Iraq" without "terrorism", since they are part of the same struggle, NO?

Bush won because he and the republicans had a better ground organization and mobilized more religious voters than the dems did young and minorities and their cores.

No, Bush won because he was drawing from a larger pool. The Dems limited themselves by choosing a candidate who was too far to the left. They did a great job at getting out the voters who could stomache Kerry, but in the end it fell short. Intensifying your turnout beyond this is going to suffer from serious diminishing returns. Expanding your pool even a little bit will generate a lot more votes.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
What's so radical about them?


Alot of us are extremely angry at what's going on, and that's sincere, it's not a "left wing pot smoking hippies" crowd.

You would never guess I supported Kerry if you met me. I look conservative, act convservative, etc. But I am very angry. There are many like me. Last election people were not angry. This time around almost everyone is LIVID. I supported Kerry because I was ANGRY and felt betrayed.

People aren't attracted to anger. The Dems would be better off detaching themselves from anyone who does "guerilla theatre" or chants "clever" things in unison to the police and the media. Anyone who thinks these things are cool are already on your side.

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by Sikander


The Dems limited themselves by choosing a candidate who was too far to the left.

It boggles the mind

[Dauphin]

Re: Liberals need to stop sneering at people

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
The conservative parties around the world are just killing their opponents in basic tactics on the stump.

Someone forgot to tell Michael Howard.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by GePap


If he was trully seen as "left wing extremist" he would have been crushed like Mondale-certainly would not have won 48% of the vote and 250 electoral votes.

People did not vote for him because they percieved him as weak and undecisive, and for not beingt an evangelical christian. That is why Kerry lost- it had little to do with the notion of him as being an "extremist" of the left.

Wrong. The most effective part of the Swift Boat attacks were they drew attention to his radicalism in the 1970s. None of the other stuff stuck, but there was no question about his involvement with the VVAW and the crazy sh!t he testified to in congress.

The election was yours to win. Bush has alienated much of the Republican base with his populist spending, military spending, recklessness in foreign policy etc. He's hurt himslf even worse in the center by aligning himself with the religious right. But Kerry could not take advantage of that. His votes came from further left than Gore's, his only success was that he turned out a higher percentage of them. Much of the country was left with a bitter choice between two candidates who they couldn't support ideologically.

There are no more votes on either the left or the right, all those people voted this time because they both had a candidate who they could relate to, and they turned out like never before. The group who liked or at least could stand Bush was simply larger than the Kerry group. There is a hole between them which you could drive a truck through. Imagine if John McCain had run as an independant candidate for president and had as much money as Kerry did. I think he would have given both Bush and Kerry a run for their money.

[The Mad Monk]

Re: Re: Liberals need to stop sneering at people

Originally posted by Dauphin


Someone forgot to tell Michael Howard.

I thought Howard won?

[Alexander's Horse]

He's talking about the British conservatives leader - which only shows Social Democrats can do it too.

[Kuciwalker]

Kerry was not too far left. In fact, Kerry appealed to a lot of true conservatives. Kerry's problem is that he let Bush choose the battleground and define the terms of the debate. The Democrats don't need to move to the right - that'd be pointless! Why win elections if you're doing it be espousing the same ideals as the other party? The Democrats need to change public perception of "the left".

[Ned]

Horse, agreed. A bit of civility from the left would be welcome. We need a battle of ideas, not insults from the left when the rest of us are a little wary of what the left proposes.

Also, IMHO, a lot of the insults flow from the left's "secularism" and that philosphy's basic premise that belief in God is unintelligent.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Theben
All the dems need to do is put up a moderate dixiecrat next time and they'll win, hands down.

*ahem*

Al Gore

Kerry lost the election for a couple of reasons, having neither to do with increasing conservatism nor the South winning the peace. The U.S. has never thrown out an incumbent during a major war. There are other minor factors such as the ineptitude of the Kerry campaign, the rise of evangelicals, gay marriage, etc., but two of the top three reasons for the Bush vote were the WoT and Iraq.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ned
A bit of civility from the left would be welcome.

You go first.