Move on?

From a recent Moveon.org email:

For years, the Party has been lead by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base. But we can't afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers. In the last year, grassroots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the Party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive.2 Now it's our Party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back.

Two things:

1. Millions contributed to the DNC and to the Kerry campaign who are not Moveon members. Moveon can hardly claim to "own" the party.
2. Both parties have their "Washington elites." Are we going to purge our politcos and party leaders every time we lose?

When Republicans suffered national losses in 1964 and 1992 they re-tooled at the grassroots level - forming influential think tanks and later establishing an estimated $300 million media machine including, but not limited to, talk radio and Fox News. Simply insulting the Washington power base never crossed their mind. Instead, they focused on reaching out to voters who were more socially conservative, but often did not vote. They developed a targeted agenda and a few issues to appeal to these new voters. Hence, in 2004, turnout was about equal among Democrats and Republicans, something that hasn't happened since at least before Roosevelt.

What Democrats should do is not simply play the blame game, but instead embrace a group of issues that polls show most Americans support and present them to voters. For Moveon to use its influence to launch a full frontal attack on the party leaders who brought us the first two-term Democratic president since Roosevelt and won gains in Congress as recently as 1998, seems downright irresponsible. For whatever problems the Clintonistas and the party establishment that came to age in the 90s, there seems little to gain by attacking some of our most talented political professionals.

While Moveon certainly has a role to play and a voice in the party, particularly on the issues of campaign finance reform, it is by no means the only voice. Many Democrats don't much care who is party chairman, but do care, for the sake of the party, that they come up with a united message on the issues that they care about, issues which when we effectively communicate them to the country, bring us electoral success.