rant on what frustrates me with the democratic party

[freepcrusher]

for me its the inability to win your own party over. Looking at the 2008 election returns I saw that there was no state, where Obama got more than 19% of registered republicans. Yet there was a state where McCain got 33% of registered democrats.

Another thing is expanding the party's power. Its great to improve on what you already have, but you must keep what you already have. There are 97 counties that voted for Walter Mondale and voted for McCain. There is no excuse to lose any of those counties. There is no reason for Obama to only wins 875 counties. If the pathetic Adlai Stevenson could win 900 counties, surely Obama could win around 1500.

The second thing is the winning of congressional votes. If Bush won 255 with less % than obama, surely obama could have won 280 or 290 districts.

[freepcrusher]

another thing that bothers me is the inability to win the white vote. Its been what? 45 years since the democrats won the white vote in a national election? This is getting kind of embarrassing. Hopefully this streak doesn't go on for much longer.

[freepcrusher]

you can't blame the deep south for the democrats trouble with the white vote. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson lost five southern states but still got 59% of the white vote. Even Carter got 47 percent of the white vote in 1976. Yes, its nice we have minorities to offset this, but what would happen if the demographics of 1964 stayed the same, meaning nobody entered or left the country? It would mean the democrats probably would have lost eleven straight elections. I find it disheartening that John McCain ran probably the worst possible campaign and still would have won the election if the demographics of the country were the same as it was even 25 years ago.

[freepcrusher]

Despite Obama's win in 2008, I feel like the democrats are still stuck in a rut that they've been in since about 1968. Too often they are on the defensive as they have been accused of (among other things): being soft on crime, not being patriotic, lacking moral fiber etc.

Its time that the democrats start going on the offensive. They need to think of a strategy similar to what Nixon did when he made a comeback in 1968. He basically co-opted dem talking points (such as populism) and used it to his advantage. Its time for democrats to do the same. Instead of being the attacked, we can attack them in commercials. We can run commercials similar to Willie Horton talking about how (insert Republican governor) was soft on crime or run a commercial accusing a republican of not being a patriotic, god-fearing American. 

Ever head the story of Kent Hance? He ran for congress in a republican district in 1978 (which was a decent year for republicans nationwide) against the young but well-funded man by the name of George W. Bush. So how did he win? He co-opted the arguments that Bush often spoke of, and used it against him claiming that he was a yankee carpetbagger who was out of touch with the christian values of west Texas.